Guido Henkel

Demon’s Night is the first volume in Guido Henkel’s dime novel series based on a paranormal investigator in Victorian London. Guido contacted me to review a few installments of the series, and I was immediately interested due to the gothic setting and paranormal / horror plot.

Jason Dark (great name, right?) is a Sherlock Holmes-like character. He’s a ghost hunter that comes from a very long line of ghost hunters, aka Geisterjägers. He’s a kind gentleman with manners and eloquent show more speech, but don’t let his looks deceive you. Dark can hold his own in a dark alley, and he has a kick ass cane sword!

The opening to the story was creepy! The demon in question begins the story in a gaseous state and needs to steal life essence in order to become corporeal. He manages to suck the life right out of three characters, and leaves behind withered, dried-up, husks, with bulging eyes. Gruesome!

I really enjoyed reading the descriptions of Victorian London, the gothic setting, the mannerisms, language and clothing of the time. Guido has great descriptive writing. One scene I particularly loved was when the demon possessed a carriage driver. We got a great picture of what this hellish creature looked like via a human shell, and it was frightening! Guido also did great with the fight scenes, which I enjoyed immensely.

Under unfortunate circumstances, Dark meets Siu Lin, a young Chinese woman, early in the story. She was my favorite character, as I thoroughly enjoy Asian cultures and was happy to see that Guido incorporated some Chinese paranormal lore into the story. Siu Lin was also a serious Martial Artist, and her fight scenes were some of the best moments.

This first installment in the series packed a punch. I look forward to reading more! show less

Where I got the book: purchased on Kindle.

Guido Henkel did my ebook formatting but I bought his book so I could give it a try on my own—which he heartily encourages. And having read through it, I’m pretty confident I have the information I need to turn out a professionally formatted ebook. Henkel takes the reader through the various stages needed to produce an ebook free of errors and fit to display on any ereader, no matter how old. Which means, as you’d guess, that this is a show more back-to-basics approach that gets down to the html and css, and gives you clear and simple instructions on how to produce a straightforward fiction ebook with just a few little flourishes to make your chapter headings and such look nice. If you’re looking for instructions on how to format anything more complex than that, you might want to look elsewhere—or you might want to simply read this book anyway to get a grasp on why the ereader world really isn’t ready yet for the kind of snazziness you can achieve with print.

Furthermore, you get the lowdown from the point of view of both a programmer and a print fanatic, since Henkel is both. Having learned basic html years ago, I’m pretty sure I would have gone wrong with respect to sizing up fonts if I hadn’t read Henkel’s explanation of how to do it right.

My only gripe is that there’s no paperback version, because now I’m going to have to go through it again and write my own instruction sheet with just the bits of code I need for my purposes. Eh, that’s not such a big deal. This ebook is much easier to follow than Henkel’s blog, where for years he’s made this information available for free, so if you want to try your hand at formatting your ebooks I recommend making this very small investment in your business. show less

Curse of Kali: A Jason Dark Supernatural Mystery by Guido Henkel is another very enjoyable novella about the 19th century London ghost and demon battling detective and his strikingly beautiful partner, Siu Lin. This mystery has Jason and Siu Lin working with a very pompous Sherlock Holmes, and his sidekick Dr. Watson, to help Inspector Lestrade solve the beheading of John Balderston in his large aristocratic London home. Holmes quickly declares that there was nothing supernatural about the show more murder and identifies the murderer. However, Jason Dark, Siu Lin, and Inspector Lestrade take another look at the Balderston house later that night and find themselves under attack by murderous supernatural entities. This is the ninth novella in this series that I have read and I recommend all of them to readers who like supernatural mysteries. I like the nineteenth-century-London setting of these novellas. I like the occasional inclusion of other well-known nineteenth-century characters like Sherlock Holmes. I particularly like the engaging characters of Jason Dark and Siu Lin and the creative stories that Mr. Henkel crafts in these novellas. What could be more enticing than a detective team that pursues supernatural villains and monsters in nineteenth-century London. show less

Dr. Prometheus is the fifth installment in the Jason Dark: Ghost Hunter novella series by Guido Henkel. This is a very enjoyable series that takes the reader to Victorian (19th century) London, where Jason Dark investigates heinous supernatural crimes and eliminates the venomous villains. His case this time brings him into battle with Dr. Prometheus, who steals recently deceased bodies and raises them from death. As usual for this series, there is plenty of grisly action, and it seems show more impossible that Jason Dark will survive. Like the other installments, this is a fun read. However, I believe this is my least favorite volume thus far. First, I was disappointed that Siu Lin did not play a major role in this story. Second, I enjoyed the sinister, violent, life-threatening suspense of this story very much, until the conclusion. I just did not like the conclusion. However, it was still worth reading, and many readers will probably not be bothered by Siu Lin’s minor role and many will probably like the ending. show less