Book "The Metal Black" by Gary Ballard

About the Book: When forensic psychologist Dr. Jack Carter returned to consciousness, he and his wife, Sarah, had been missing for over a year. With no memory of their last days together, Jack became the prime suspect in her disappearance. Vowing to search for her to the ends of the earth, he is drawn to the site of a gruesome double murder in small-town Mississippi. Two normal teenage boys with no history of violence slaughtered two girls named Sarah in an occult ritual and their jailhouse confession idolizes the lyrics of a song by doom metal band The Metal Black. Blaming the teen’s violence on the song’s macabre lyrics, their grieving mother brings a lawsuit against the band. Brought on to the case as an impartial psychological consultant, Jack finds eerie similarities between the song’s descriptions of the violent death of a woman named Sarah, his wife’s disappearance and the teen murders. When Jack meets the songwriter, he discovers a mystery beneath the sleepy town that causes him to question his own fragile sanity.

About the Author: At the age of eleven, Mr. Ballard began creating his own fictional worlds and inhabiting those worlds with eccentric characters. As an artist, graphic designer, musician and author, he has spent decades enumerating a unique evolving vision of an absurd universe. His first four novels comprise a cyberpunk series called The Bridge Chronicles starring the amoral fixer of future Los Angeles, Artemis Bridge. The Bridge Chronicles in turn is one slice of cohesive universe that began as a pen-and-paper roleplaying game. Gary has recently begun a new series of novellas based on the Cthulhu Mythos made famous by H.P. Lovecraft called The Stepping Stone Cycle.

My Review: This is the second episode of the Stepping Stone Series. In the first episode we learnt that Dr. Jack Carter was in catatonic state for over a year when he recovers conscience just to find out that he is the primary suspect in his wife disappearance. As there is no body he is not charged with the murder, so he resume his work as a forensic psychologist and continues investigating the disappearance of his wife. A double murder in a small town in Mississippi brings him into contact with a young rock music writer from a band named Metal Black. His lyrics are very dark an in one lyric he describes the death of a woman named Sarah (Jack's wife name). Two young boy's were charged with the murder of two girls named Sarah and their mother sues the band blaming that their lyrics influenced the boys to commit the crimes. When Jack starts to investigate the case, he came across some quite strange situation that changes his view on the power of the stepping stones.
This is a very interesting sequence to the original story, very well written and entertaining, that will keep the reader hooked until the turn of the last page. I still want to read more episodes from this series.
I recommend this book to any reader who loves mystery books. You will not be disappointed.

I received a copy from the author for reviewing and I was not requested to write a positive review. Opinion expressed here is my own.

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