Attention horror fans you may love this one! This was not for me! I definitely need to do better at choosing these ARCs. A fantastic writer with some hidden agendas that will capture your chilling side. This should have been my first book on my 2023 list, but I didn't want to see it captured at the end of the year as the first book I read. LOL... anyway the one I did write a review for first was almost in the same setting except for the horrific murders.

The setting is in the Blackwood Mansion looming above the New Haven town. When bestselling author, Ben Bookman, becomes an heir to the mansion, he decides to write his next novel The Scarecrow there. He opens his grandfather's forbidden room The Atrium that has thousands of books with no words....a little strange. His entry has unleashed some demonic behavior. He realizes his mistake when the book begins to play out his scenes he wrote.

This is where it lost me....A gruesome murder scene...a family butchered and bundled inside cocoons made of corn husks and hung from the rafters of the barn. When another family is found murdered, the detectives begin to suspect Ben. Detective Mills teams up with his daughter Det Samantha to reveal the truth and uncover the heinous acts....Can they stop them before more murders are committed?
Thank you NetGalley and Crooked Lane Books for this ARC in exchange for my honest review.

This book really had me captivated. I was on the edge of my seat throughout the whole book and couldn't wait to see what was going to happen next. A definite page turner that you will not want to put down.

The book goes back and forth between characters and perspectives and the present and the past. Ben Bookman is a horror writer, known as The Nightmare Man. He recently finished his latest book, The Scarecrow, He wrote it, in a drug induced fever weekend at his ancestral home, Blackwood Estate.

The stories he writes begin to come true in real life. Detective Winchester Mills and his daughter Detective Samantha Blue have been called to a gruesome crime scene at a local farm in Crooked Tree. A family hasn't been seen in a while and they are found slaughtered in their barn. Each family member wrapped in a cocoon stitched from corn husks, then hung from the rafters of the barn. This scene is directly taken from the opening of Bookman's latest book. Not long after this discovery, another family is found in the same way. Mills and Blue quickly read through the book to try to figure out what might happen next.

Ben Bookman, of course, is the main suspect in these horrific murders. The thing is, Ben can't remember writing the book. All he remembers is that he wrote it in what is called The Atrium of the Blackwood Estate. A room filled floor to ceiling with books. Thousands of books with no titles, just numbers and books with no words in them.

Ben's brother went missing 13 years before all of this. As he digs into not only his past, but the past of the Blackwood Estate and the nearby Oswald Asylum, started by his Grandfather Dr. Robert Bookman, he will discover that dreams and sometimes nightmares, really do come true.

I really liked this book. A fantastically horrific story with twists and turns and an ending I never saw coming. The characters are well written, and the settings are downright scary! The author's imagination is incredible, with unique names for each serial killer in this small town and the descriptions of each scene made it feel like you were there. I definitely look forward to more from this author. I received this book free from NetGalley for an honest review.

Hold onto your hats kids, The Nightmare Man by J.H. Markert is a bumpy ride and boy was it a doozy!! I have never read anything like this wild and crazy book, and while some parts are just downright weird, I found myself totally loving it. It is bookish in nature since Ben Bookman is a writer (how novel with a last name like that), and Markert brings the suspense and gore with murders straight out of Ben’s book. I don’t think I fully grasped what the full plot would be since at one point, I thought the book was over, but I was nowhere close to being done. There are lots of horror elements and this definitely isn’t going to be a story for the faint of heart. Markert blends past and present together and while you would think the switches would be confusing, they really weren’t, and I was able to easily follow along. It also helped that the before chapters are labeled as such and are italicized in the book. There are also consistent viewpoint changes which I liked a lot even though at times those did get a touch confusing just for a moment. I eventually got used to them and I was fine listening to the audiobook.

And speaking of the audiobook, I loved it! The narrator is David Bendena and I just now realized I’ve actually listened to him narrate once before (he was in the cast for House of a Thousand Lies by Cody Luke Davis). I enjoyed his narration quite a bit for this book and I thought he did an excellent job with the different voices he had for the various characters. He added an extra creep factor on top of what was already there, and I would definitely recommend listening to The Nightmare Man. This would be an excellent book to read around Halloween, but if you love horror and spooky books all year round like me, it would be great anytime! There is one part that was akin to a Batman movie and more than once my mouth dropped open at things that happen in the story. I just loved the twisty and otherworldly feel this book provided and I am holding out hope that there is a series in here somewhere.

