Jack Kilborn is the alter ego of J.A. Konrath, the author of the Jacqueline “Jack” Daniels series of crime novels. I am a big fan of those. Thus, I was happy when I was able to snag a review copy of his new book, Afraid. With Afraid, Konrath brings us a book that is quite different from the Jack Daniels books. Nevertheless, I enjoyed the book and recommend it to anyone who wants to add a little horror to their reading selection.

Although Afraid does not include the amount of humor that is found in the Jack Daniels book, there is enough snark to bring just a little levity to the book. Afraid involves a helicopter crash near Safe Haven, Wisconsin. That crash releases a merciless force on the town that endangers all of the residents.

Konrath does an excellent job of pushing a variety of psychological buttons to invoke fear in the reader. He does a particularly good job of placing people in danger and making it impossible for their loved ones to assist them. The action in this novel is virtually nonstop. There are no chapter breaks in the book. As a consequence, the scenes cut from one person in peril to the next person in peril.

I don’t want to go into details as to what the killers are or who lives. However, I will say that the killers are quite efficient and their body count is quite impressive. Additionally, I enjoyed the variety of methods of attack (for lack of a better term) that were used by both the killers and the citizens.

I also liked the fact that Konrath was not afraid (no pun intended) to kill citizens. I went through the entire book never knowing if the character whose viewpoint I was experiencing would be dead on the next page.

If you like horror and don’t mind a little bloodshed in your book, then you will want to check out Afraid.

Also, for the month of March, Konrath has been on a blog tour to promote the release of Afraid. If you have not checked out that tour, I urge you to do so at his blog, A Newbie’s Guide to Publishing. Konrath covers a wide variety of topics in his typical humor-filled manner. It is really engaging reading.