Gordon McGill - Stallion

[dem bones]

Gordon McGill - Stallion (Futura, 1989)

Blurb:

RIDE THE NIGHTMARE WITH THE McEVOY FAMILY

Susan and Tom McEvoy expect problems when they set about turning an Exmoor farm into a riding school. What they don't expect is the brooding sense of ancient horror that begins to pervade their lives, and their dreams.

From an accident to a horse, which has to be put down, to a child's broken leg, the path leads inexorably towards a whirlpool of ritual sacrifice and murder which revolves around Susan and her teenage daughter, Janet.

Gordon McGill, the author of three Omen novels, has written a gripping helter-skelter of a book, relentless and bloody in its evocation of an age-old evil.

"Seventeen hands," Williams said, grinning. "He's just a cock 'n balls on legs.... The bugger. He don't like the world. He don't like himself. Bit his tongue clean off when he was a colt."

"A nightmare. I was thirteen. Some kind of sacrifice. A stallion. And gruesome little men. They stank."

When horse-loving stunt coordinator and drink problem on legs Tom McEvoy walks off a film set in Morocco, he earns a reputation for being "unreliable" and is effectively black-listed from the industry. Grateful of a new challenge, he and his American wife Susan, a features editor on two magazines, sell up their Fulham home and move to a remote seventeenth century farmhouse on Exmoor which has stood empty for half a century. They set about converting it into a riding school.

On arrival at their new home, they're greeted by a massive black stallion who rears up and plants its front hooves on the roof of their car, leaving two huge dents. Susan is horrified to get a close-up of it's silently screaming mouth. The crazed creature has no tongue.

Their new home is not pretty and Janey, Susan's teenage daughter by her first marriage, clearly struggles to hide her disappointment while little brother Graham's only concern is that the TV hasn't arrived yet and he'll miss The A Team. Even Susan has her doubts - she's not long been off medication - until Tom shows her the beautiful carved four-poster in the bedroom (cue shagging session).

Their first day at the farmhouse is a nightmare. One of the pony's is frightened by the stallion and gets caught in barbed wire. Yokel bigot Frank Williams of the neighbouring stud farm, doesn't even trouble to call a vet, just leaves a curt instruction for one of his mates over the McEvoys' phone. "Dog meat". Little Graham is particularly upset that they have to shoot the horse. Why couldn't they just put him to sleep? Janey, to her parents' horror and surprise, sets him straight. "The needle poisons the meat, Graham. If you put a horse to sleep, you don't get any Whiskas for cats or Pal meat for dogs or Pedigree f**k**g Chum."

Susan is also beginning to behave in a bizarre fashion. That night she sleepwalks to the cinder track where the pony was shot and when Tom wakes up he finds her lying filthy and stinking beside him. She's also taken to blacking out and composing weird emails on her Amstrad, alerting her GP and confidante Betty to a "murder" at the farm.

And all the while, the sneering, obnoxious Williams is coming on like he knows something they don't ....

To be continued ...

[franklinmarsh]

Top stuff Dem! I'm assuming (which I shouldn't) that this is the same Gordy wot churned out Omens III, IV and V. Read IV and enjoyed it. Have V to tussel with. If Stallion keeps up like this I'll go for it.

[bushwick]

Had this number for a good while now, and I actually read it last week - the darnedest coincidence. Was going to comment so I may as well now. I won't spoil it though, Dem...

Characters are quite full-bodied, I thought - the neurosis of the lead female protagonist is handled well. Quite a 'literary' pulp read if you get what I mean. If you were that way inclined you could say this story's a comment on the mother's relationship with her becoming-sexually-aware daughter. Some striking set pieces, not as nasty as I expected, but some very creepy themes. The character Frank Williams is well-drawn, a real nasty piece of work with a way with horses and a thing for roughing up lasses. It's a very concise book - the end felt a bit rushed and not that satisfying...I never say this, but this novel could have done with being a little longer, perhaps. Good though - I've got a couple of his Omen books that I've not bothered with yet but on the strength of this may give 'em a go.

[dem bones]

Feel free to take over Bush. Actually, i've read this before. Didn't think much of it at the time, but it's been pretty engrossing so far, and the nasty neighbour is top notch - he's drooling over little Janey as I type - you can't ask for more than that.

It's nice to see the fine tradition of product placement didn't die with Richard Allen, too. First Janey's anti-endorsement of popular pet foods ("Whiskas for cats or Pal meat for dogs or Pedigree f**k**g Chum") and now:

"Tom,' she said, snuggling into him. "What were you thinking when Graham and Janey were about to start off at the ring?"
"Batchelor's Cuppa-soup", he said.
"I knew it."
"When the guy comes back from fishing or whatever and the family's waiting for him, all cosy."

And I'll bet Alan Sugar is made up that Mrs. McEvoy's Amstrad has already survived eighty pages of equine evil without breaking down once. Christ, she's had a right result.

[andydecker]

Found deep in the back of my shelf. Maybe they breed.

Kirk Reinert

Diamond Books, some imprint from Berkley-Charter in the US, 1991. You can touch the ribs :-)