Rating: 
Summary: Very good novel with a new premise.
Review: This book was alot better than i had expected it to be. The writer is very good at bulding suspense and make's the story very creepy and unsettling. The characters are all developed very well and are either exteremely good or very evil. I like this approach because it gives us a clear cut rooting interest unlike some other stories where you want to pick up some of the characters and smack them around(Prey by Masterton is an example). My only complaint is the way the book ends after such a build up of excitement and climax. The ending is satisfying until the last four pages when revelations are just thrown out that confuse you completely. I for one had no idea exactly what some of it meant and that frustrates me alittle. However this writer is one to keep a eye on his writing is superb and i look forward to many more books (hopefully with better endings).
Rating: 
Summary: Solid First Novel
Review: This Bram Stoker nominee for first novel is stronger than it's competition ("Atmosphere" by Michael Laimo, etc.). However, with shapeshifters, a religious cult, cannibalism, ghosts, and the second son of God, there is too much happening in this book to take seriously. That being said, I had a good time reading it. Not very scary, but well written. I look forward to more of Scott's work.
Rating: 
Summary: serious chills and suspense
Review: This is a dark story set in the Appalachian mountains, and it really does justice to the old storytelling tradition. Some good scares and involving characters, a great read for those long nights. Just make sure you've got somebody under the covers with you or you might never turn out the lights.
Rating:
Summary: A Promising Start
Review: Whispering Pines, North Carolina has a grim secret in its past. During the painful throes of the American Civil War, local preacher Wendell McFall went stark raving mad. The good reverend took advantage of the high death toll among the local population to start launching jeremiads about how Jesus betrayed God by spreading venomous ideas about love and tolerance. Not content to leave well enough alone, McFall took his bizarre theology even further, claiming that another Son of God, a second son, would arrive to deliver the human race. This messiah wouldn't come preaching the kingdom of heaven, but the need for horrific sacrifice on the part of humanity. McFall went so over the top that he actually painted his church red and sacrificed a local child on the altar. The parishioners, fed up with McFall's increasingly weird beliefs, strung good old Wendell up on the branches of the dogwood tree in front of the church thus seeming to put an end to the madness once and for all. Flash forward to the present, or four generations after the events of Wendell McFall's day. The red church, now used as a warehouse for hay, still stands as a mute reminder of the horrors of yesterday. Ronnie and Tim Day, the sons of Linda and David Day, run into a spot of trouble when they discover a horribly mutilated body in the graveyard near the church. What the two boys do not realize is that this forbidding discovery is the opening gambit of one Archer McFall, descendent of Wendell and himself a preacher returning home from a dark past in California. Archer plans to reopen the red church, to start the midnight services again in order to preach to the descendents of the families who lynched Wendell McFall. Throw in a local sheriff with a guilt complex over his dead brother Samuel, a hard-nosed female cop with no tolerance for supernatural beliefs, several grisly murders, a ranting old lady who claims she immaculately conceived a child, cannibalism, and a good old fashioned Bell Monster and you have the essential elements of this technically flawed but fascinating debut novel from Scott Nicholson. "The Red Church" works on many levels. There are some great gore scenes in the book, as well as genuinely frightening moments when Ronnie and Tim take center stage. Moreover, character development, while hazy at times, works very well when Nicholson brings in Sheriff Frank Littlefield and his fellow officer Sergeant Sheila Storie. Littlefield forms one of the novel's core subplots, namely his brother Samuel and the guilt he has over his brother's death. The author further defines the sheriff by placing him in opposition to Storie, who believes none of the happenings in Whispering Pines involve Archer McFall or old spook stories about a haunted church. Her reliance on quantitative evidence brings sharper focus to Frank's knowledge about what is really going on in town. By the end of the story, Frank and Sheila start seeing eye to eye, which further develops both characters. Ronnie also receives much attention from the author, who uses the child as a platform for debating theological points about the nature of Jesus and God. The conclusion completely works, with many twists and turns constantly taking the reader by surprise. This novel does have certain inherent flaws, mostly related to organizational and editing errors. For example, during the strange experiences that take place after Archer holds the first service in the reopened church the author tells us at least twice that dawn is ready to break on the horizon. This is an incredible statement because from the feel of the two events, both of which are widely separated in time, it should not even be close to dawn. Another continuity error occurs when Frank walks into the church during the final showdown with Archer, but amazingly walks inside again a few pages later without his having left after the first entrance. These are very minor quibbles because the pacing is fine and the conclusion is a slam-bang homerun. I think this book got under my skin a bit more than other horror novels because when I was a kid stories floated around here about an old church sitting on a dirt road a few miles from my house. Between the resurrection of that old childhood fear and the ultra cool ending (which resembles Dean Koontz's "Phantoms" in more ways than one), I would say that Scott Nicholson is well on his way to a successful career in the horror genre. I see that he has a new novel coming out in September called "The Harvest." Hopefully, that book will embrace many of the great ideas expressed in "The Red Church" while excising some of the abovementioned editing flaws.
Rating:
Summary: Great atmosphere but a let-down in the end
Review: Without repeating the synopses that other reviewers have written, I do credit Mr. Nicholson with creating a great mood for his novel. The premise and setting have promise and I found myself avoiding reading the novel late at night due to the mood it evoked. However, the characters are somewhat shallow and very predictable. The ending leaves a very empty, unsatisfied feeling. Things get wrapped up too simply and neatly without a clear idea of why the characters were put through the travails that they suffered. The craftsmanship here is promising but the end product prevents it from being a stand-out. Now that the book is available in paperback, it's worth the buy to see for yourself.
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