Holy shit, this is one mean book. But, before we get to that, full disclosure time: Yes, I know Ed Kurtz, yes, he's published one of my stories (Soft Kiss, Hard Death). With that out of the way, again, I'll state that, regardless of whether I know the author or not, I always want to be honest about the story.

So, the story. This isn't my usual horror fare. I don't tend to read a lot of the gory, violent stuff. Why? Because the majority of the time, it's gore for gore's sake and violence for violence's sake. But in Control, Kurtz does a great job of setting up the situation that you know is going to go so, so wrong. Just like he did in Bleed, Kurtz sets up a situation that has unlimited potential to spiral out of control and he takes full advantage of that in this novel.

I've gotta say, I found this one to be quite cinematic. Several times I stopped reading, imagining a particular scene as a movie. I would love to see this optioned, because it would make a fantastic horror flick.

But down to brass tacks here. If you're looking for great characters, look elsewhere. What Kurtz will give you is real characters. Harsh characters. Loser characters. Sociopathic characters. And that's a lot of the fun of this story. His descriptions of the office workers had me wondering if he'd snuck into my workplace and stolen some real life examples. So, he gets an A here.

Story? I've already touched on this, but I have to say, I always admire a writer who comes up with a scenario, then drags it off into a totally different direction than I expected. He completed confounded me with the direction he took for this novel, so again, two thumbs up.

Pacing? Oh hell yeah. There's just enough down time here for the reader to catch his or her breath, and then Kurtz comes out swinging--and swinging viciously--again and again.

Writing style? This is the third story I've read from Ed Kurtz and two things grab me. The first is, he writes in a fully unique style. No one else writes like Kurtz, and yet Kurtz can borrow from some of the best, yet still make it his own. Second is his versatility. He seems at ease no matter what the setting, no matter what the subject matter.

So overall, if you want a mean-spirited, vicious slice of horror, Kurtz is your man and Control is your book. Too bad this version was limited to 80 copies and is, as far as I know, sold out. But if you can find it, it's worth it. ( )