Book Review: The Prisoner of Fear by Chad Miller

Title: The Prisoner of Fear (Book 1 Doyle and Braham Series)

Author: Chad Miller
Genre: Horror - Gothic Fiction
Publisher: Hear Our Voice LLC - Copyright 2022
Publication Date: October 1, 2022
Read: Oct. 8-11, 2022
Disclaimer: Author requested a review and sent a free paperback copy. All opinions are my own.

Synopsis from Publisher:  It is 1889 in Philadelphia, and detective John Doyle is restless. Along with his miserable partner, Thomas Braham, Doyle pursues mysteries, strange sightings, and other obscurities tossed aside and disregarded by the police. For years, Doyle has taken on these cases in the hopes of discovering something supernatural - something that could upend and dispute his long-standing, debilitating fear that immortal souls do not exist. 

Doyle's search for the supernatural remains unsuccessful until he receives a strange letter from an old doctor friend regarding a young woman with a mysterious and rather disturbing illness. When the doctor goes missing in the same town that this young woman resides in, Doyle and Braham decide to take on the case and search for clues regarding their missing friend. In doing so, they discover that there is no longer any suffering young woman, but a dangerous abomination whose origin cannot be explained by science nor modern medicine. 

Meanwhile, an unnamed victim has been kidnapped. Trapped in a cell with nothing but a journal to document their experiences, this mysterious Prisoner must undergo terrifying scientific experiments while trying not to lose all hope and sanity.

Review: Anyone who knows me know I'm a huge fan of Gothic literature and its contemporary descendent, horror. My friends (and family) have heard me expound upon the virtues of dark fiction over the years. If it's dark, disturbing, psychologically scarring, and even the tiniest bit creepy, I'm all over it like flies on a corpse. 

So, dearest reader, you can imagine my excitement when I was offered a review copy of Chad Miller's The Prisoner of Fear. I waited with antici...............pation for it to arrive. When it finally landed on my doorstep, I was giddy, and yet I was in the midst of reading another book for review so I set Miller's book aside. Still, the cover haunted me. The promise of a Sherlockian-style mystery combined with the Gothic epistolary-based chills of Bram Stoker and Mary Shelley seduced me like a siren's call. For a week, I held firm and didn't give into that call. However, curiosity soon gave way to desire and I had no choice but to dive into those dark waters, whether for good or ill.

Oh, dearest reader, why did I wait to satisify my dark urges? Why, oh why, did I torment myself with fleeting glances at that haunting cover? Once I read the opening line, my resolve crumbled, and I came undone. Although I continued to read the other book in line for review during the day, I secretly stole precious hours each night to navigate the twists and turns and delightfully view the dark images Miller skillfully paints on the pages of The Prisoner of Fear. Yes, I lost hours of sleep, but what I gained is so much more valuable: a new "must-read" author. 

At the heart of Miller's work is a mystery that seems simple enough to solve. However, that simplicity is deceptive. I've admitted in other blogs that I'm often able to figure out the Who in most WhoDoneIt book, but Miller kept me guessing to the end, and then had the nerve to end the book with a cliffhanger. (AND the sequel isn't scheduled to be released until next year? WTF? Cue the hellish wailing and gnashing of teeth... *deep breath* It's fine. I'm calm. I can wait.) The plot twists were subtle and yet my mind was continually blown. Although I could tell a twist was coming soon the shapes those twists took were unexpected and shot the story into a completely different direction than I'd predicted. 

It wasn't until I'd finished reading the book that I realized the title didn't actually refer to a single character: The reader is The Prisoner of Fear, and like any good horror author, Chad Miller is the puppet master gleefully pulling strings. I, for one, will happily take up the roll of marionette. 

But....Miller, if you're reading this review, I have two words for you: Write. Faster.