Took me a while to get into but that
Because I never read any of the other books in this series , but I did enjoy it .

I am addicted to the Kathy Ryan series, and what is great is that they can be read as standalone novels and not necessarily in any particular order. The series is also Lovecraftian in the sense that Kathy Ryan is an occult investigator who is hired to close "doors" that lead to other dimensions. There are all the elements of ancient, horrific Gods and hellish worlds. What makes the series so incredible to me is that Mary SanGiovanni is able to harness the sense of abstract horror and dread that is the common theme in Lovecraft's work. I am a huge Lovecraft fan and I have read so many novels that try to follow in his footsteps. Most do not succeed but Mary SanGiovanni does. What is even better is that the characters are so well developed. I actually care about Kathy Ryan and what happens to her. One of the factors in Lovecraft's novels is that the other dimensions are an unknown so the reader has to use their imagination to form an impression of the dimension. In most cases, it seems best to leave the details of the dimension to the imagination but Sangiovanni is able to describe the world but also maintain the sense of otherworldliness and horror. This seems to be the end of the series but I am hoping that she finds a way either to continue with Kathy Ryan or starts a new series in the same vein. In any case, I am looking forward to reading other books by this author.
Thank you to Lyrical Press via Netgalley for a copy of this book. All opinions are my own.

Not a bad novel, but it seemed like a movie plot that I saw several years ago. I enjoy this kind of Sci fi and would go back and read the others in this series

I had read a previous Kathy Ryan book so was interested enough to see 'what happened next' as 'Beyond the Gates' reads as a sequel to 'behind the Door' in which a weird door to another world is discovered and the detective who specialises in the occult investigates. The author has written another Kathy Ryan book in between which I haven't read and appears to be a separate story.

I was disappointed with this new story, as it just did not grab me and the writing style was flat and the other world was pretty boring. It took ages for anything to happen and it was a struggle to finish. I never thought the investigation of an alien world could be so uninspiring.

BEYONE THE GATE (A Kathy Ryan novel), is the fourth I've read featuring the paranormal specialist, written by author Mary SanGiovanni. While each story is complete on its own and can be read independently of the others, there is a slight build up of personal information that I enjoyed discovering by reading them in order.

The character of Kathy Ryan is complex and mysterious. Little is known outside of the fact that she specializes in occult cult-like activity, that engages in attempts to open "gateways" to other dimensions. Kathy's job is to keep them closed.

". . . Kathy Ryan had to sew up a gaping hold into another dimension . . . "

We begin in the town of Haversham, with police talking to people from the enigmatic Paragon Corporation about a most disturbing and inexplicable . . . disappearance.

". . . When you've been patrolling Haversham as long as Lefine and I have, you hear it all: Psychotic creatures parading around as nurses over at the hospital, doorways to Hell in the woods, UFO's, cryptids, even giants . . . "

When Kathy gets the call to go down and help, information isn't rapidly forthcoming. The fact that she was "known" and called to begin with, tells Kathy all she needs to know.

She's there to clean up someone's mess.

". . . The world is strange--stranger than people think. I just do my part to keep it together and sane."

Aside from Kathy, I honestly wasn't very invested in many of the other characters. This could be partly because I love the recurring character, or simply because the others were all second-stage to the expert in this novel.

". . . We found hell, a quiet kind of hell, and that's the worst kind . . . "

The beginning started out strong, but about a third of the way in, I began to get a little bogged down with a large amount of speculation on what Paragon discovered. Since this was all "new" territory, much of it just didn't stick with me, or flat-out confused me.

". . . human beings make terrible witnesses, because they see what they want to, or worse, what they really don't want to . . . "

Overall, while I still love the concept of Kathy Ryan and her occult knowledge, this particular book just felt like it went too far into territory that was overwhelming in terms of names/locations towards the end.

I did enjoy the general idea, and a lot in the beginning of the book. My main issue was that too much "unfamiliar" knowledge was being thrown around, with little chance of really understanding it before even more new concepts were introduced.

". . . Didn't gates work both ways? . . . "

Still, it was worth it for reading more about Kathy Ryan, herself.

Beyond the Gate is a interesting and unique book. I will go back and read her other books. This book is well written and has great characters.

It did take me a bit of time to read this one because I had a bit of a hard time getting into it at first. I had not read any of the previous books in this series and you really don't have to.

I do like the author's writing and the story was good once I got into it.

I give this 3 out of 5

This book was quite a surprise! It is book 4 in the Kathy Ryan series. I haven't read the other three, and I wish I would have. At some point, I will probably go back and get the rest.

The story was well written with some interesting characters and situations. Above and beyond that, it really made me wonder what all is in the world that we don't know about. Travel to other dimensions--that's an interesting idea.

