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Blood Work cover art

Blood Work

By: Jeff Johnston
Narrated by: Edison McDaniels
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Summary

Reverend Blake Hardesty has lived the life of Job. His parents were killed in a fire when he was seven. The aunt who raised him died just before he graduated from the seminary. His wife was killed during a bank robbery only a year ago. And a diagnosis of brain cancer is only the latest in a long line of hardships he’s had to endure. Yet he continues to preach faith in God to a dwindling congregation, sharing his life with his teenage daughter, Bethany, who seems to blame him for her mother’s death. If it weren’t for the angel who protects him from the beast who fills his dreams, he would be completely alone. But when trying to help a disturbed congregant makes him the victim of a vicious attack, he realizes that the angel may not be able to protect him any longer from the beast - the wolf - that is now growing inside him.

Scott Draven has been looking for a higher power all his life. He thought he’d found a path to the Almighty via Bluejay and his followers, and his message of power through cannibalism. With each meal, Draven’s powers grow, changing him into a new being and, he’s convinced, bringing him even closer to God. One more home invasion, one more family on whom to feed, and then it will be time for him to move on from Bluejay. But when Scott learns about the man who can change into a beast, he knows he must find him. He is convinced that communion with him will be the final step he needs to find God and gain ultimate power. 

When the two finally meet, tragedy pushes Blake over the edge and into the arms of the beast. The werewolf - the lycanthrope - has been in existence for thousands of years, as much a child of God as any human, or any of his creatures. And now, while Blake, in his new form, is intent on using the time he has left to be God’s ultimate warrior against those who prey on the weak and innocent, Scott Draven is more determined than ever to track Blake down, this time to devour him, and make the creature’s power his own. No matter what it takes.

©2022 Jeff Johnston (P)2022 David N. Wilson

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Far Better Than I Expected

Reverend Blake Havesty has lived a life of great loss. As a child his parents had died in a house fire, and the aunt who took him in joined them a week before his graduation. Then, years later, his wife also met an untimely end when she visited their local bank moments before armed robbers entered the building. So when he is diagnosed with brain cancer it seemed nothing less than a confirmation of his cursed status. At least this is how his parishioners took it, making the final indignity the death of the very church he had served for so many years.

But then there is a call to a local woman who has taken a hostage, a woman who he knew well from his parish, and this encounter starts Reverend Blake Havesty on a voyage of discovery and horror that makes all of his previous pains pale into insignificance.


The first thing I did when finishing Blood Work was do an internet search for its author, Jeff Johnston. In recent years there have been a great many horror novels from the 70’s and 80’s reprinted, introducing me to many old authors I had missed even though I was a voracious reader of horror back then. So I did this search in order to confirm the absolute certainty I had that Jeff Johnston was one such author. I expected him to have a list of titles, probably printed in the mid eighties, perhaps maybe the nineties, but certainly no later.

Blood Work, I found out, was released in 2022. Not RE-released, no, but RELEASED.

Blood Work is far too good a book to be written by a modern horror author, and - as a writer myself - I say this with no small amount of annoyance (note to self: raise your game!). It is written by someone with a real understanding of the craft, with an intricate eye for detail and a surgeon's hand for cutting what is unnecessary. The characters are fully formed, and surprisingly complex for a genre tale. In fact, I felt while reading Blood Work that this was one of those rare books that transcended the horror genre. It speaks of faith in God and faith in humanity, and how the one often strengthens or diminishes the other. It asks the question whether a man infected by a monster can still have any such faith, or whether someone intimately connected with the horrors that others perpetuate can cultivate either kind of faith.

None of this means that it shys away from the meat and bones of what gives horror its bite. There’s plenty of horror to be beheld in Blood Work. Blake Havesty may be a reverend, but inside him is a very real monster that is fighting to escape his body, but this isn’t the biggest monster in Blood Work. There is a gang of cannibals eating their way through families. They see themselves as modern vampires seeking their own connection with god, each night taking part in a perverse version of communion. Both this family and Havestry have a blood connection that draws them together, and the reader knows that when they meet they certainly will not become friends.

I read a considerable amount of horror, and I also try to write a significant amount as well, and I rarely find what I read genuinely horrific, often I could not even describe them as unsettling. Blood Work is, I think, both.

Throughout the book Havesty is aware of something inside him trying to take over, but he has no idea whether it is his brain cancer distorting the world around him or something more. He dreams of his dead wife, then he begins to see her in his waking hours. She takes the form of an angel, and acts as a barrier between him and the beast inside him, at least at first. As the story unfolds Havesty’s certainty is constantly challenged, as is his faith, not only by those strange occurrences in the world around him but also by those changes he feels within.

The ending is not entirely unexpected, but it feels fulfilling and complete, as well as having just enough surprise to keep you riveted to the end. What the reader is left with is a tale that has similarities to many they may have read or seen before, but with enough depth to make it unique. For this reader it was a riveting experience, and I hope to see more from the author in the future.

Finally, there is a “note about the author” at the end of the book. It explains that he had written many previous books, but all in genres that I would not be familiar with, not to mention genres very far removed from this one.

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Holy Werewolf

First off I will say that this was a good book, well written and the first book I've read from author Jeff Johnston.

The loose story is based around a Reverand and his family in a small town, which has recently been struck by a spat of brutal killings. Soon the Rev. and his family are caught in the middle.

As mentioned already the story is pretty good, and there were a few positive surprises in the book. However, I thought by the end the story was dragging a little and the ending was pretty predictable. The other thing I will mention is that there seemed to be a lot of "preechy" writing in the book. I know the main character was a holy man, but many characters in the book seemed to be "having internal conversations with God", it seemed a bit much.

The book was naratted by Edison McDaniels. He does have a voice that reminded me of Droopy the Dog, but that isn't a bad thing. He suited the book and reads well.


*I received this book for free in return for an honest and unbiased review.

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Gory, dark and shocking..love it.

Disclaimer: I was provided a copy of this audiobook free of charge in exchange for an honest review.

I love werewolf books but I have found that they're always written as either brainless brutes or paranormal romance partners and so I was really pleased to see the way this one was portrayed. Not going into story details, we have a man of the cloth accept an internal darkness and become a dark punisher of the evils of this world due to the weight of suffering he has experienced throughout his life. Throw in cannibalistic murderers who's horrendous acts are written in a very graphic and open manner and you have a really good, messy horror story,

Narration wise, I took a little while to warm to Edison's voice but soon found his timbre and style and I found he really suited tthe cast and the graphic style of the book.

Not recommended for those who are easily offended, upset by death of children or rape but a brilliantly dark book.

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I can't

It seems like a good story but all I picture in my mind is droopy dog reading a book so honestly I can't tell you anything I've listened to. I'm laughing to hard to pay attention. I can only see droopy standing there with his hands behind his back talking directly to me. It's a good story but I don't think I can finish. If you can get past a little beagle reading a story then stick with it.

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