Kindle Edition Amazon Category:  Horror Publisher: Studio City ISBN-10:  B003N2QB4Q Type: Fiction Copyright: May 18, 2010 ISBN-13: 9781452453415 A man discovers a series of disturbing secrets about his mother that soon manifest in ways no one could have imagined. In Joel Arnold's debut novel of psychological suspense, Death Rhythm, Andrew Byrd learns of his mother’s sadistic past through an aunt he’s only just met. When he meets Mae's strange neighbors, he quickly learns that his mother’s savage adolescence was only the seed for a series of awful events unfolding in the present. Will he be able to stop them before it's too late?                     And what about the mysterious Evelyn? Will the echoes of her old drum lead him to answers? Or will they merely draw him into a vicious cycle that even he can't stop?

Tiffany's Bookshelf
Andrew was unlucky, because he wrecked his car in the middle of nowhere. Turns out nowhere was actually pretty close to where his long lost Aunt Mae lives, so the cops help him connect with her, and she takes him in for a few days while his car gets repaired. While he is there, he stumbles across a local cemetery, some strange neighbors, a dead cat, and some pretty deeply buried family secrets. Andrew is forced to face up to a sick, twisted side to his family, which he never knew existed before now.

From the opening scene of this book, I was hooked. The prologue was not an easy thing to read, it was clear from the get go, this was going to be an extremely dark novel, and in the hands of an unskilled writer, it could have easily careened into campy, cheesy, fluff. Thankfully, it did not. Joel Arnold has written a novel that would make King fans not only proud, but thoroughly satisfied.

I found the story to be very well developed, and the storytelling quite vivid. As Andrew enters the old family home, and begins unearthing its secrets, I felt as if I was there with him. I really loved the development of Mae's character, and found her to be quite sympathetic. Edna, on the other hand, is not fully developed until closer to the end of the book, which I find appropriate, and I love the turns her character takes. I found the book full of surprising and unusual plot twists, and I was interested right up to the very end. I dare you to read this book without the hairs on your arm standing completely on end.