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Post by dem bones on Apr 10, 2019 13:08:35 GMT
John Farris - The Axeman Cometh (Nel, 1991) Blurb: Trapped alone in the lift in the dark. A power cut and the building empty. Everyone's nightmare.
But for Shannon, crouched and terrified, it was worse. Much worse. Because whispering to her out of the darkness - The Axeman. The smiling, hot-eyed madman who had killed her family back in her teen years in small-town Kansas. Mother, father, brother, uncle; slaughtered by the night stranger who had never been found.
And now he had found her, had come crawling out of her imagination to claim his last victim ... Picked this up in the Swan inn, Llanidloes during recent world tour (London, Hereford, Llangurig, Nant-Glas, etc). Nice idea. A well-stocked charity bookcase in corridor behind bar. See anything you fancy, make a donation (50p minimum), and it's yours. Blurb plays fair though Shannon is not entirely alone in the building at the outset. Petra Kisber, managing editor of Excalibur Books is working late on the top floor. Alerted by Shannon's friendly ex that she suffers from claustrophobia, Petra braves the darkness, descends the floors to locate the trapped elevator. Her rescue attempt is terminated in the most abrupt fashion. {Spoiler}She's trampled and devoured by swine, just like that little gal back home. It seems Shannon - a compulsive artist - has involuntarily (?) sketched a pig on the floor in charcoal. The as yet invisible Axeman is impressing on her that she must draw him or her into life so they can both escape. Been good so far. The flashbacks to the night of the massacre provide intrigue, and, of course everyone we meet - especially Shannon - is suspect. Pop culture references: Elvis, Fabian, Ricky Nelson, the Beach Boys, assassination of JFK, Mad magazine, a Cross-Your-Heart bra, I rode the Blaster at the Iowa State Fair badges.
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