Beyond the gate is a sci-fi/thriller by Mary SanGiovanni. The story follows Kathy Ryan, an occult investigator, hired by Paragon Corp, a theoretical research facility, to lead a team into an alternate dimension to locate lost researchers and bring them back to our world. I received this as an ARC from Netgalley not realizing it was the latest in a series. Luckily it read well as a stand alone. The build up to the teams departure to begin their rescue mission seemed slow but once they were through the gate the pace really picked up and I had trouble putting it down. I found Kathy's levelheadedness admirable considering all the weird shit that she encountered. Not many women would be able to maintain their professionalism and decorum while wearing a DIY loin cloth bikini. Mary SanGiovanni did a great job detailing this alternate world within such a short book. I was picking up on some Ghostbuster/Alien vibes throughout the book especially towards the climax. I couldn't help but picture Sigourney Weaver as Kathy once I had that in my head. I enjoyed this book and while I would want to read the others before recommending the series as a whole I would definitely recommend this installment to anyone looking for a thrilling sci-fi with a retro feel to it.

Oh, the Kathy Ryan series has gotten epic!

Now, if you haven’t read any of the books in this series, please do. This is an awesome horror series that deserves more readers. Technically, you can start anywhere – each book works well as a standalone. But (but!) if you read all of them, you’ll truly appreciate the world – or otherworld – that SanGiovanni has built here!

Kathy is wonderful as always, but SanGiovanni reminds us how well she brings characters to life with a group of new characters. Unfortunately, some of them won’t make to the next book (but you knew that). As usual, her characters are complex and they are thrown into a world that starts out creepy and ends in a horrifying hellscape that I never want to visit.

This is a fast read – primarily because I just didn’t want to put it down until I was done.

Five well deserved stars and looking forward to Kathy Ryan’s next adventure!

*ARC Provided via Net Galley

While I enjoyed the premise of this story, it didn't manage to draw me into the terrifying, silent world the characters were in. The plot was great but I felt like a reader, not a participant. Thank you for the opportunity to read and review this book.

Mary Sangiovanni is a past master at subtly unveiling the terrors of Cosmic Horror, of the Knowledge that Lovecraft cautioned us to avoid. In this third book of her Kathy Ryan serirs, occult consultant and troubleshooter Kathy is called in by a secretive corporation which has opened a portal to an alternate universe; a portal which unfortunately is permeable to infection from that other universe. Soon Kathy and three companions are beyond the gate, hunting the lost explorer-scientists, and struggling to avoid an eternity of unending suffering.