The War Beneath by S.R. Hughes

A BarksBeachesBooks Review

The War Beneath = Chaos Inliterate

In The War Beneath, a former forensic psychologist is slowly spiraling downward. Having hit rock bottom after his daughter’s death and his sudden ability to hear the whispers of dead people, Paul is now living in a boat house in Oceanrest, Maine. Um, where? The broke and broken city on Maine’s coast where those with magical powers are drawn in larger numbers than anywhere else in the world.

Trying to ignore his past (and the voices) he befriends Deirdre who sells him psychological downers from her, let’s face it, magic apothecary. But on his latest visit, an intruder arrives and takes everything Deirdre has worked for. This puts both their lives in danger in more ways than just the obvious as targets of a robbery.

Deirdre and Paul decide they have to get the product back and start to track down Randall, the man who has essentially ruined Dierdre’s life. Of course, there are A LOT more threats than just the wrath of Randall. There’s the company Deirdre works for who want their product. There’s the dead people who are getting more intense every minute Paul doesn’t have his downers (including his daughter’s ghost and an eyeless ghost asking for help). There is the life of Deirdre’s dear friend Razz and other friends pulled in. There is the detective who’s involvement is suspect considering he is intruding on Paul’s off the record investigation into old (and solved) crimes.

This book is action packed. I mean, think of a war movie where every other scene is a bunch of explosions. I’m talking Harry Potter meets [insert intense action war movie you like because I don’t watch those]. Paul is constantly getting knocked down and the only reason he gets back up is for Deirdre.

Deirdre is a complete badass. She is saving everyone left and right and just basically running the show. And because what would a book with magical elements be without a creature, there is a beast. Guess who handles this? There are demons awoken. Guess who handles this? Paul is dying due to gunshot wounds. Guess who handles this? Honestly this might be one of the best and most well-written female characters I’ve seen in a while.

The only thing that would have made it better for me would have been more interaction with the ghosts, namely Cassandra, Paul’s late daughter. There was something happening there and Paul definitely had unfinished business with his daughter. However, this could have also been a genius move on Mr. Hughes’ part as the book was nicely wrapped up but still with a lead into a second book. Is this a series? TBD.

*I received a copy for free from TLC Book Tours and S.R. Hughes in exchange for an honest review.*

***About The War Beneath***

“There is a war going on behind things, beneath them.”

Paul had been a forensic psychologist. But after his daughter’s funeral, he hit the rock bottom of a spiraling addiction. When the spirits of the dead started rasping their wishes in his ears, he fled New York for withering Oceanrest—a flat-broke city barnacled to Maine’s coast. There, he’s spent the last five years scraping by, trying to shake off the burdens of his past, pretending to be a man without context, without history, without the secret ability to speak with the dead. But soon, all of that will be taken away from him.

Deirdre’s spent the past fourteen years as a resident of Squatter City—the most distal and dilapidated of Oceanrest’s gangrenous appendages. Growing and harvesting a hydroponic farm of mystic flora and esoteric plantlife, she’s built a business as a drug dealer and apothecary. After years of relative peace, Deirdre’s life finally seems tenable. But when one of her regular clients double-crosses her, what little serenity she’s discovered quickly unravels.

Deirdre and Paul soon find themselves under attack from criminals and cultists, on the run from Quebecois mobsters, Aryan Nationalists, and a group of young men who seem dedicated to a cause of brutality and destruction on an apocalyptic scale.

S. R. Hughes inhabits the glittering darknesses between dreams but writes from Queens, NY. He’s been published in Sanitarium, the Wild Hunt eZine, and has had stories featured on several podcasts.

Find out more about him at his website, and follow him on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter.