Grimm Woods
by D. Melhoff
on Tour April 1 – May 31, 2017
Synopsis:
A remote summer camp becomes a lurid crime scene when the bodies of two teenagers are found in a bloody, real-life rendering of a classic Grimm’s fairy tale. Trapped in the wilderness, the remaining counsellors must follow a trail of dark children’s fables in order to outwit a psychopath and save the dwindling survivors before falling prey to their own gruesome endings.
Drawing on the grisly, uncensored details of history’s most famous fairy tales, Grimm Woods is a heart-pounding thriller about a deranged killer who uses traditional children’s stories as tropes in elaborate murders. Set against the backdrop of modern-day Michigan, it’s a journey through the mind of a dangerous zealot and a shocking glimpse into the bedtime stories you thought you knew.
MY REVIEW
4 stars
Scott Mamer has taken a summer job, along with 13 other counselors at a remote summer camp for troubled kids with a theme of fairy tales. However, this camp turns into a nightmare as one by one the counselors are turning up dead. Who is the murderer and what is the motive?
Scott soon learns that his past has caught up with him and he is the reason for these heinous deaths.
Grisly deaths that resemble the original Grimm stories that are far from fairy tales.
A chilling read!
Book Details:
Genre: Thriller
Published by: Bellwoods Publishing
Publication Date: December 2016
Number of Pages: 384
ISBN: 0992133130 (ISBN13: 9780992133139)
Purchase Links: Amazon 🔗 | Goodreads 🔗
Read an excerpt:
July 7th, 5:44 a.m.
One hacksaw. One hammer, six boxes of nails. Twelve Mason jars, four hunting knives, two pairs of handcuffs. Fifteen gallons of gasoline divided evenly among three dented jerry cans.
It’s time.
A work glove hovered over the table where the objects were laid out side by side and began ticking the air as though marking off an invisible checklist. The chamber reeked of mildew, and the walls had no windows or electrical sockets—no lamps, no wires, no switch covers. A single red candle provided the only light, its crimson wax dripping down its shaft like blood.
The hand picked up a piece of paper from the table and slipped it into a blank envelope. Below, a beetle scuttled across the floorboards. The insect—its gangly antennae tuned to some foul frequency in the gloom—raced past the sole of a giant boot just as a drop of liquid fell through the air and struck it dead center, engulfing its body in a hot, gelatinous blob that filled its orifices and burned it from the inside out. Another droplet tumbled from the candle, plopping onto the envelope this time, and then a brass stamp came down and pressed the wax into a hardened seal.
Drawing in heavier, raspier breaths, the figure held the envelope up to a corkboard that was bolted to the wall. More than a dozen pictures of young men and women were tacked to the panel by their throats and foreheads, smiling in the shadows.
The figure pinned the envelope to the board and stepped back to take in the room again.
The table and the switchblade.
The book of matches.
The iron rods, the hatchet, the .22 Smith & Wesson.
The smiling faces.
Now, the figure mused, watching the photographs flicker in the bloodred light. Who’s the nicest, Who’s the worst, who wants to hear a story first?
Author Bio:
D. Melhoff was born in a prairie ghost town that few people have heard of and even fewer have visited. While most of his stories are for adults, he also enjoys terrifying younger audiences from time to time, as seen in his series of twisted picture books for children. He credits King, Poe, Hitchcock, Harris, Stoker, and his second-grade school teacher, Mrs. Lake, for turning him to horror.
Interview
What is the truth about Grimm stories and what they have offered as a source of inspiration for your thriller story?
First off, let me say that I am by no means a Brothers Grimm scholar. When I started this book, I only knew that there’s more to fairy tales than the Disney versions I’d heard as a child. If you want a comprehensive look at the original stories, I suggest checking out the works of professor Jack Zipes. He’s the real expert on the subject.
That said, I did learn a lot throughout my research. While I may have known that fairy tales weren’t originally intended for children, I didn’t know how gory many of them were. A lot of people are familiar with the dark details from the famous tales — Cinderella’s eyes pecked out by birds, the evil queen in Snow White getting burned to death by hot-iron shoes, Sleeping Beauty getting impregnated while she’s asleep — but when you dig into the lesser-known stories, you’ll find even more gruesome plot lines, many of them resulting in unhappy endings.
The more I read, the more I realized I’d hit the horror jackpot. I decided that the novel would take place at a modern-day summer camp, but the villain would use the gory endings of original fairy tales to punish people for immoral behavior. I still think it’s one of the most high-concept ideas I’ve had to date, if I don’t say so myself.
Despite of what is commonly known, the real Grimm stories are heavily loaded with gore. How did you build Grimm Woods and what is more important for the story: the thrill and unexpected or the gore?
The thrill is more important than the gore. In fact, many of the murders are implied or alluded to and not described in detail. Don’t get me wrong, there’s still plenty of blood, guts, and shock value, but suspense is more crucial.
Which are the features of a reader of thrillers?
Thriller readers want the same things as other readers: suspense, humor, tension, surprise, intrigue, etc. While a few of these are more prominent in thrillers, I think a dose of all of them makes a story more real and believable.
Which senses of your reader do you want to exploit most?
I think it’s important to give readers a sense of helplessness. If you’ve put your characters in situations that readers themselves wouldn’t know how to get out of, you’re on the right track.
What terrifies a thriller writer and how can he/she protect against it?
I once heard a writer say the thing they were most afraid of was losing their mind, which always stuck with me. I’ll steal that answer.
Catch Up with Mr. Melhoff on his Website 🔗, Twitter 🔗, & Facebook 🔗.
Tour Participants:
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I usually love this kind of book!
So I am really looking forward to reading it later this month.
Great interview, thanks!