Genre: Horror
Publisher: Self Published
Publication Date: 4th June 2016
Pages: 42
REVIEWED BY NEV
A copy of DeadBeardwas sent to Confessions of a Reviewer by the author, Matthew Cash, in exchange for an honest review. This is said review. This book is self-published.
Another short from Matthew Cash that intrigued me to say the least. Why did the cover have an Indian Headdress with a beard on it? Is it really about beards? After enjoying Ankle Biters so much, review link at the bottom of the page by the way, I was looking forward to reading more of Mr Cash. He has a, how should I put it, unique style about his writing that I think could be very Marmite-ish until you get used to it. There is something there that I like. I’m just not sure what it is yet.
Maybe this one will help me get to the bottom of it.
Great Bald Eagle is not a Native American warrior. In fact, he lives in the UK. He got his name from his drugged up, hippie parents who knew no better. He also has a distinct appearance, being completely devoid of hair, anywhere on his body.
This angers him greatly and as he grows older, he starts to unleash his hatred of all things hairy and give in to his horrific fantasies about what he would like to do to people with beards.
Detective McMillan must do his best to stop DeadBeard, before he loses his own!
I know what you’re thinking right now; is this for real? Bear with me and you shall find out.
DeadBeard is a very troubled soul and an interesting lead character. You see some of the story through his eyes where he details his traumatic childhood and how he developed his hatred of hairy people. He really is a psychopath.
Detective McMillan sports his own huge ginger beard and is on the cusp of celebrating his Yearbeard. His wife, however, wants him to get rid of it due to the dangers that DeadBeard poses. He seems like a really decent fella. Dedicated to his job and always out to bring the bad guys to justice.
There are a few other characters involved that are equally hairy and lend their own unique sub stories to the plot.
That plot is simple. DeadBeard is a killer. McMillan is a cop. McMillan must stop DeadBeard. What isn’t simple about the plot and to be honest is truly unique, is the way in which DeadBeard goes about the killing. This is something that I have certainly not heard or seen before in any horror or serial killer book or film. This is a huge doff of the cap to Mr Cash for this one. The only worrying thing is how the hell he thought it up. Dark goings on in his mind me thinks.
This is a mixture of a thriller come horror story. It could be put into the slasher collective. It could be put into the serial killer collective. It could also be put into the extremely tongue in cheek horror slash killer collective and as I type this, it has finally hit me what it is I like about Matthew Cash’s writing.
That tongue seems to be firmly planted in his cheek throughout the stories. There is a certain element of dark humour which is always present but never totally bubbles to the surface. It is just enough to make you smirk while you are being sickened or scared by what you are reading. It never makes you outright belly laugh, but I reckon if the story was longer there would be a lot more opportunity for that.
If you like your horror a bit pulpy and a bit gory and certainly something that will make you cringe but smile at the same time, Mr Cash could be the writer for you.
To summarise: a serial killer / horror / humorously dark story that certainly offers a lot more than you may think from reading the synopsis.
General rating:
★★★★ getting there but still a bit bizarre.
Horror rating:
★★★★ yeah, it's creepy.
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Thanks.
Book Synopsis:
Great Bald Eagle may sound like a really cool name for a native American Indian and if he had have stayed, or even grew up in the settlements of his forefathers then things might have different. But time moved on, his forefathers spread about a bit and eventually Great Bald Eagle was born. GBE, Jeebee, to his friends, was raised by native Americans that were so far from their ancestry they barely knew anything about it apart from the fact that they used to call their kids noble heroic names such as Geronimo and Dances With Wolves. Jeebee came out bald, alopecia, so they thought they would give him a majestic name to help him rise heroically throughout his life. They were wrong.
Ever the brunt of jokes by everyone, within Jeebee grew a hatred for hair, and the money, imagery and importance it had gained over the millennia. People spent thousands of hours grooming, preening, washing, drying, straightening, curling. It was fine when it was mostly the ladies doing it but when this new wave of hipster surfaced, where man would spend even longer in front of the mirror with lotions and potions it burst something inside of that had lying dormant all his life. Jealousy.
With inspiration from his ancestral blood playing a heavy part, Great Bald Eagle, Jeebee to his friends, is going to make these hairy bastards pay.
The Wrath of the Mighty DeadBeard is about to befall beardkind.
CONFESSIONS REVIEWS MATTHEW CASH
Matthew Cash, or Matty-Bob Cash as he is known to most, was born and raised in in Suffolk; which is the setting for his forthcoming full length novel Pinprick which is due for publication with Knightswatch Press in 2016.
He has always written stories since he first learnt to write and most, although not all, tend to slip into the many layered murky depths of the Horror genre.
His influences, from his early reading, to present day are, to name but a select few; Roald Dahl, James Herbert, Clive Barker, Stephen King, Stephen Laws, and more recently he enjoys Adam Nevill, F.R Tallis, Michael Bray, William Meikle and Iain Rob Wright (who featured Matty-Bob in his famous A-Z of Horror title M is For Matty-Bob, plus Matthew wrote his own version of events which was included as a bonus).
He is a father of two and a husband of one.
And for more about Matthew, you can find him on social media:
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