The Nightmare Man by J.H. Markert

Dark, twisted, gripping horror story that grabbed me and wouldn’t let go…even after finishing the last page.

What I liked:
* The plotting, pacing, writing, setting, and story
* That the shift between past and present when telling the story worked seamlessly
* The link between mythology and dreams…and new stories created for children to help deal with nightmares – even have done it in the past
* The historical aspect of the story
* Being able to truly dislike and despise some of the characters in the story
* Thinking about the ‘what ifs’
* That even the good guys were fallible
* Finding out the five W’s any story should supply: who, what, when, where, and why
* Wondering if this is a one and done book or if this might be the beginning of a series
* Being creeped out and given enough information about the crimes without all the no doubt horrific details
* More than what is listed above BUT don’t want to put in any spoilers

What I didn’t like:
* Who and what I was meant not to like
* How manipulative, cruel and creepy some of the characters were – thought that was also something that really added to the story

Did I like this book? Yes
Would I read more by this author? Yes

Thank you to NetGalley and Crooked Lane Books for the ARC – This is my honest review.

5 Stars

This is a truly horrific, creepy, and well written horror story. The writing was good even if the story jumps a little quickly between past and present and between narrators. The mental images I got reading this story were gruesome and in a way I often can’t I could see the potential horror flick as I read the pages. Be careful reading this story before bed since most of this book centers around the horrors we conjure while we sleep. There was a lot of myth about dreams and nightmares that I didn’t know which was interesting. Nightmares are inspired by things we come across while we’re awake, but if what if reality was equally inspired by nightmares? Famous horror author Ben Bookman is working on his next book, but he’s having some struggles writing and some with his family which aren’t helped by his drinking. When murders from his books begin to appear he is a quickly a suspect of Detective Mills and Detective Blue a father daughter team. The mythical lightly touches on the realistic in this creepy collection of nightmares tied together in novel form. If this one ends up sitting on your shelf for a while pull it out in October, it’s a perfect scare.

https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/4989463560

4.5 stars / This review will be posted on goodreads.com today.


This is one of the most creative and creepy books I’ve read in a long time. Kept me hooked, and thankfully didn’t leave me with nightmares!

Ben Bookman is a successful author of horror books. His current book, The Scarecrow, is due to come out and he’s at a book signing for it. A horrific episode occurs that shakes him to his core. Meanwhile a family is found murdered, butchered, and encased in corn husk cocoons, exactly like Ben’s book describes.

Grandpa Robert was a strange man, but Ben adored him. In Robert’s mansion, Blackwood, there is a strange room, with a leafless tree covered with moths. The walls are lined with shelves full of books that are numbered, but have nothing on the pages. Ben was allowed in that room once. So was his sister, Emily, and his brother Devon. But Devon went missing many years ago. Just walked off into the forest and was never seen again. Ben remembers opening one of those books once. The book spoke to him.

How is this happening? Is Ben responsible? And what does his childhood home of Blackwood have to do with it?

Like I said, creepy, riveting, nightmarish, which by the title makes perfect sense. The premise of this book, based on nightmares coming to life, is enough to keep you up at night. The writing is fabulous. I didn’t want to put it down, especially because that meant going to sleep! Read at your own risk, but do if you love a little bit of frightening in your life.

Ben Bookman, bestselling novelist and heir to the Blackwood estate, spent a weekend at the ancestral home to finish writing his latest horror novel, The Scarecrow. Now, on the eve of the book’s release, the terrible story within begins to unfold in real life. Detective Mills arrives at the scene of a gruesome murder: a family butchered and bundled inside cocoons stitched from corn husks, and hung from the rafters of a barn, eerily mirroring the opening of Bookman’s latest novel. When another family is killed in a similar manner, Mills, along with his daughter, rookie detective Samantha Blue, is determined to find the link to the book—and the killer—before the story reaches its chilling climax. As the series of “Scarecrow crimes” continues to mirror the book, Ben quickly becomes the prime suspect. He can’t remember much from the night he finished writing the novel, but he knows he wrote it in The Atrium, his grandfather’s forbidden room full of numbered books. Thousands of books. Books without words. As Ben digs deep into Blackwood’s history he learns he may have triggered a release of something trapped long ago—and it won’t stop with the horrors buried within the pages of his book.

