Red Right Hand

By: Levi Black

Narrated by: Allyson Johnson

Length: 7 hrs and 50 mins

Publisher's summary

Charlie Tristan Moore isn't a hero. She's a survivor. Already wrestling with the demons of her past, she is tested as never before when she arrives home one night to find herself under attack by three monstrous skinhounds straight out of a nightmare. Just as hope seems lost, she is saved by the sinister Man in Black, dressed in a long, dark coat that seems to possess a life of its own and wielding a black-bladed sword in his grisly red right hand.

But her rescue comes at a cost. The Man in Black, a diabolical Elder God, demands she become his Acolyte and embrace a dark magick she never knew she possessed. To ensure her obedience, he takes her friend and possible love, Daniel, in thrall as a hostage. Now she must join The Man in Black in his crusade to track down and destroy his fellow Elder Gods, supposedly to save humanity from being devoured for all eternity.

But is The Man in Black truly the lesser of two evils - or a menace far more treacherous than the eldritch horrors she's battling in his name?

©2016 James R. Tuck (P)2016 Audible, Inc.

Critic reviews

"Red Right Hand is a perfect blend of old-school horror and modern storytelling sorcery. Levi Black is absolutely riveting!" (Jonathan Maberry, New York Times best-selling author of Predator One)

The book may be fine but the narrator is not

I thought the book sounded interested and from the snippet I got, it is. The issue is that the narrator sounds too old, too cold and too formal for the young female protagonist and the gory descriptions within the book. This disconnect makes it hard to engage. I quit when the narrator made an eldrich abomination sound like it was talking through a mouth full of food. The No Sleep Podcast has plenty of similar stories told by believable and talented female narrators. I think they should have gotten one of them. Since they didn't, I recommend listening to that podcast over this. In a weird way, even male narrator McCloud Andrews would have been better because he can convey emotion, youth and horror well in his narration and female characters.

Pretty good

The narrator can't do male voices well, but that is my only complaint. The story is good.

Hybrid “Cthulhu Mythos" & “Romance Novel”

RED RIGHT HAND
By Levi Black • A tough female perspective on a mythos tale. Refreshing. She’s not a scientist, occultist, professor of antiquities, nor is she a helpless woman looking for some MAN to save her. • I dig it. • Levi Black balances the story between Horror & comedy for the first bit. • Then… the hot young sexy (yet sexually nonthreatening) “L O V E I N T E R E S T” enters. • Feelings are discussed. • Past history & fears are faced with honesty & love. • RED RIGHT HAND becomes a hybrid of a “ROMANCE NOVEL” and “CTHULHU MYTHOS”. • Well, that’s a new one. • Terrible, right guys? • WELLLL… STILL.... Once I was in Vegas with friends. We got really f-ked up. I purchased what I thought was horror novel in the hotel’s gift shop - It wasn’t. it was a “Romance Book” set in a horror setting. Sexy girl with demon powers fighting hoards of darkness with a sexy police detective investigating the murders she leaves. Yeah, I know. • BUT WAIT A MINUTE. I was still really messed up. I was polluted to the gills & searching for reality. I totally fell for all the emotional sappy stuff. I cried. I felt her struggles to express her fears & ask for love. (SNIF) I loved that book. • NARRATOR - good female narrator, but, like most female narrators she strains her voice lower to do the voice of a male character, let alone the deep frightening voice of the CRAWLING CHAOS. It knocks you out of the story every time she tries to do a male voice. Not sure if the answer would be two narrators, that can be tricky, & expensive. Perhaps, just make the female character a gay male character. Keep the romance with the handsome sexy guy, & then you only need have one male narrator to do all the voices. EASY FIX.
• So, RED RIGHT HAND’s OK, however, I was just too damn SOBER to enjoy it. • I'm OLD MAN PARKER & I'm sorry, but I can’t recommend this book... UNLESS your consciousness is altered & you need something to help bring you safely back through suicide Tuesday.

At best Lovecraftian fan fiction

The plot is non-existent, the characters are lacking in depth and complexity, and the vilian(s) are mutilated forms of Lovecraft's antagonists. Reads like a teenagers fantasy of how they would be accepted into the rank and file of the Cthulhu mythos.

Lovecraftian horror not for me.

The bases of this book is from the author H.P. Lovecraft. “Lovecraftian horror is a subgenre of horror fiction that emphasizes the cosmic horror of the unknown (and in some cases, unknowable) more than gore or other elements of shock, though these may still be present. The hallmark of Lovecraft’s work is cosmicism: the sense that ordinary life is a thin shell over a reality which is so alien and abstract in comparison that merely contemplating it would damage the sanity of the ordinary person.”

Charlie Tristan Moore (the protagonist) is forced to be an Acolyte for the Lovecraft character, Nyarlathotep, he is an Elder God and Lord of Chaos. ***spoiler ***Charlie is able to see and interact with the veil. She acquired this from her maternal connection to Lovecraft. This ability drove Lovecraft mad (in this story only). Only a Lovecraft has this ability, which has to be activated.

Nyarlathotep as an elder god, does not like to share his toys. Humans are his and he is not finished playing with them. He needs to kill some other Elder Gods, because they have plans to eradicate humans from earth. This book is so steeped in the Lovecraftian universe that I have to research it to understand the nuances of the story. As a rule, I read for entertainment. If I was more familiar (discounting the narrator was horrendous) with that world, I would have enjoyed a modern version the Lovecraft universe As it was, I found it tedious.

nearly unintelligible

I wish it wasn't so hard to get a refund from this service. just another wasted credit.

like a fanfiction written by a highschool student

Frustratingly insipid protagonist.
Poor understanding of Lovecraft's mythos.
Repetitive use of identical similes and cringey dialogue.