25 reasons ....

You just got a new Kindle or Nook? Here are 25 reasons why you should make The Caretaker of Lorne Field, which is available in either hardcover, Kindle e-book, or Nook e-book, your next read.

1) Finalist for the 2010 Black Quill Award for best dark genre book of the year.

2) Reader's Advisor list of Best Horror Books of 2010

3) BookReporter.com's Best Books of 2010

"Possibly the most haunting tale I’ve encountered this year. I had forgotten how much I missed August Derleth until I read this. It establishes Zeltserman as one of our most diversified and talented writers."

4) Book critic Chauncey Mabe's favorite books of 2010

"If H.P. Lovecraft collaborated with Jim Thompson, the result would be something like this foray into horror from a writer best known for noir crime fiction. Dread, suspicion, paranoia and a completely new variety of monster combine in a highly original effort."

5) Bookgasm book critic Bruce Grossman's top read of 2010.

6) Author Roger Smith's top 5 books of 2010.

7) Author Paul Tremblay's best books of 2010.

"Small New England town has hired a dude to weed this one field for generations. If he doesn’t weed the field, the weeds grow into monsters and we’re all dead in a week. Or the dude is nuts. Dave takes this twilight-zone set up, sprinkles noir, and plays the reader like a fiddle until the very last page. You can’t help but love this book."

8) Author Joe McKinney's favorite reads of 2010

"An extremely funny book. Zeltserman has made a name for himself as a writer of intense psychologically-driven crime fiction, making this rural horror story a bit of a departure…but I’m so glad he made it. I hadn’t gone twenty pages into this book before I knew it was going to make this list. Good old fashioned hardcover for this one, and worth every penny."

9) Author Nate Southland's top book of 2010

"Once in a great while, you find a book that makes you read it, that just forces you to keep turning pages until you’re finished. This is one of them. Jack Durkin is the caretaker of Lorne Field. The town thinks he’s a crazy man who spends every day weeding the same field, but he insists the things he pulls out of the ground and burns are monsters that will destroy the world within weeks if he doesn’t take care of them first. Zeltserman keeps you guessing right up to the last page, wondering if Durkin is telling the truth or is stark raving mad. This is the one, folks. An amazing novel that will leave you breathless."

10) Patricia Abbott's Best of Whatever

"The tenth generation caretaker of Lorne Field pushes on despite the town’s disbelief in his mission to save them from a terrible fate. Not a misplaced word or emotion in this terrific horror story."

11) Naomi Johnson's Best of Whatever

"A classic, and that's all there is to it."

12) Kieran Shea's Best of Whatever

13) "Superb mix of humor and horror" Publishers Weekly, starred review

14) "superbly crafted horror story" Booklist

15) "Harrowing. Zeltserman colors it black with the best of them." Kirkus Reviews

16) "The black comedy of errors that ensues invites comparison to storiesby Kafka, David Prill, James Hynes, William Browning Spencer, and other authors who have mused on the dark side of daily breadwinning... Though Zeltserman's approach is clearly tongue-in- cheek, he deftly balances the competing interests of the characters to keep the truth of the narrative events ambiguous. A few deaths at conveniently inopportune moments and several coincidental fades to black only add to the dramatic tension of the narrative. Stories of this kind are hard to pull off and often collapse under the weight of their outrageous premises long before they end. It's to Zeltserman's credit that his novel holds together up to and through the final paragraph, and that it compels the reader to stay with it for that long." -- LOCUS Magazine

17) "Crime writer Zeltserman has produced a nail-biter...The narrative is straightforward and gritty, reminiscent of works of Dashiell Hammett...gripping and actually 'horrifying,' this title is recommended for horror fans and readers who may relish unpleasant surprises." -- Library Journal

18) "Compared to how artfully Dave Zeltserman handles the similar question of reality or psychosis in his 2010 novel The Caretaker of Lorne Field, [Stephen] King never rises above pulp fiction."-- Boston Globe

19) "Delicious horror-ish novel...Zeltserman is fully in control." -- Newsday (Long Island)

20) "If Stephen King had a true Noir calling and Peter Straub added contemporary horror... and Dean Koontz threw in his fine depiction of ordinary life on the edge of the unknown... then bring the specter of James M. Cain to write the narrative, you'd come close to describing the whole effect of this stunning slice for the zeitgeist wondrous novel and the writing is... pure dark bliss." -- Ken Bruen, author of London Boulevard

21) The Caretaker of Lorne Field has a wonderful mix of the tragic obsolescence of “Death of a Salesman’s” Willie Loman, the fantastical vision of Serling’s Twilight Zone, and the rural, gothic vibe of a Manly Wade Wellman tale. But along with this unique mishmash of themes and subtle undercurrents of humor and religiosity, it has a pulsing emotional core that immediately draws the reader in. Spinetingler Magazine (Ron Clinton)

22) "It’s a bold move for the author to make, but one that pays off big in the end. With his easy-reading narrative and skill at constantly forcing the reader to grow more and more involved in Jack Durkins’s plight, The Caretaker of Lorne Field starts off as a speedy story and soon becomes gut-clencher that might give you whiplash from turning the pages so fast." Spinetingler Magazine (Tom Piccirilli)

23) "The eerie and frightening aspects of the novel are woven tightly into the human drama never taking center stage over the trials and tribulations of Jack Durkin. Landing somewhere at the intersection of social commentary, horror, and family drama The Caretaker of Lorne Field is a wholly enjoyable novel that is difficult to put down. If you’re looking for new and interesting fiction to read that is a bit off the beaten path I highly recommend the uniformly excellent The Caretaker of Lorne Field." King of the Nerd's

24) "If you put Shirley Jackson’s “The Lottery” and any Stephen King novel in a blender, the result would be something like The Caretaker of Lorne Field." George Kelley

25) "In a word--superb." Steven Riddle, A Momentary Taste of Being