Samuel's Girl

by H.K. Hillman

Samuel's Girl

by H. K. Hillman

Review by Nicholette Heaton-Harris

It would have been so easy to write this book with all the action taking place in a world of magic. After all, we're dealing with parapsychology, demons, gamaliels and ghosts. But H.K.Hillman keeps all the excitement and adventure in our mortal world and the book is brilliant because of that decision.

Our protagonist, Professor Romulus Crowe, is an irascible and arrogant man with a permanent bad temper and a dislike of people. But he's also the Dr Gregory House of the parapsychology world and though we shouldn't technically like him, we do. He's funny, sharp-tongued and extremely clever and manages to say all the things lots of us must wish we had the nerves to say out loud.

When local librarian, Samuel Watson, manages to summon the demon woman from the grimoire, he believes his luck and his fortune will change. The woman is gorgeous, erotic and tantalizing, so how wrong could it go?

For Samuel, it goes very wrong as she sucks the life force from him and moves onto other men, leaving his ghost stuck between two worlds. He is left with having to leech life force from mortal women to gain back power and the ability to communicate with Romulus…a man who repressed his psychic ability for years.

The local police force is puzzled by the deaths sweeping through their quaint little town and Romulus has to work with them to keep his name and reputation in the clear.

I enjoyed this book. Every character in it has a purpose. Hillman doesn't just have someone enter from stage left, speak a few lines and then disappear into stage right. Each person, no matter how insignificant they seem, has a large part to play in the story and that is one of the book's strengths. No character, no event, no word, is wasted.

Chapters are kept nicely short, allowing you to dip into the book, little and often, though as each chapter speeds the book on quite nicely. It's easy to absorb three, four or five chapters and leave the reader wanting more.

Hillman has done a wonderful job with Samuel's Girl. He's kept it real, even though the subject matter is the paranormal.

The character Crowe keeps us grounded, here, on our mortal world, with mortal concerns, which makes the juxtaposition with the demons, angels and gamaliels even more compelling. Samuel’s Girl is a beautifully written tale with a triumphant, realistic ending in keeping with the rest of the book. I'd highly recommend that you seek out and find Samuel’s Girl.

You can buy Samuel's Girl HERE

About the Author

H. K. Hillman

Dr. Kevin Hillman is a rogue scientist and writer who normally appears online as anyone but himself. His multiple personalities include the sensible and restrained Gutbugs and the sensible but volatile Romulus Crowe, as well as the militant Leg-iron and the utterly deranged Phineas Dume. That last incarnation wrote articles for the greatly missed AlienSkin magazine and takes the credit for most of the stories.

Kevin's short stories have appeared in From The Asylum, AlienSkin, and other online venues. His first novel, Jessica's Trap, was released by Damnation Books in April 2011. Fame beckons, although fortune remains sadly elusive.

Dr. Dume was once under the control of the AlienSkin mother, but now he is loose upon the world. You can visit Dr. Dume HERE.

About the Reviewer

Nicolette Heaton-Harris

Nicolette Heaton-Harris is a UK writer, based on the south coast of England and has grown up reading stories from the greats-- Herbert, King, Poe, Hutson, Laymon. Her first published story was about a kitten that had undergone a mutation and wreaked revenge on the owner that had tried to get rid of it by throwing it into a river.

Since then, she has had numerous short horror stories published. One of them, titled “The Old Lady” was published by The Horror Zine and was inspired by an old, dilapidated--and supposedly haunted--house from around the corner to her own home and she can only hope that her story is not based on the truth! Nicolette is currently writing a novella for Proxima Books.

You can visit Nicolette Heaton-Harris HERE