Wow......this book was amazing! It had ] everything you could possibly want from a great horror novel. I did not want to put this down. The action was non-stop, the scenes were truly the stuff of nightmares (no pun intended), and there were even multiple twists towards the end. I would be remiss if I dd not add the warning that there is a suicidie scene in the book, in case that is a trigger for anyone. If you are a fan of horror, then you need to grab a copy of this. You are going to love it!

I found this book to be more of a thriller than horror but I liked it. It has many twists throughout the book. Is Ben Bookman, the famous horror writer, a killer? Or is someone bringing to life the grisly murders in his book? This book kept me intrigued. My first read by this author but definitely won’t be my last. Thank you to netgalley and publisher for another great read!

This cover just ropes you in. It suggests horror, nightmares and keeping the light on at night. I was not disappointed! With multiple POV's and plot lines twisted in one it brings everything you want to keep turning the pages. The character building starts from page one and surprisingly continues right to the end. With so many different characters I could easily keep up and that is testament of good writing skills. The plot lines was amazing in the way that it played out. I had a small idea on the twist line but was still pleasantly surprised at how intricate and detailed it turned out.

Thank you Netgalley and Crooked Lane Books for the opportunity to read and review this ARC.

An ageing detective with a long term sleeping disorder.

A bestselling horror author who writes very twisted and gruesome stories.

A serial killer murdering his victims in the exact same way the horror writer describes killings in his new book. Only the murders started long before the book was even published so how does the murderer know about the story?

The Nightmare Man is a fantastically dark and twisted ride into nightmares and family secrets. A wild and wonderful read.

What would you do if some people's worst nightmares were released in the real world? Scary, huh? Well, this book is about that, and let me tell you, I loved it!!! Nightmares, the most creepy ones!! Nightmares all over the book!!!

Stephen King's fans... hear me out on this one!!!!!!

In the beginning, I was a bit confused, but then I just couldn't stop reading!!! This is definitely a horror story that will give me nightmares. A book about nightmares that will give me nightmares!!! And, if you know me a bit, then you might know it makes me happy. Because there's nothing better than a book cataloged as horror that it's actually a scary story! I love horror, and I seriously enjoyed this one and I read it in the moment I needed to read it and totally disconnect from real life so this book did it's job!

This is basically a good old-school horror book! Is that amazing? Yes! Because ita been a long time since I read a book that actually viuld make me feel like any noise in the house was scary! I got tired of all those "horror" stories that felt too boring and zero scary because they were simply too much. And not his one!!!! Oh noooo this one you can feel like you're inside the book and you can feel the chills. The characters are really good and the way the author describes it all is great!

Other thing I enjoyed is how the author created this supernatural book without making it unrealistic. Bravo on that one!!! It felt so real.

The writing is really good! I really enjoyed it!

Publication day, January 10th, 2023

And I highly recommend it to all the horror lovers!!!
And have sweet dreams 😈

I'll definitely be reading more books by this author!!!!

It's been a fair while since I read me a proper old school horror book. But this is exactly what this book is - well, how I found it anyway. Reminiscent of the books I read in my teens, in the mid-late 80s. And I had a cracking time whilst doing so...
We meet Ben Bookman, best selling author, as he has just released his latest horror book. Named The Scarecrow, it was completed in record time at his ancestral home.
Meanwhile, we follow Det. Mills when he is called to the scene of a very brutal murder. The likes of which I will leave the author to describe in all its gory details.
These two things appear unrelated... until someone points out that the murder mirrors one depicted in the book. And then there's another crime, also matching the fiction. And then things get really dark...
I had a blast reading this book. It took me back to my youth when I matured from the children section of the library to upstairs and had the pick of the adult section and all the delights of the horror section!
But as well as being a gruesome (in parts) horror, it is also a rather nifty thriller with all the accoutrements that go with - twists and turns, dysfunctional behaviour and all that stuff. It's also quite intelligent rather than just being a gore-fest.
It's a bit cheesy in places and the characters are easily muddles as some are referred to by multiple names. It also loses its way a tad during the middle third but it recovers well to deliver a banging ending, and I never contemplated giving up.
All in all, a good solid read that I have no hesitation in recommending to fans of the genre. My thanks go to the Publisher and Netgalley for the chance to read this book.

A horror novel where your dreams become reality…in the most terrifying way.

