Dana's Book Den Category:  Horror Publisher: Books on Screen ISBN-10:  TheGatekeeperCD Pages: 370 Copyright: Feb 1, 2001 The Gatekeeper on CD by Dana Reed Limited First Edition Only 7 Copies Cut Signed by Author $11.95 Each, Postage Within U.S. Included PROLOGUE Father, Son, and Holy Beast Amelio Rodriguez lay in bed and tried to remember when it was that things had gone sour. It was close to impossible though; the room was noisy, full of sounds that didn’t belong. After all,he was in the privacy of his own home, with the cold, motionless body of his wife beside him. It should’ve been quiet! Night had fallen hours before, bringing a terrible amount of activity; the house was alive with madness. Furniture moved. No! It slammed across the altar room with fury. But no one was present in that room. And there were noises, all sorts of noises. The low-throated groans of an enraged beast had filled him with dread at first until something far worse assaulted his senses. It started with heartbeats—several of them—letting Amelio know they were there. And the whisperings—a chorus of creatures with harsh, gravelly voices told him about death, promised him pain, and took the breath from his wife! He shuddered spasmodically when the door to his bedroom opened—locked and bolted though it was—and a black, swirling mass of raging hatred drifted in to greet him. Julio! This was his father Julio’s fault. Julio—master of the Black Arts—turning his only son into a prodigy. But in all fairness, Julio had seen the error of his ways. He became enlightened when daemons from the lower order of Acheron gouged an inverted crucifix an inch deep into his chest, leaving a raw, painful wound. Then they wrote the name of their master, Mephisto, over the altar with Julio’s blood. And to think the altar had been placed in a room with blue walls and blue carpeting to pay homage to the beast because blue is the color of evil. But the Beast turned, the Beast demanded payment for past favors, and Julio ran back to Puerto Rico. The black, swirling mass floated in a dizzying pattern until it reached the foot of Amelio’s bed. He was frightened beyond belief; these were his friends, but they were turning . . . turning on him. Then perhaps, he thought, it was only fitting and fair if he did the same. But where would he begin? The words were stuck in his throat. He had never used them before. “Dear Lord,” he moaned-- Henry Wittaker reread the last few pages of the novel and shuddered. The story, especially the ending, ran on a plain parallel to what he had recently experienced. Particularly the part about the house being theirs—

She Compares to D.H. Lawrence
Review of ‘The Gatekeeper’
This compulsively written novel, which personalizes the continuing conflict in our society between good and evil, is compulsive reading.
Dana Reed has created a cast of dislocated human characters, who are forced to confront hideously cunning and supernaturally empowered denizens of a nether world controlled by the Gatekeeper, a first lieutenant of Lucifer. This conflict is a significant engagement in the battle between Good and Evil, in a “world (which) was (is) turning in the direction of the master beast…Christian souls were (are) disgusted with formal religions.”
The locale of this terrifying confrontation is centered on a ‘haunted’ house; and a medley of threatened souls fall easy victims to the demented machinations of the demonic entities, despite the efforts of a demoralized psychic. The author’s descriptive power makes the reader feel, hear, smell and almost touch the walls of the ‘hagged’ building.
In addition, Dana Reed’s use of strong, earthy Anglo-Saxon as the language of evil is a masterly medium to further underline the horror of the story. D.H. Lawrence used the same ploy to emphasize the physical love between Lady Chatterley and her Gamekeeper. Both authors were eminently successful
Perhaps the most significant fact for me concerning ‘The Gatekeeper’ is that it is based on the author’s investigation of a ‘real’ haunted house. My dreams have been invaded, and I fear for my computer, through which I first read the novel.
Read, learn and enjoy!

Vangerry Oldham,
Eleuthera, BAHAMAS. 14.12.2005
Authors of Long Memory