A story with a haunted theater as the premise! How could a horror lover go wrong?

I received this book as part of a Humble Bundle that I won from Brian Hodge. (Thanks, Brian!) A fellow horror reader in one of my horror groups chose it for a group read and I was excited, because the premise sounded so great. I was not disappointed.

There are some cliched themes here, but I loved the way Mr. Williamson made them his own. Not only were there the expected spirits, but there was an entirely new entity and a dangerous one he proved to be. A new type of doppelganger, once realized, nearly unstoppable. And no one was safe. Of course the denouement, would have to take place at the theater-what will happen during the performance? Will the main character win the role-the role of his life, so to speak? You will have to read this to find out.

This book was well written and the story well told. I think it could have been trimmed a bit as sometimes the main character's inner monologue was redundant. Even though a couple of the characters were cliches, I thought most of them came through as real people, capable of all the feelings and changes that go along with that.

This book definitely made me a fan of Chet Williamson and I'm looking forward to seeing if he has more work for me to discover. For now, I will say goodbye to the Venetian Theatre and all of its scary, wonderful history.

Highly recommended for fans of haunting stories! ( )