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Post by nightreader on Oct 24, 2007 18:03:43 GMT
Alone On The Darkside Ed. by John Pelan (ROC 2006) ‘And Our Turn Too Will One Day Come’ – Brian Hodge ‘Belinda’s Coming Home!’ – Eddy C. Bertin ‘The Cheerleaders, the Geek, and the Lonesome Piney Woods’ – d.g.k. goldberg ‘Sentinels’ – Mark Samuels ‘Reel People’ – Patricia Lee Macomber ‘Devil’s Smile’ – Glen Hirshberg ‘Inside The Labyrinth’ – David A. Riley ‘Skins’ – Gerard Houarner ‘Desert Places’ – Matt Cardin ‘Mugwumps’ – Hank Schwaeble ‘Linkage’ – Lucy Taylor ‘Shadows in the Sunrise’ – Mark Dillon ‘The Old North Road’ – Paul Finch ‘Warm, Wet Circles’ – Michael Kelly ‘Just Beyond the Middle of the Journey’ – Joseph A. Ezzo ‘Sometimes I Think If I Stand by the Phone It May Ring’ – Robert N. Lee ‘Belinda’s Coming Home!’ - Eddy C. Bertin This is exciting news for Karen, as she confides everything to her diary. As the story gradually unfolds we learn that Karen is 17 and has a mild learning difficulty making her sound younger than she really is, her unpleasant parents don’t realise how much awareness she has. She overhears her parents arguing, some of it she doesn’t understand but she realises her father doesn’t want Belinda to come home. Karen on the other hand is overjoyed for her older sister to be coming back. We slowly learn the shocking events that led to Belinda going off to ’school’ for 5 years. When she does return Karen finds her sister much changed from the Belinda she remembers and loved so intensely she’d do awful things to please her. We finally realise how scary Karen is and what she is capable of... ‘Sentinels’ – Mark Samuels This story ticked a lot of boxes for me – weird goings on in the tunnels of the London Underground, a missing author of a book on urban legends, a great central character – Inspector Gray, who is probably a Vault member (he reads lots of 60’s and 70’s horror pulp novels). The combination of dark disused tunnels and stations and bizarre urban legends is very strong, and the notion of reverse skyscrapers containing who-knows-what is brilliant. This stuck in my imagination for a long time afterwards. Excellent story, and I’d love to visit one of those abandoned stations myself… ‘Inside The Labyrinth’ – David A. Riley An atmospheric story of a history teacher making the trip he’d often dreamed of, visiting the ancient Minoan palace at Knossos. He meets a charming old Greek man full of the history of the place, who then gets him drunk and offers him up to the fabled labyrinth. This was satisfying in that way that you kind of know what is coming, but it’s an enjoyable anticipation which doesn’t disappoint. ‘Desert Places’ – Matt Cardin Stephen is summoned to the hospital bedside of his best friend Paul, being kept alive on life support machines, diagnosed as being in a vegetative state. Also present is Lisa, Stephen’s ex-love who left him for his best friend Paul. The reunion is a difficult and painful one, full of emotions. Stephen tells Lisa how he was driven away by their betrayal, how he took refuge in the Brazilian jungle and how he suffered disturbing visions, experiencing the teeming life in the jungle too intensely for him to cope with. Lisa then tells him how she and Paul had been experimenting with their spirituality, exploring a powerful connection with the Earth and nature, that she feels they were somehow connected to Stephen across the miles and caused his vivid jungle experience. She also believes she knows of a way to bring Paul back to them, but at what cost to Stephen? This was quite a complex and emotional story, sometimes beautifully written, other times feeling too wordy and expressive to the extent the story starts to get lost in the language. I’m still not entirely sure what happened at the end… 'Reel People' by Patricia Lee Macomber Gus is a good cop, an old school traditional cop, who also loves going to the old movie theatre in town, watching Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall. The cinema he goes to is an old one, as traditional as he is, with it's original seats, screen and projector still in use. During one of the movies a man is murdered, has his throat cut. Gus is appalled because he was there that night and never saw a thing. He sets out to find the killer... 