I thoroughly enjoyed this one and feel it is worthy of four stars. There is some cursing; I wish authors would stop doing that.. How many complain about that? and how many compliment it? Just saying.

“The whispers told me awful things.”

I love being a fly on the wall while Kathy Ryan works. She’s an occult investigator but her investigations aren’t limited to our world. She’s also instrumental in protecting our world from entities and gods from other worlds and dimensions, and that makes for some imaginative, entertaining and sometimes gruesome descriptions.

Paragon Corp have been sending a group of scientists through a gateway to another world, one they believe is currently uninhabited. Their assumption is challenged when only one member of the Green Team returns, and some of the people who have been involved in the project begin to display strange and potentially deadly symptoms.

“Did you feel that? Can you feel that? It’s all around us. I didn’t really escape. You can’t escape them. They infect you, and … and that infection comes through.”

Kathy is hired to investigate, bring the Green Team back and prevent any unwelcome inter-dimensional guests from hitching a ride to our world. Joining her through the gate are Sergeant John Markham, Officer Carl Hornsby and Dr Jose Rodriguez, a scientist and researcher. Soon they will discover that Hesychia, named after the goddess of silence, is unlike anything they’ve previously encountered. Physics works differently there and shortly after their arrival they learn that they are not alone.

“Maybe we feel safer or somehow less invasive if we believe we’re exploring a monument to something long gone rather than the home of something living.”

This is the fourth in a series and I’ve been along for the ride since the second book. Although there are references to events that have taken place in previous investigations you could easily jump right into this series at any book and not be lost. I definitely want to read the first book in the series to find out how it all began though.

I love the descriptions of the worlds and creatures that inhabit them in Mary SanGiovanni’s books. In this book I particularly enjoyed reading about the substance of the portal and the pareidolia (characters see faces in wood grain, curtains, etc).

I imagined Dr Greenwood, the project’s lead researcher, as a villain of the “mwahaha” persuasion. I was hoping he’d accidentally get pushed through the gateway and left to fend for himself in Hesychia.

I was disappointed that practically everything the group came across when they first arrived in Hesychia was easily identifiable. A gate. A library. Books. Trees.

“How many people can say they got to visit a library on an alien world in another universe?”

The descriptions did become more what I’d come to expect from this series as the book progressed. I also wished that Kathy had more page time in the beginning (she barely stepped foot in the book until about 20%) but once she began investigating she made up for lost time.

While this book’s survivors get some much needed rest (and therapy) I’ll be sitting here trying to look patient as I wait for Kathy’s next investigation to commence.

Content warnings include mention of rape and murder.

Thank you so much to NetGalley and Lyrical Underground, an imprint of Kensington Books, for the opportunity to read this book.

This newest entry in the Kathy Ryan series takes readers to a stunningly original, lush, beautiful, and terrifying setting beyond our own plane of existence. Scientists at Paragon Corp have done the impossible -- opened a doorway between dimensions. Problem is, the exploratory team that went through the gate has disappeared. Kathy, hired to investigate the disappearance is coerced by force to lead a team through the gate to search for the missing team, but, of course, this other world has other things in mind for humanity. Fans of Mary SanGiovanni will no doubt enjoy the newest entry in the series, and will be excited to explore this strange new world. Fast-paced, intensely readable, modern cosmic horror from a master and scholar in the genre!

Beyond the Gate by Mary SanGiovanni is the fourth in the Kathy Ryan series. She is an Occult Security Consultant, and technically these books could all be read as stand-alone novels, thus far.

First, let me thank NetGalley, the publisher Kensington Books/Lyrical Underground for granting my wish, and of course the author, for providing me with a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.

 Series Background:    (Warning – May contain spoilers from previous books)
Kathy Ryan is called by police forces across the country when strange things are found. She is one of the leading experts in occult practices, ancient grimoires, devil worship, blood sacrifices, and rites to archaic gods and monsters.  She is also very familiar with other dimensions.  The reason behind her expertise is not well-known, but most agree that it has something to do with the scar that runs down her face. Her brother, once a member of a cult, and now in a mental hospital, is responsible for that scar.


My Synopsis:   (No major reveals, but if concerned, skip to My Opinions)

Paragon Corporation, primarily known as a munitions developer for the government, also has research facilities that branch out into medical, environmental and even the robotics engineering fields....among others which are not quite as well known.

Paragon has created a portal to another world, which they affectionately call Hesychia, after the Goddess of Silence.  They have not yet found anything living on this planet.   Recently, one of their exploration teams did not return.  They have been surprisingly forth-coming with information to Kathy Ryan,  and she fears that this is not a good sign.  Paragon is usually very secretive.  She doesn't trust them.  Kathy has been hired to find the team, and close the portal.  She will soon discover that this new world has another name, and one she never thought she would ever see, much less enter. 