I can’t say enough great things about this book! It was terrifying and twisted, complex and imaginative. I was absolutely glued to this one and was amazed by how the author created this whole world within the story that flowed so well together but didn’t lose the reader along the way. Some horror goes a little too far for my imagination, but this one was just right. This one is excellent, and I would highly recommend it to horror fans!

Thank you to NetGalley, Crooked Lane Books, and J. H. Markert for providing me with this gifted copy in exchange for my honest review.

**3.5-stars rounded up**

Ben Bookman is a best-selling Horror novelist in the vein of Stephen King. Ben's not afraid to get dark and growing up at his family's spooky estate, known as Blackwood, certainly provided him with plenty of inspiration. In fact, Ben returned to the estate for a weekend retreat to help him finish his latest book, The Scarecrow.

That weekend is shrouded in mystery. It's mentioned a few separate times in the narrative, you can tell something fairly serious went down, but it's unclear what. Even Ben can't recall what happened there. Regardless, the freaking book got finished and that's the most important thing.

Unfortunately, before the book is even officially released, the terrible events from the story begin to occur in real life. It's as if the story has crawled off the page and taken over Ben's hometown of New Haven.

New Haven native, Detective Mills and his daughter, Rookie Detective Blue, are tasked with looking into the gruesome murders that become known as the Scarecrow Crimes. Unsurprisingly, Ben is their prime suspect. How else would anyone know his text that well? It hasn't even released yet. Perhaps it was a Netgalley Reader...

This story starts out with the first bloody crime scene. An entire family butchered, individually encased in cocoons made of corn husks and hung in their own barn. Hey, I told you it gets dark. There is oozing blood, flies and let's not even consider the smell.

Mills and Blue are in for the most startling investigation of their lives. Ben Bloom is just trying to save his family from harm and his reputation. If anyone can get to the bottom of these crimes, it should be the man who wrote them.

The build-up of this had me temporarily fooled. I thought this was going in one direction, a sort of predictable direction, but enjoyably, it was not that. This is actually a unique and twisted tale that definitely kept me engaged.

There are a lot of characters and I'll admit, at times I lost track a bit. That was sort of a downfall for me. I had to relisten to some parts a few times. It's the kind of story, if you aren't 100% paying attention you are going to miss something; particularly towards the end.

Additionally, I felt this was a little drawn out. I think it could have been cut down a bit and it still would have had the same impact.

With this being said, I did really appreciate Markert's creativity and the Horror imagery was well-presented. This is a big scope kind of story and honestly, I'm not completely sure I picked up on all the different aspects of it. This was left off nicely though, where I could actually see there being a strong continuation to this story. There are definitely some things that could use further exploration. I'd absolutely be willing to go along for the ride.

I definitely recommend this to Horror fans, or fans of dark, potentially supernatural Thrillers. I think a lot of Readers will really enjoy this one.

Thank you so much to the publisher, Crooked Lane Books and Dreamscape Media, for providing me with copies to read and review. I am looking forward to more from J.H. Markert!

You guys-this book is creepy as shit! It is full of horror, supernatural elements and gruesome murders. I thought it was refreshingly unique, utterly clever and perfectly satisfying. Markert did a wonderful job explaining things but also giving you an element of confusion and surprise. I did not really know where this was going until toward the end. It finishes with an absolute BANG! I haven’t heard if this is going to be part of a sequel, and the ending sets it up beautifully so I really hoping we get more.

The creativity behind this and each serial killer is chilling. I could read an individual book about each one. I also enjoyed the police procedural aspect of it. It isn’t overly “policey” in the sense it gave you the steps you are used too. It just had elements of an investigation.

I thought the characterization was done well and left you with an ability to build on the characters using your own imagination *gasp* which is rare no a days. This was horror at its finest. Reading this one may give you nightmares….

Thank you Netgalley for my advance copy!

4.5 stars! This novel reminded me so much of young Stephen King books. So many nightmares! It seems that terrible crimes are being committed in the small town that also houses a famous horror novelist, Ben Bookman. However the crimes are mirroring grisly crimes committed inside Bookman's novels. And the book hadn't been published yet...
Detective Win Mills and his daughter, Detective Samantha Blue, are being run ragged with all the grisly murder scenes and crimes being committed throughout the town. Is Bookman to blame? And what's up w/ his creepy old estate, Blackwood Manor? The detectives are thrown into an investigation that also seems to have something to do w/ Dr. Robert Bookman, Ben's deceased grandfather and head of Oswald Sanitorium, and his missing, presumed dead, brother, Devon.
So many nuances and nightmares in this novel. There's also just enough of a supernatural element to make this extra creepy.

