Dawn of Broken Glass (Book)
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Written by Gordon Anthony Bean
Published by Guardian of Forever Publishing
Fast-paced and unputdownable, Canadian author Gordon Anthony Bean’s first novel is a roller coaster ride filled with Jewish mysticism, WWII history, vengeance, blood (LOTS of blood), kidnapping, murder, sinister characters, a mysterious and isolated Maine mansion with a horrifying secret and a monster unlike anything most of us have seen lately.
Dawn of Broken Glass, for history buffs, is a reference to Kristallnacht, or “Night of Broken Glass,” a series of several nights back in November 1938 when Nazi storm troopers systematically broke the windows of Jewish-owned businesses, synagogues and Jewish homes while also murdering or gathering up Jews, shipping thousands to concentration camps.
In Bean’s story young Michael Carson witnesses the brutal murder of his entire family at the hands of three storm troopers and vows vengeance on them, even if it takes him the rest of his life.
Fast forward to the present day, and an old, sick Carson has finally made good on his vow. Living in an isolated Maine mansion, he has gathered together, by kidnapping, all of the last surviving family members of those three storm troopers. And he has a horrific plan in store for them.
A white supremacist, several families with older children, some single women, an authority on WWII atrocities committed by the Germans – all told, eleven people are gathered at Carson’s mansion and are introduced to his grandson, Ryan, who proceeds to inform the victims of the fate in store for them in a booby-trapped maze that Carson has had built far beneath his home. However, Ryan Carson neglects to mention the pièce de resistance his grandfather has for his little group of victims: a horrifyingly unstoppable golem.
Released to fend for themselves and hopefully find their way out of the maze, the group members begin to split up and meet bloodily horrific deaths in the maze. But the booby traps they fall victim to are nothing compared to what happens when the golem is activated by Carson, who created it.
The golem is a creature which only recently has been appearing in horror novels and films although an early silent film entitled Der Golem might just be the first recorded instance of using this creation of Jewish mysticism for entertainment purposes. Of course, there was an episode of “The X-Files” about a golem entitled “Kaddish” (Episode 4.15), and a recent episode of “Sleepy Hollow” had a golem in it as well, but this creature has just not been given the respect such a horrific thing deserves. In Bean’s talented hands, however, the golem is a force to be reckoned with, and the fates of those who encounter it will give gorehound readers the SERIOUSLY bloody deaths they so love.
Gore, body parts, revenge, murder, characters the reader will care about, a mysterious villain who works with Carson, the maze and its booby traps, the golem and an ending that will shock you… Bean has done it all and in spades. He is currently working on his second novel, and if it is anything like his first, he is definitely a horror writer to keep an eye on.
4 out of 5
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