Reviews

A study of psychological torment and breakdown. A gripping murder mystery. A terrifying ghost story. K. Patrick Malone masterfully weaves together all three strains of spellbinding fiction in his debut thriller, INSIDE A HAUNTED MIND (A Better Be Write Publisher; April 2007; ISBN: 978-0-9788985-0-2; $22.95). Presented in the guise of a journal, dated January 2002, the tale unfolds through eyes, reminiscences, and nightmares of one of its victims, a small town police chief haunted by personal demons and dying…of fright.

Filled with intriguing twists and mysterious characters, including a prominent doctor from Victorian London, a red headed hooker with a heart of gold, a Russian mistress of black magic, and a very much alive elderly widow with a Mahjong tile bracelet, INSIDE A HAUNTED MIND eventually leads to a horrific trail of long buried murders. . . or were they more than just murders? Even after the novel’s shocking culmination, K. Patrick Malone will leave readers wondering about whether to trust a crumbling psyche or whether to be on the lookout for the ghosts lurking in their own home. . . and how they may have gotten there.

www.horror-web.com

Inside A Haunted Mind
K. Patrick Malone
A Better Be Write Publisher, LLC
1100 Buck Street, Suite 110, Millville, NJ 08332
Page Turner Publicity (publicity)
32091 Virginia Way, Laguna Beach, CA 92651
0978898508, $22.95 www.amazon.com

The debut suspense novel of K. Patrick Malone, Inside A Haunted Mind is a dark story about a relentless evil force closing in on small town police chief Terry Chagford, and the World Trade Center survivor that he rescued from drowning. Pursued by horrific demons, nightmares of murder and an inexplicable link to Mah Jong tiles, beset by thirst for alcohol, craving for painkillers, and episodes of crushing depression, Chagford feels like his very psyche is crumbling to pieces. A suspense-laden deconstruction of a good man's mind gone terribly wrong, laced with shocking revelations and edge-of-the-seat tension.
http://www.midwestbookreview.com

ForeWord Magazine said:

“My skin crawls even to write about it,” says Malone’s protagonist, Terry Chagford.
These words will ring true for all who delve into the mentally unhinging world of small town police chief Chagford in K. Patrick Malone’s suspense thriller Inside a Haunted Mind. Feeling he has been a failure throughout his life, and haunted by his inability to rescue a little girl from a fire years ago, Chagford looks to redeem himself by keeping alive—at all costs—one Martin Welliver, a stranger who has just bought an isolated house on the outskirts of town. But the cost of Chagford’s redemption is beyond anything he could have ever imagined, for shortly thereafter, both men are stalked by the house’s malevolent spirit that has been resurrected after Welliver moves in; the first occupant of the house in more than fifty years. Chagford starts to better understand what is happening only after Grace Coutraire, the town’s librarian, reveals her past and tells him what she herself had discovered about the original occupant of the house. He soon figures out, however, that no amount of understanding will stop the evil presence and its intentions to kill both Welliver and himself. There is a piece of the puzzle that Chagford, clinging to the edge of sanity, must find before it is too late and the evil moves on to somewhere—and someone—else.
Malone’s first book reads as if he has written several successful books already. Riveting from the start, his use of mixing past and present events in Chagford’s “mental therapy” diary and the vivid descriptions of townspeople Chagford cares for, make the reader feel as if they were experiencing with him the ever-increasing tensions, terror and horror of events as they unfold. Malone’s powerful descriptions keep the reader thoroughly engaged: “I saw his face, red eyes, blazing blood red eyes looking at me and his mouth…was all twisted, drawn back in a horrible, snarling grimace…Oh, God! It was the man from the dream.” And one may get so lost in this story of “A Journal Found” that the conclusion to Mr. Carruther’s story, which brackets it, comes as somewhat of a shock. One factor that ultimately gives this story its desperate tone—almost missed due to its subtleness—is Malone’s uncanny ability to portray Chagford’s downward spiral toward insanity. It is as if he himself has experienced what it is like to be “inside a haunted mind.”
The book is an excellent work, but only those able to handle graphic descriptions of depraved violence should enter Malone’s world of terrifying horror. -Nelly Heitman July/Aug issue

The Chattanooga Times Free Press said:

First-time author serves up ghost story
By Christine Simmons
Staff Writer

“This is a good, old-fashioned ghost story complete with an old, creepy house, spirits and flying furniture. Or is it? Could it be nothing more than the illusions of a haunted and disturbed mind? The reader will have to pay close attention to figure that out. . . Every relationship in the story is extremely detailed, from the police chief and his mother to his relationship with the old librarian, who wears a mysterious Mahjong tile bracelet. At times the vividly created characters wrap readers up in their stories and eventually they are all tied to a set of long-ago murders . . . overall a good read, especially for a first-time author . . . “