My Opinions:  

I love Kathy Ryan.  She is a very brave woman, who seems to have no fear of the unknown. Some call that crazy.  I probably enjoyed the last book more, because it involved Kathy's relationship with her brother which I found really interesting.  But this one definitely took Kathy in a different direction, and a different world.  And again, the author brought in some other really interesting characters for us to cheer for, and fear for....

Overall, I just love this series.  It's different.  Supernatural, horror, sci-fi.  You name it, this series has it.  As always, beware of the gore, because the author doesn't hold back.  Her vivid imagination is poured onto the pages and leave a lot of blood and goo behind.

This was a really fast read, because the action was non-stop, and I really didn't want to set it down.   Yes, the books can all be read as stand-alone novels, but you will get more out of them if you read them in order.  Just little things, but....

Anyway, I can't wait for the next book!

Reads like a more accessible version of H.P. Lovecraft's At the Mountains of Madness minus Antarctica and giant penguins. Enjoyable read with a slowly building sense of dread and otherworldliness. Kathy Ryan is a great series character and hopefully this won't be the last time we hear from her. Highly recommended.

Strange but enjoyable. Its kind of a sci-fi horror / thriller. Good storyline and easy to read. It is hard to put down once you start.
This is the second in the series and I am now reading the first instalment.

While I honestly don't know how to describe this, I also have to admit that it kept me fully engaged and reading- wanting to know what was going to happen on the next page. Is it horror? Is it sci-fi? I don't know but Kathy Ryan is hired on by the mysterious and possibly nefarious Paragon Corp to enter an alternate universe and find a team of scientists which has gone missing. She ends up in a dead city (or is it) and fights for truth. Beyond that, hard to encapsulate but she's a good character and this is a pretty interesting book. If you've read the previous installments, you know that SanGiovanni has an excellent grasp of some arcane "stuff" (tulpas for example). Don't worry of you haven't - this is fine as a standalone. Thanks to Netgalley for the ARC. Not my usual reading but definitely one to try.

A good horror/sci-fi novel with the right creepiness factor and an excellent world building.
I liked the style of writing, even if the switch of the tone doesn't always work, the character development, and the gripping plot that kept me on the edge till the end.
I look forward to reading the next installment in this series.
Recommended.
Many thanks Kensington Books and Netgalley for this ARC, all opinions are mine.

Kathy Ryan returns for her fourth outing if you count 2016’s Chills, and I most certainly do, because that’s where we first meet her! But, hey, what do I know…

Beyond the Gate sees Ryan hired on as a consultant for Paragon, a high-tech scientific research group with ties to the military weapons complex. Paragon has just opened a rift between dimensions and most of their teams of explorers have gone missing. A few, though, have come back and despite Paragon’s assurances to the contrary, they seem to have brought something back with them. In their dying days, the survivors recount seeing faces in their furniture and voices urging them to do terrible things… While Paragon tries to cover up these anomalies, Ryan and small team are enlisted to pass through the gate and into another world in a last-ditch attempt to save the missing scientists.

When it comes to crafting cosmic horror, Mary SanGiovanni is a top-notch writer and Kathy Ryan quickly became one of my favorite heroines when she was introduced a few years back. In Beyond the Gate, SanGiovanni gets right into the nitty gritty straight off the bat, introducing us to the horrors that are in store for us via a police officer’s debriefing. Officer Carl Hornsby was one of the first on scene to witness the death of Dr. Van Houten, a Paragon researcher afflicted with a mysterious disease. Between this interview, a brief exchange of corporate e-mails, and the diary of Claire Banks, we’re given plenty of insight on the world and its strangeness, which SanGiovanni exploits to the hilt later in the narrative to great effect.

The world of Heyschia, and its enormous abandoned city, oozes creepy dread. The world is also situated in a different dimension than what we pesky humans can comprehend, and SanGiovanni has fun playing with the shifting perspectives of objects and locations, with the city seemingly rearranging itself at random. The constantly changing terrain wreaks havoc with the explorers minds, including Ryan’s, coupling with the strange voices they begin hearing, conjuring thoughts of violence. As for the city itself, it's buildings are all much, much larger than the human explorers, indicating that the world was once populated by massive alien life. Of course, just because the city is abandoned, we learn pretty early on that doesn’t mean the world itself is devoid of life…or at least Heyschia’s version of life…

Where SanGiovanni’s scary creativity really shines, though, is in her descriptions of some pretty awful stuff. I dug the way Heyschia’s alien disease affected its victims, and the author crafts some nicely disturbing imagery there. Very cool, too, was the use paredolia, a psychological phenomena that causes people to ascribe human characteristics to inanimate objects, like seeing faces in the patterns of a sofa or the grain of a wooden door. Here, it’s a great way of transforming everyday objects into something far more sinister and haunted. Where her imagination really kicks into overdrive, though, is in the book’s climax where we get some really nifty, nightmarish descriptions of Heyschia’s inhabitants. It’s supremely cool stuff!

If you’re read the prior Kathy Ryan books, you’ll have a pretty good idea of what to expect here, although SanGiovanni does up the ante nicely by taking the action in some new, unearthly realms. However, it’s also a pretty accessible entry point for new readers. All the necessary information on Ryan is provided here, and references to her past cases are kept to a minimum. SanGiovanni has constructed this series so that each book stands alone well enough, but certain on-going concerns connect better when you’re familiar with those ancillary characters in Ryan’s life, even if they’re only briefly mentioned in passing.

Beyond the Gate is another solid entry on the on-going Kathy Ryan series, and just as I did when I finished the prior installments, I find myself already growing impatient for the next book.

A research team discovers a gateway to another world. The company they work for is anxious to exploit the discovery. Then one of their staff dies in a way that defies comprehension and their team of scientists go missing on the other side of the gate, forcing the company to reach out to others to find the missing team.
Carl Hornsby is a local police officer who was at the scene of the Paragon scientist's death. He gets dragged to Paragon when his partner's health deteriorates. It seems Carl is immune to whatever they were exposed to when the scientist died, and Paragon sees him as a loose end.

Kathy Ryan is what you might call an occult and other-world expert. Whatever title she puts on her business card, Bad-ass God-defying Warrior would be applicable. She starts off showing her talents with research. One thing I really like about Kathy is that she does her homework. No rushing off, half-cocked, fueled by emotion. Kathy's research leads her to a discovery; one of the missing team members is back on earth, hiding from Paragon. She's determined to find him first.
Ultimately, all of their paths collide, and they're forced to take measures none of them would have dreamed of. Venturing further in a recap would risk too many spoilers. What matters is that this is a novel that has a creeping, insidious way of crawling inside you and filling every fiber of your being with fear. Rarely are things as they seem. I don't know much about the occult myself, but I do know this -- the Old Testament references humans mating with supernatural beings and summoning the dead. There are a lot of ancient texts with references to things that defy our understanding. This is, perhaps, one of the greatest tricks of author Mary SanGiovanni; one might infer that a problem has been resolved in the conclusion to this book, but this reader's own uncertainty about where the truth ends and the author's imagination begins has left me deeply unsettled and fascinated.
SanGiovanni is a master horror writer who has crafted a spellbinding tale that blends elements of mystery, horror and dark fantasy expertly, filling readers with both a sense of dread and anticipation. Unpredictable and intense, this is a compelling page-turner I highly recommend.

While I have liked the previous Mary SanGiovanni books centered around her Kathy Ryan character, I was unable to get into this one. The author lost me when she switched writing styles for the one person's journal, and I was unable to get back into it. Something about the writing overall is putting me off, and I can't put my finger on what. It just doesn't seem as straight-forward and entertaining as the previous books.

I've tried multiple times now, but I've got to tap out. Sorry.

This was my first Kathy Ryan book & it was a trip. Kathy Ryan is an occult investigator that is hired to investigate the disappearance of a team of scientists. But this team didn't disappear under mysterious circumstances here on Earth, but in another freaking dimension. This alternate dimension is discovered in a lab run by the Paragon Corporation, a super shady government research organization. When the Green Team scientists first venture into this dimension, the world appears to be abandoned & void of any sentient life. However, as the team has disappeared, the question becomes whether or not this dimension is truly empty as they thought.

I was a little worried as this is the third book in the series that I would be missing out on a huge back story, but I think it held up pretty well as a stand alone book. It also makes me want to go back & read the first two books in the series.

This is the third book in the Kathy Ryan novels. Kathy Ryan works as an occult investigator and has seen things no one would believe. She is good at what she does and in this next story, she is hired by Paragon Corporation, a government-funded theoretical physics research facility. Someone has intentionally opened a portal to another dimension and found no beings, but some really disturbing flora! 

A team of scientists goes in but doesn't come out. A security team is Kathy and her team will do whatever they must to rescue any survivors and get out fast and close that portal.

These were some seriously sketchy researchers. They doled out information like misers. And they lied. A lot. Because contrary to what they say, this alien flora is able to pass through the portal and lead to chaos and death.

I've read the other books in this series. Kathy is a strong leader and her story is an excellent one!

Well Done!

NetGalley/ November 26th, 2019 by Lyrical Press