Every time I review a horror story, I say that it’s hard for me to find horror that truly strikes my nerves. Sometimes horror is conveyed in the blood and gore and killing. There’s a bit of that in this title, but it shines in the creepy kind of terror. The vague something sinister. The scene and a moment of knowing something is wrong but you don’t know what it is. The thing you cannot explain. The hint of paranormal. Country Roads presented these moments well because as I continued to read the book in the dark, when everyone else had gone to sleep, I could not deny I felt uncomfortable and I kept trying to see something in the darkness of the room, thinking if I heard some weird noises. The damn book got to me! And I love it! You know the way you watch or read horror and you try and scream to the character – No! Don’t go! Don’t open that door! Stay inside! – so many moments like this. Edge of the seat stuff, I tell you! 

Country Roads – Colin Leonard 

Going back to the Irish vibe. What do I mean? Look, I am not Irish, but I lived and worked in rural Ireland for 12 years. You can trust me that you will be presented with people who are true to life. From farmer to Garda to the quirky people to the loners, and my salute to the boy-racer types. Damn, they kept me awake many a night. The rural pub with a couple of oldies enjoying a pint and always friendly. The back roads in rural Ireland – I could see them off the pages of this book. I traveled such back roads myself. The fields on either side, the ditches, the bends – you never knew what awaited you hidden by the curve in the road. And when the darkness falls, Eire is wrapped in eerie. Country Roads is your little slice of Ireland. 

255 pages is practically your evening’s entertainment sorted in the best of ways as Country Roads packs a creepy tree in a rural setting, unflinching body count, and a smooth, unfaltering, delightful prose that delivers you THE Irish vibes as true as true can be. Dive in and feel equally as perplexed, terrified and disgusted at the hands of lore inspired horror. If that ain’t perfect for Halloween, you’re doing Halloween wrong.