Rags and Old Iron

Lorelei Shannon

Juno Books, Dec 2006, $12.95

ISBN: 0809556243

In Arizona, college coed Amy Sullivan suffers from vicious nightmares that are destroying her sleep and consequently her health.  In classes, she struggles to remain alert as she seems to drift into sexual dreamland with hunks.  Her best friend Sarah worries about her “spewpuppy” roommate, but though always there for Amy, she feels helpless as her buddy seems to slowly lose her mind especially since she claims someone is stalking her, but no one is ever there.

Amy senses danger and that a confrontation with her night stalker is imminent; one that she does not expect to survive.  Another friend Xavier a Yaqui mystic tries to help her troubled soul as she too feels an evil presence persecuting Amy; he tells her she is not a lunatic as the malevolence is real and gives her a desert banded Gecko to remove her bad dreams; he also knows her nightmares are her past warning her that déjà vu is coming.

Time passes and the dreams and stalking worsen.  Childhood friend Louis Bouvier knows Amy needs him because what is happening to her occurred to his mother, a Voodoo Queen.  Amy concludes that voodoo offspring Louis is either her salvation or the final straw.

Fans of horror thrillers will want to read the terrific RAGS AND OLD IRON that grips the audience from the opening classroom sequence until the final dream occurs.  Readers will wonder whether Amy is losing her mind and causing the terror that haunts her or is something wicked from beyond coveting her in a bizarre courtship.  Lorelei Shannon provides a powerful tale that will have her audience desiring more as we wonder until the end whether this is a tense psychological thriller or a terrifying supernatural suspense.

Harriet Klausner