Review of The Mysterious Flame by Orrin Grey

The Mysterious Flame is a chapbook published by Dead Letter Press.  It pays homage to the gothic pulp classics from long ago.  The main character of this tale is a golem made of hardened clay named Barnabus.  Barnabus must hide from humans who always react with fear at his inhuman appearance, but secretly he longs for their companionship.  When six young want-to-be archeologists breach an ancient tower, they unwittingly unleash an ancient powerful being.  Narthos is a former monk who turned his back on God and became an undying corpse creature.  He is obsessed with finding Barnabus and uncovering the secrets of his existence.  He has powerful necromantic powers at his disposal and no problem using any means necessary to obtain his goal.  The Mysterious Flame is a concise tale of gothic adventure and horror by author Orrin Grey.  Grey is a fan of Hellboy creator Mike Mignola, in whose universe these characters would be right at home.  I enjoyed the book with my favorite scenes being when the ancient tower is breached and explored (for some reason ancient towers always enthrall me) and a climatic graveyard battle near the end of the story where Barnabus is forced to fight a neat creation of Narthos that I won’t spoil here.  The Mysterious Flame is limited to 100-signed copies that can be ordered from http://departmentofdeadletters.blogspot.com/2009/02/orrin-grey-pays-homage-to-classic.html .

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