Review: Coronation

Coronation
by
Lee F. Jordan
Available through Amazon in paperback
and Kindle edition, and through Barnes & Noble,
in paperback or Nook edition.

Good evening constant reader.

If you're looking for an interesting horror tale that doesn't follow the already beaten-to-death-path, and has an intelligent plot that doesn't insult it's reader, this book is for you.

Jon David Stickle's nose will start to bleed when there's mischief afoot, and he just so happens to be employed by the United States Navy.
When the nuclear submarine USS Nevada shows up, her entire crew dead for no apparent reason (oh you'll know how they died, more or less, but the reason isn't immediately clear), the Navy calls in JD to see if he can find out what happened to the crew.
He begins his investigation, and then we flash back to the past, to investigate another nautical disaster...and another and another.

One disaster has a set piece that had this reviewer's gorge literally rising. I had to put Coronation down for a moment and collect myself, then I was able to finish the chapter. I still had to set the book aside for a day. This reaction from someone who has read horror novels and watched horror movies since she was 12, and I have never come across anything that got to me like this did.
Did Jordan go for the gross out? Oh yes he did, but there's nothing wrong with that as long as it's central to advancing the plot and not gratuitous. Trust me, you read this, and it will stick with you.
The gorge-rising scene wasn't repeated over and over. It's one thing to punch you in the gut with one, but it becomes overkill, no pun intended, if the author repeats the gore fest for the rest of the book.
If Jordan's other works have one gut-wrencher per book, trust me, it's worth it. You won't forget it.

We move back and forth between Stickle's present day investigation and the happenings in the past and then Jordan throws in a curve ball, that in lesser hands, could have come off as a weak cop out, but worked brilliantly within the framework of the story. Shall I tell you what the curve ball was? Nazis. Yes, you read that right. Nazis. Time and again, we've seen Nazis trotted out as the mean bugaboos, but in this case, they don't come off as trite and are grounded in fact. I know, because I looked it up.

I recommend Coronation highly.

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