*Special thanks to NetGalley and Crooked Lane Books for this e-arc.*

** “ ‘So this is my burden alone?’ ‘Not alone. You know that. Come to me, all of you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.’ ” **

Under his pen name J.H. Markert, author James Markert rebrands into a new style of books with a contemporary horror/suspense novel with “The Nightmare Man,” a deeply dark and disturbing thriller.

When a series of brutal murders occur in the small town of Crooked Tree at the same time a man shoots himself at local author Benjamin Bookman’s book signing, father-daughter police duo Winchester Mills and Samantha Blue must work to figure out who’s committing the horrific crimes and why they seem to replicate murders in Ben’s latest novel.

As they delve into the crimes, trying to determine who the next victims will be, they must also determine if these crimes have to do with Crooked Tree’s past crimes, including a series of missing children.

Markert brilliantly blends together crimes from the past and the present to develop an intriguing and heart-thumping plot that will leave readers guessing until the very end.

He also does a great job of highlighting some thought-provoking themes, like taking on one another’s burdens and overcoming temptation and lust. Obviously a huge theme is nightmares and their impact.

“The Nightmare Man” will appeal to fans of shows like “Criminal Minds” and authors like Stephen King and Ted Dekker. However, be forewarned this book, unlike Dekker’s, contains a lot of foul language as well as lustful situations. This is very much a mainstream, contemporary novel.

Four stars out of five.

Crooked Lane Books provided this complimentary copy through NetGalley for my honest, unbiased review.

2.5 stars. It pains me to give a book with so much potential a low rating, but when I think about it, there just wasn't much I enjoyed about The Nightmare Man.

The book starts off strong: Two detectives are called to a grisly crime scene, where a family has been murdered, wrapped in hand-sewn cocoons, and strung up in the rafters of their barn. Meanwhile, a famous horror writer is signing his new novel at a local bookstore, when a man kills himself in front of him after claiming the writer "stole his nightmare." Definitely a promising start, at least for this horror lover! It was giving me vintage Stephen King vibes, kind of reminiscent of The Dark Half.

But things swiftly spiral out of control, as J.H. Markert introduces many different plot threads into the narrative and fails to tie them together cohesively. There's a self-destructive detective, a creepy house in the woods, dream folklore, a psychiatric hospital, relationship drama, alcohol abuse, a demon, and several psychopaths and serial killers on the loose. It made for a dense, overwhelming read, and a lot of these elements are never fully resolved. There were also a few things that aggravated me in the text, like unbelievable police procedures and the fact that a town of 6,000 residents had two local television news stations -- and an amount of serious crime that should've caught the FBI's attention long ago.

The main narrative is interspersed with segments from "Before," but these are all out of order, which made for a disjointed reading experience. The cast of characters is way too large, with even the central characters being underdeveloped, and they spend too much time talking to each other in dialogue that doesn't ring true. Most of the action in the story happens off the page and is only relayed to the reader through the characters' conversations; there's way too much exposition. And when we finally do get an action scene at the end of the book, it's anticlimactic and unsatisfying.

The Nightmare Man would have been a completely different novel if it was more tightly focused. It has disturbing imagery, fascinating plot elements, and introduces some truly creepy mythology. The execution just made it a boring, jumbled, and not at all scary read for me. There is so much potential here; there is a great book hiding somewhere inside this one. It's just a shame that's not the book I read.

Ben Bookman is a best selling author working on his new horror book when he realizes life is imitating art. The nightmares from his stories are coming to life. Detective Mills and daughter work side by side to piece together the events taking place.

While I enjoyed the book and was fascinated by the premise there were so many characters, especially at the end when the dots were being connected that it was difficult at times to remember who was who. I thought the beginning dragged a bit but it quickly picked up and enjoyed how the story unfolded especially when the creepy characters came to life.

The Nightmare Man is available January 10,233

Thank you to netgalley and crookedlanebooks for this arc in exchange for my honest review.

I requested this one because it might be an upcoming title I would like to review on my Youtube Channel. However, after reading the first several chapters I have determined that this book does not suit my tastes. So I decided to DNF this one.