This book was originally released as “The Ignoble Nobel Prize Winner: A Tale of Andor”.

A new journalist finds himself on assignment to interview a reclusive mathematician, only for the interviewee to tell him that he sold his soul for his famous discovery. The journalist is still laughing when the demon tries to collect. Something he’s been trying for nearly 50 years…

If this is horror it is action horror in the vein of Resident Evil. Rather than suspense or creping horror, it quickly devolves into man against demonic beetle army, and as the main characters have obviously dealt with this before, when even the young journalist quickly adapts to take things in their stride it doesn’t feel like a real threat. It is the simple problem that if the characters who are present are not afraid, why should the readers reading about it be?

While it is too much fun to be horror, Resident Evil certainly has an audience and so does this book. After all, it made me use the phrase “demonic beetle army” in a review, which will definitely attract a certain set of readers. The writing is good, the story moves along nicely, the formatting and grammar fine, and the cover somewhat misleading (I’m not sure where the red eyes come from as insects have compound eyes) but fits the book completely. I rather hope for a sequel with the ongoing evasion attempts of the elderly non-bargain keeper and his allies. I’d also like to know how he recruits new nurses, because that has to be the panel interview from hell, possibly literally.

This has horror elements and is definitely not a book for insect-phobic, but devoted horror fans might find it a little light on the shocks. It definitely has an audience though as Action readers might find this great fun: warding off an army of insect with improvised weapons is right up their street.