"What - what are we supposed to do?" - Gerald Forsyth

Every Halloween is a night of terror for seventy year old Gerald Forsyth as a nightmare from his past visits wanting reparation. With another Halloween night descending the terror is going to revisit the emphysema suffering old man, the situation made worse when new hospice nurse Kelli opens Gerald's front door to a nightmare she can't comprehend. Who would have thought a Frankenstein's monster mask wearing kid could be a supernatural freakshow on Halloween night!

As Gerald fights to keep himself and Kelli out of the clutches of evil, he must revisit his childhood to explain to Kelli what is happening and why the spirit of Halloween past is visiting them tonight. Can the duo survive the evening or will there be a real price to pay they will shattered the night for them. Perhaps the only thing that can save them is Gerald's soul itself!

The Last Night Of October sees author Greg Chapman delivering not only his best work to date but also arguably the best ghost story of 2013. The book not only follows the three traditional acts one would expect from a traditional ghost story but takes the concept out of the creepy old houses of traditional literature and puts it into the modern day suburban setting. Even better the action rolls out over two Halloween nights and the story isn't being jimmied into that setting, the plot requires Horror's night of nights to work. Frightening as it may be to comprehend but an Aussie writer is showing the Yanks how to put the chills into Halloween night!

The first act rolls in solid fashion with both lead characters, Gerald and Kerri, being introduced in concise fashion, there's no waste of words here, and the conflict being set up in solid fashion. We immediately know who the antagonist and protagonist is, to borrow some literally terms, and the basis of the tale is established without any unnecessary divergence to add metaphysics or setting colour. Author Greg Chapman is telling a tale, the core requirement of horror literature, and nothing is getting in the way of him achieving that.

During the middle block of Last Night, saving some words on the title folks, we get the requisite background, finding out why Gerald is so terrified of Halloween night and what might come in the darkness. For mine Chapman dips his nib into some Stephen King style small town Americana in this section of the book, conjuring up what it's like for two young friends as one of the favourite nights of their year arrives. Chapman is all over the requirements adding atmosphere, authenticity and bringing the narrative to life. When the supernatural arrives Chapman has built the framework to handle it, you will not be taking out of the book as the paranormal flexes its muscles in a surprise twist in the tale. I'm not going to give away any spoilers here, but Chapman's antagonist simply works for a Halloween tale, I don't think the protagonist would have worked quite so well in any other style of horror tale. Equally there's the standard horror trope of the punishment never fitting the crime. If anything horror teaches you that the consequences of bad decisions, disobeying authority, or simply listening to Justin Bieber is going to deliver a punishment far exceeding your actions. Does Gerald deserve what happens on that faithful Halloween evening of his youth? Chapman isn't making that call, as a horror writer he is saying shite happens, learn to deal with it. But what Chapman does get exactly right is switching the reader's feelings of sympathy toward Gerald around a few times. Over to you on what you thought, I just work here.

Naturally the final block of the book offers up a resolution that leaves the reader stunned. I was half expecting the direction the final part of the novelette takes but Chapman still managed to pull a twist on me that was pretty chilling. I was also high fiving the imaginary reading Monkey I keep tethered to my arm chair with the almost cinematic jump scare Chapman comes out of nowhere with toward the end of the tale, excellent and unexpected work that had me nodding my head in approval.

Throughout the book Greg Chapman shows an economy of word use, a lot of Authors would have extended this tale to novel length losing impact in the process, and an astute use of pacing to get things moving in the direction the Author wants them to go. While there are certainly quick chills coming at the reader the idea is more to build tension and a lingering feeling of unease than to go with simplistic scares. This is one Halloween read that is going to work on your imagination for a long time after you have finished the book.

The only real gripe I have with this book is that it's set in Middle America, somewhere out in that fictional place U.S Authors seem nostalgic for, and is aimed to appeal to North American readers. I would have liked to see it set in Australia, sorry as opposed to every Yank on the planet I would point out Oz does do Halloween - maybe not on the same scale as North America but we have trick and treat, the whole nine yards as the Seppos would say. Of course our Halloween evening is likely to be hot, dry, and brimming with Bogans, as opposed to the winter chill they get up North. But good luck to Greg Chapman regardless, this one should rock the socks off the North Americans; do a sequel in Australia Greg, thanks mate!

So I had a lot of fun with The Last Night Of October and had to stop myself from speed reading the book. Chapman's prose drags you in and the pace keeps you turning the page like a Jack Russell on crack cocaine. Don't let the setting fool you, this novella can be read and enjoyed at anytime of the year, including Christmas, it's not confined to a Halloween morality play. I'm going to give this book a full recommendation, if you have read Chapman before you are really going to enjoy this book, if breaking your Chapman cherry then you are going to be blown away. Grab a copy, read it, and send in your appreciations folks, we'll pass them along to the Author.

So the novel can be sourced through Amazon in either Kindle or print form, or just point your browser at Bad Moon Books and score yourself a trade paperback. In simplistic terms Halloween for a lot of people is going to start with, "Every Halloween, Gerald Forsyth's worst fear would come a-knocking", don't be that loser kid who doesn't know where the quote comes from.