This is a collection of Karl Wagner´s short stories. Originally published in 1983 it is quite rare and hard to get. If you don´t want to pay a ransom.
Introduction by Peter StraubIn the Pines After an accident claimed the life of his child and crippled his wife, Gerard Randall is taking a vacation. The cabin in the woods of Tennessee is cheap. Randall discovers the painting of a girl, which is connected to a tale of murder. As the resentment for his wife rises, he starts seeing the girl´s ghost. Which may have already driven another resident to suicide.
The atmosphere of the lonely pine woods is the backdrop for a standard ghost tale. The end isn´t really a surprise, still it is quite an effective little tale, showing one of Wagner´s recurring themes, american backwoods as plot.
Where the Summer endsMercer is an artist in Knoxville, living with his girl-friend/model Linda in a run-down area. Money is short. Mercer is acquainted with garbage collector Gradie who owns a dump. Everybody is drinking too much. There are some unexplained murders in the vicinity, mostly winos. And the kudzu claims those vacant lots and gardens. Gradie has the skull of a japanese general, a war-trophy; which of course looks more like the skull of a misshapen monkey. Or is it a rat? The kudzu is teeming with big rats. But are they really rats? Mercer finds out. At his own peril.
A slow moving tale, which on one hand is anchored in it´s 80s period with the themes of urban decay, vagrants, drugs and the seemingly japanese invasion. But it is also a marvelous written piece full of rich atmosphere and urban terror. And the notion that unwholesome things may lurk in the overgrown abandoned lot´s full of garbage is truly scary.
SticksJust before artist Leverett gets drafted in WWII he does a trip in the woods. He finds those strange man-made lattice structures made out of sticks. Later he stumbles upon a ruin where he finds even more of the sticks and a kind of altar in the cellar, complete with a scary guy who attacks him. After the war Leverett works the sticks into his art for Weird Tales, but people find them so disturbing that there is no more work forthcoming. Untill he is invited to illustrate a small press edition of the collected tales of pulpmaster H. Kenneth Allard. He re-uses the sticks motif. And realizes much too late that there is a lot more evil with the sticks than he thought.
This is the most reprinted of Wagner´s stories, and you can see its appeal. A bit of Lovecraft and Blackwood with it´s description of american backwoods, a homage of the pulps and the small press, with a protagonist modelled after C. A. Smith. It is doubtless a creepy story, but the ending, which could be lifted from a typical Robert Bloch tale, never did work for me.
The Forth Seal –
Dr. Metzger is searching for a cure of cancer. He stands before a breakthrough, but then he stumbles upon a age-old conspiracy of doctors who are not amused. They need illness to exist ...
A rather slow story, featuring an far-out conspiracy. But after some visits too the doc you really wonder …
.220 SwiftAlbino Eric Brandon rents a cabin on the property of farmer Warner where he works on his thesis. Enter archaeologist Kenlow who explores old caves and mineshafts, searching for spanish excavations. Local rumor has it that those mines were not dug by indians or conquistadors, but by sinister folks in the hills. Brandon goes exploring and finds more as he wants …
This one also combines the american landscape with classic pulp. This also is much anthologized and has its moments. But a lot parts just don´t mesh well.
The River of Night´s DreamingA bus full of female convicts has an accident and lands in the bay. The protagonist tries to escape by swimming through the nightly bay. After nearly drowning she climbs on land in a derelict warehouse neighborhood and finds safety in the house of elderly Mrs. Casteigne, who lives alone with her maid Camilla and seem to like everything victorian, from the dresses to the gaslight. The convict calls herself Cassilda and stays for a time, no less because of the mysterious tonic Mrs. Castaigne feeds her. Soon Cassilda is working as a companion for lonely Mrs. Casteigne, reading to her stories like
The King in Yellow. Soon she discovers that Mistress and Maid have a strange relationship including bondage and whipping. But when they include Cassilda in their games, her murderous urges which brought her to the psych-wing in the first place awaken ...
Here the writer combines Robert Chambers
The King in Yellow with homicidal maniacs and lots of fetish and bondage imaginary. And as odd as the parts sound, it works splendidly. A great tale with an ending which you either love or hate. Personally I don´t get the infatuation of american horror writers with Robert Chambers, but to introduce kinky sex in this concepts works very well. I wonder why this story never was filmed, it would have made a tremendous episode on Masters of Horror or their earlier incarnations.
Beyond any Measure American artist Liesette is living the high life in London together with her flatmate Danielle, who also is an artist. The two share a lesbian relationship. Lisette is troubled by nightmares, which made a fascinating study for psychologist Dr. Magnus. Things get terrifying after an orgy with the beautiful people at the mansion of rich and infamous Beth Garrington ...
Another story with a lot of lesbian sex – which here is pure exploitation – which begins as a weird tale and ends as in this context rather unbelievable pulp. It shows clearly Wagner´s love for the old pulps and why those elements often don´t really work in a modern context. But if you ignore the bumps it is a suspenseful and well-written tale with some great scenes.
This is a must have for all Wagner fans, and it is a crime that both this and
Why Not You and I have not been reprinted for a long time.
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