Booker Award-winning author Dermot Nolan has a bad case of writer's block and he's also spent his large advance for a book he hasn't even started. Then a homeless man gives Nolan his manuscript, a work about a man with a therapy website where strangers tell him their biggest fear, or worst nightmare, hoping to be cured of their phobia. Instead, the therapist uses the information to deliver horrifying deaths.
Reading the manuscript, Nolan becomes more confused over whether it's fiction or the diary of an actual serial killer. Either way, he decides to have it published as his own work, and of course, that links him even tighter to its true author. ( )

Really creepy and scary. I was left a little confused at the end and I thought there were some places that the story didn't flow very well, but it kept me interested...and freaked out. ( )

After accepting a big cash advance, award-winning novelist Dermont Nolan has hit a dry spell. Desperate for an idea, he passes off a homeless man's bizarre manuscript called My Worst Nightmare--My Delicious Memoirs as his own work of fiction. Now Dermont may be facing his own worst nightmare as the killings in his book turn out to be real, with him as the prime suspect.

A very creepy, psychological blend of thriller and horror that will keep you turning the pages. Even when you think that you know who is behind Dermont's problems, there are several more twists and turns. ( )

Having nightmare issues? No, problem, go online and log in to worstnightmares.net and tell the Dream Healer all about it. DH is a very good listener, unfortunately, healing isn't one of the options and you will quickly find yourself in a world of hurt. Another brilliant serial killer? Come on, enough already, right? Well this new horror thriller pulls it off, with adding just the right amount of freshness and originality. If you like your Stephen King, with a Thomas Harris chaser, this could be the one! ( )

I don’t read much horror-thriller, but I did enjoy WORST NIGHTMARES—if “enjoy” is the word to describe a novel that’s so vivid, so gruesome, and so well thought-out that I found myself shuddering while reading. The chapters often alternate between Dermot’s third-person point of view and the point of view of the Dream Healer, so that you’re never settled: you’re either in the mind of a merciless, albeit creative, serial killer, or else you’re witness to Dermot’s mental breakdo...more I don’t read much horror-thriller, but I did enjoy WORST NIGHTMARES—if “enjoy” is the word to describe a novel that’s so vivid, so gruesome, and so well thought-out that I found myself shuddering while reading. The chapters often alternate between Dermot’s third-person point of view and the point of view of the Dream Healer, so that you’re never settled: you’re either in the mind of a merciless, albeit creative, serial killer, or else you’re witness to Dermot’s mental breakdown and self-doubts.

There are not that many characters in WORST NIGHTMARES, but those who are present are quite well-drawn for a thriller novel. Of course, its genre practically demands that more attention be paid to the plot than to the characters, but even so, Dermot and his wife Neela’s reactions to an unusual and volatile situation believable and justified. All of the decisions they make—both bad and good—are the result of a very real, very human thought process.

The one major thing I found lacking in this novel was its predictability. Maybe it was just me, but I had my hunch as to who the mastermind behind the killings was about a third of the way through, and, in some of the slower moments, the desire to verify the accuracy of my hunch (I was right) was what kept me going. I’m not a fan of predictability, but if that doesn’t bother you much, and if you allow your mind to shut off just enough to overlook a few other minor flaws—questionable relationship dynamics, occasionally slow pacing, and loose ends—then the issues I had with this book won’t bother you all that much.

All in all, WORST NIGHTMARES is a good read in a genre that’s become increasingly tough to stand out in. It’s not a book I’d have picked up on my own, but fans of horror and thriller novels need to read this Shane Briant standout in order to truly understand it. ( )