Nick Sharman - The Cats

[dem bones]

Nick Sharman - The Cats (Nel, 1977)

Blurb
They came in their thousands, crazed with bloodlust, searching for victims .....

American scientist John Inglis has taken his old University lecturer's experiments with bacteria to heart and decided to continue them in his makeshift lab in Paddington. He leaves his infected cats to be looked after by bullied schoolkid Mark Dempsey, son of the Minister for Education, while he pays a visit to his mentor, Prof. Bertram Vole - the man who abandoned this line of research a few years earlier after something awful happened. Vole nearly has a stroke when Inglis tells him what he's been up to, but composes himself and reassures his pupil that things will be fine as long as he doesn't subject his charges to extreme heat.

Meanwhile, back in Paddington, as London undergoes the biggest heatwave in it's history ...

****

"It had struck me as most odd that biological warfare had always been applied to the human populations of cities and countries. I began to wonder what would happen if a powerful enough bacteria could be isolated with a view to affecting the animal population. The resulting chaos would be immense and the country affected would have very little grounds to suspect foul play.... The results of my final experiments were so ghastly that I immediately informed the Government. They signed me up at once to do research."

After a seriously inopportune power cut blows out the refrigeration system at Inglis's home, the cats go crazy, throwing themselves against their cages and carrying on something terrible. Mesmerized by one of their number who's already sneaked free, young Mark soon finds himself releasing the rest. With his own private army, the boy no longer has to tolerate the bullies of Westdale Comprehensive as Fatty Fulton discovers to his cost when he chooses today of all days to take a dump in Mark's desk. Mark, for once, turns in his tormentor to his form teacher and a furious Fatty follows him after school, intent of doling out a good duffing up. For some reason, the weird kid enters a derelict church. 'Great!', thinks Fulton, 'all the more privacy!' .....

To be continued .....

[dreadlocksmile]

Dreadlocksmile review:

After taking on some highly controversial microbiology experiments for the potential use in bio-warfare, John Inglis has created a deadly bacteria that when a cat is subjected to, will alter the creature’s personality into that of a deadly killer. Unwittingly the young schoolboy, Mark Dempsey, who looks after these cats, releases the felines when the lab air-conditioning fails. Now the cats are on the rampage in the centre of London, killing innocent people when ever the temperature is hot…and it happens to be mid-summer. Even as the crazed cats terrorize the city, the bacteria has yet another nasty surprise waiting…young Mark Demsey has formed a terrifying connection with the murderous creatures.

First released back in 1977, Nick Sharman’s debut pulp horror novel “The Cats” was yet another book to try and cash in on the huge success of James Herbert’s 1974 splatterpunk masterpiece “The Rats”. Like in so many of these “animals vs mankind” horror novels, the storyline is simple with the plot quickly explained in some ridiculous and unlikely fashion early on in the tale. Once this is done, the story picks up speed, delivering some poorly written splatterpunk horror. Like with the work of Guy N. Smith and John Halkin, the sheer trashy nature of the novel is the joy of reading such a book. With such clumsy and badly thought out ideas, you can’t help but laugh at what is written.

The dramatic ending comes out of nowhere, as if the author just wanted to get the book over and done with. The characterization is flat and underdeveloped. But still, if like me you love to read these pulp/trash horror novels, then this is a must.

The books runs for a mere 160 pages and was released through the New English Library.

www.amazon.co.uk/review/R31JZRYMPJ6YRJ/ref=cm_cr_rdp_perm

[killercrab]

A favourite of mine - the dog getting attacked memorable. Nick Sharman was American Scott Gronmark , who it's been suggested was also Pierce Nace , author of the notorious Eat Them Alive - but denies the fact himself I believe.

Sharman was also responsible for The Scourge , Childmare and The Surrogate amongst others.

KC

[dem bones]

Jul 23, 2009 12:18:16 GMT killercrab said:

Nick Sharman was American Scott Gronmark , who it's been suggested was also Pierce Nace , author of the notorious Eat Them Alive - but denies the fact himself I believe.

KC

On the strength of The Cats, i can't really see why Gronmark/ 'Sharman' was ever a suspect. The style is completely different, in this case incredibly conservative, just about as ABC as 'when animals attack' nasties get - even the all-important bad sex is blink and you'll miss it. God knows, you can't say the same for Eat Them Alive.

Anyway, Fatty Fulton won't be leaving Mark Dempsey any more smelly presents in the future after he catches up with him in the derelict church which the cats have settled upon as their HQ. Due to a kidney disorder, Mark is as susceptible to the bacteria as the felines who have adopted him as their leader. For his part, Mark has turned deathly pale, taken to walking on all fours and uses his fangs to tear out human throats. With everything in place, at last we are ready for the traditional vignette onslaught. Coming at it off the back of Lair some of these are maybe too brief to be effective (the potentially ghastly attack on Molly the prostitute and her Arab client is over almost before it begins) but Basil Barry, the radio talk show host, gives good death and i liked the arthritic old girl feeding pigeons in the park. Then there's chauffeur Gerald Franklin who, under siege in his employees Limo, swerves into a bus and then wipes out everyone in the queue for good measure. Sharman briefly mutates into Richard Allen for some swipes at the Socialist government, dole queue drug fiends and sundry misfits living the dream on benefits. Unquestionably my favourite moment is when the Government-Scientist-Army think tank hit on the brilliant idea of evacuating 70, 000 West Londoners to Hyde Park where they'll be safe from fang and claw in canvas tents .... Meanwhile, the army colonel - remarkably full of himself when you consider he's jointly responsible for upward of a thousand casualties - accuses the cats of political leanings and plans his tactics accordingly. "The Enemy is a little unconventional but no stranger than those yellow devils we faced in Malaya ... There's no use going after your communist insurgent when he's gone to ground. Won't do at all. You wait for him to make his move."

[killercrab]

Well the cat biting the guard dog's nads off had a certain style to it ! Try blinking less.

KC

[dem bones]

Poor Wolf the Dobermann! that episode works well because 'Sharman' gives it some room to breathe: the creepy bit with the four cats seemingly popping up out of nowhere onto the lawn; the blow-by-vicious-blow account of the fight. By the time he gets to the cats versus humans encounters though, he's upped the speed to such an extent that any grisly death moments are over almost before they've started. Inglis's estranged father - armed with bottles of vitriol - gives a good account of himself in the lab, though. I should also name-check permanently hungover D. I. Jock "My head feels like they're holding a Rangers-Celtic game inside" Campbell of Paddington Police Station for a Gene Hunt-style attachment to his hip flask.