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Wednesday, April 22, 2015

Book Review: The Devil's Cat (The Devil #4) by William W. Johnstone

The Devil's Cat (The Devil #4)
by William W. Johnstone
Kindle Edition
Published April 14th 2015
KENSINGTON 
The Devil’s Disguise

Cats. The town was alive with them. All kinds. Black, white, fat, scrawny . . . They lived in the streets, in the back yards, in the swamps of Becancour. Sam, Nydia, and Little Sam had never seen so many cats. The cats’ eyes were glowing slits as they watched the new-comers. And their furry tails were slowly switching back and forth . . .

Evil. The town was ripe with it. It seemed to waft in from the swamps with the hot, fetid breeze and breed in the minds of Becancour’s citizens. Soon Sam, Nydia and Little Sam would battle the forces of darkness. Standing alone against the ultimate predator—

The Devil’s Cat

Sam Balon, his wife, Nydia, and their young son, Little Sam, drive into the town of Becancour, Louisiana. Before they hit the town though, Nydia stops him and tells him to allow a large, mixed breed dog in the road into the car with them. It gets the appropriate name of Dog. Nydia tells him he is meant to come with them. That he is not an ordinary canine.

As for the town, it has never changed in the past six years and no one seems surprised. But stranger than that is no signs of dogs, just cats. Lots of cats. Plus the people for several months appeared to be changing. Subtle, but changing. And the police are finding butchered dogs and a sheep…devil worship? Plus some strange people have been the latest to move into the former Dorgenois mansion, where tragedy has happened to past residents and locals claim it is haunted. This is what the Balons find. They rent a house out of town and settle in. Waiting. Waiting for the war between good and evil, between Heaven and Hell. For this is Sam Balon’s fate—as a warrior for the side of good.

This was part of a series of horror novels—all to do with the Devil. One problem with the story for me is there are too many people. Not a crowd of people or the two hundred kids at one point in the story—I understood them, but those with names—some you will never see again except to die. It got confusing. And those roles we see more of were cardboard silhouettes—not enough substance to flesh them out and it did not even made me care when something got them. I think it could have used less clutter with the people. The clutter extended to the monsters (Beasts), hordes of cats, werepanthers, demons, and Satanists. It has all the elements of horror, just needed less with too many characters and maybe taking time to stick to the main characters, rounding them out. Then this might have made a scarier, better horror novel than it was. That was the final nail in the coffin for me—the goings-on did not scare me, not even once.

I give The Devil’s Cat 3 ½ demonic sheep




Pamela Kinney

About the Author:
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William W. Johnstone was born in Southern Missouri, the youngest of four children. Raised with strong moral and family values by his minister father, and well-tutored by his school teacher mother, Bill quit school when he was fifteen. He was kicked out of the French Foreign Legion for being under age and joined the carnival. But still valuing his education, he returned home to finish his high school education in 1957.

He went on to work as a deputy sheriff, did a hitch in the army, and began a career in radio broadcasting, where he worked daily on his verbal and storytelling skills for the next sixteen years on the air. Much of his knowledge of the early frontier began from listening to family experiences told to him by his Grandparents.

His love of animals is displayed in many of his books as well as finding several Huskies and Malamutes roaming freely around his home. As an avid gun and knife collector, hours of research are devoted to the types of weapons commonly used during the eras of his writings.

He has written over two hundred books in a variety of genres including action, suspense, western, science fiction, and horror. Two of his books, Eagle Down and Dagger, were written under the pen name of William Mason.

2 comments:

  1. I was interested in reading your review. Thanks for the summary.

    ReplyDelete