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Post by andydecker on May 8, 2022 12:02:34 GMT
Graham Masterton - Charnel House (Sphere, 1978, 185 pages, this edition 1979)  Les Edwards Charnel House was the fourth of Masterton's horror novels, and it is a variation of a theme. Regardless of the title it is about some demon, after The Manitou, The Djinn and The Sphinx it is Coyote, another Native Indian demon.
This novel is basically a variation of The Manitou. We get Coyote, one of those myths which later so many American genre writers were so fond of, especially on the comic book sector, here not as the trickster god but as the most evil of all those gods, who lusts for chaos and women. We get our blue collar hero, working for the Sanitation Department, a group which comes together to fight the menace, some police officers, a SWAT Team and of course another native medicine man called George Thousand Names fighting the demon. The setting this time is San Francisco.
The writing is fast, a bit – or a lot depending on your tase – superficial, and it is a bit overburdened with 70s culture references. We get Nixon, Whole Earth Catalogues, Moon River, Dolly Parton, a white denim suit for our hero, John Weitz and Braggi. Considering how violent some of Masterton's later novels are, this is tame, but for 70s readers the few horror action scenes may have packed more punch.
But it is a typical Masterton, a solid beginning with a seemingly haunted house, which then becomes a monster hunt.
It must have sold well, a year after the first print-run it got a new edition with a Les Edwards cover.
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