'Shadows In The Sunrise' by Mark Dillon This is set in a rural and remote part of Canada, some unspecified time in the future. One day the man at the centre of the story realises he's lost twelve hours in some kind of blackout. He struggles to regain the memory of what happened, retraces his steps and remembers...the lights in the sky, coming down to earth... 'The Old North Road' by Paul Finch While driving along the Old North Road Drayton sees a car crashed off the roadside, nearby is a pretty young woman. He stops to help. She says she's ok and seems like she wants him to go, she says her boyfriend will be back soon. When boyfriend does return Drayton offers them both a lift to the nearest town. Drayton is a writer, doing a book on the folklore of the Green Man. He wants to stop off at a ruined abbey nearby to take pictures. His passengers, the dominated Shirley and the aggressive secretive Andy go along for the ride. It turns out Andy is a bad guy, he's a drug dealer who has stolen £300,000 from the mob. He has a gun and a bad temper and a plan to bump off Drayton and nick the car. It doesn't go down quite as easily as he'd thought... 'Warm Wet Circles' by Michael Kelly Disturbingly weird and unpleasant story of a bored office worker who finds the dead body of a homeless person in an alley, in the first stages of decomposition. For some inexplicable reason he decides to keep a section of skin that has peeled from the corpse's face as he turned it over. The next day the body is gone, in it's place are a number of warm wet circles. Then he finds another body, and more skin for his collection, and more warm wet circles on the ground, which he is beginning to find quite arousing...
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Post by nightreader on Feb 17, 2008 14:27:17 GMT
Stories Strange And Sinister - Ed. Laurette Pizer (Panther 1965) Tales of the Uncanny, Bizarre and Grotesque ‘Miriam’ – Truman Capote ‘Who Knows?’ – Guy De Maupassant ‘The Porcelain Doll’ – Leo Tolstoy ‘Autumn Mountain’ – Ryunosuke Akutagawa ‘Lappin and Lapinova’ – Virginia Woolf ‘The Ubiquitous Wife’ – Marcel Ayme ‘The Zahir’ – Jorge Luis Borges ‘Love’ – Yury Olesha ‘The Young Man With The Carnation’ – Isak Dinesen
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Post by nightreader on Jan 31, 2008 21:49:33 GMT
I liked the Waddell story, quietly spooky rather than in-your-face. So far the only one I couldn't get my head around was the H. Macallister story, I finished it and thought "Is that it?" but it looks like Peter C saw more in it than I did. Maybe one day I'll re-read it and like it... Also enjoyed the Shamus Frazer story and the idea of a ghostly "London ted"
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Post by nightreader on Jan 31, 2008 14:16:05 GMT
Lie Ten Nights Awake - Ed. by Herbert van Thal (Hodder & Stoughton 1967) ‘A Pair of Gloves’ – Anthony Burgess ‘The Eagle’ – Richard Chopping ‘Whisper’ – Martin Waddell ‘From the Water Junction’ – William Sansom ‘The Road to Mictlantecutli’ – Adobe James ‘The Sin-Eater’ – Elizabeth Walter ‘The Green Boy’ – Mariana Villa-Gilbert ‘The Tune in Dan’s Café’ – Shamus Frazer ‘D’You Like Me, Saunders?’ – H. Macallister ‘The Lost Child’ – John Burke A Pair of Gloves - Anthony BurgessA cautionary tale of a nagging wife, obsessed with cleanliness, repelled by her husband and his “horrible unnatural desires”. Obsessed too with her father and his virtuous sartorial smartness and how he always used to wear gloves while out and about. Then Harry the long suffering hubby buys an expensive pair of leather gloves, and still the wife complains. There’s only one thing for it… The Eagle - Richard ChoppingThe bird in question is stuffed and displayed in a rundown yet friendly and hospitable café, a welcome find for a group of hungry and weary tourists. It seems the handsome son of the café owners has taxidermy as a hobby – always a worry if you ask me. The tourists, having eaten well of a delicious stew (only spoilt by the number of small bones it contained), take the tour of the young man’s collection of stuffed animals… Whisper - Martin WaddellRosemary is a medium, Charlie her patient and loving husband. He fears his wife gives up too much of herself to the dead. Particularly this spirit of Rachel, who has almost taken over completely, who doesn’t seem in a hurry to let Rosemary come back… The Sin-EaterElizabeth WalterWhile on a trip to remote rural Devon, Clive is manipulated into becoming a ‘sin-eater’. He finds a derelict looking farm, belonging to the elderly Preeces who mourn their dead son – who is laid out on the bed upstairs. The old couple insist Clive see him, and take a glass of wine and a biscuit while in dead Eddie’s presence, in doing so they believe Eddie’s sins to be transferred to Clive. The story in the village is that Eddie murdered his attractive young wife Elsie in a fit of jealous rage after discovering her affair with local bad lad Richard Roper. But all is not as it seems, and a year later Clive feels compelled to return to the village and the derelict farmhouse. To his surprise he meets Roper there and begins to learn the truth of what happened… The Tune in Dan's Cafe - Shamus FrazerWhen Charles and Helen’s car breaks down they wait out the garage repair in Dan’s all night café. It’s late and the place is empty. As they wait they hear a tune played on the jukebox. They feel strangely uncomfortable. It’s a haunted jukebox, haunted by the spirit of a “London ted”, waiting for eternity for the girl who shopped him to the Police after he’d violently robbed a bank. Rather than be arrested London ted draws a gun and blows his brains out next to the jukebox. His unquiet spirit plays the same song on Dan’s jukebox… D'You Like Me, Saunders? - H. MacallisterProbably the least successful story of the collection so far I thought. It’s the strange story of a boy and his teacher at an old style grammar school. Saunders is the boy, a determined under-achiever, and on the last day of term the news that he is leaving goes around the school. Mr.Thom his teacher has made it his mission to push Saunders as hard as he can, whenever he can. When he hears he is leaving Thom confronts Saunders…
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Post by nightreader on Mar 24, 2008 11:25:13 GMT
Here's my cover for Creeps By Night -Ed. by Dashiell Hammett (NEL Four Square 1966) i115.photobucket.com/albums/n299/andynmagic/Creepsresized.jpgAnd contents: Introduction - Dashiell Hammett William Faulkner - A Rose For Emily Andre Maurious - The House Hans Heinz Ewers - The Spider W. B. Seabrook - The Witch's Vengeance Conrad Aiken - Mr. Arcularis W.B Seabrook - The Strange Case of Mrs. Arkwright Stephen Vincent Benet - The King Of The Cats Paul Suter - Beyond The Door Michael Joyce - Perchance To Dream Frank Belknap Long - A Visitor From Egypt
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Post by nightreader on Oct 24, 2007 17:50:32 GMT
Dark Tides by Eric Frank Russell (Panther - November 1963) "...this is a book about the dark tides in human affairs. It will thrill and chill the blood of those among us whose curiosity knows no restraint; and the others who are magnetically drawn by the dreadful..." The Sin of Hyacinth Peutch With a Blunt Instrument A Matter of Instinct I’m a Stranger Here Myself This One’s On Me I Hear You Calling Wisel The Ponderer Sole Solution Rhythm of the Rats Me and My Shadow Bitter End 'With a Blunt Instrument' Mrs. Bunstead wants to bump off hubby for the insurance money. Her sister got away with it, so why can’t she? She visits Digger Kelly who is running a profitable little operation - he gets rid of unwanted spouses using an Australian killing bone then enjoys half the insurance. To actually do the dirty deed Kelly employs a black dwarf: “The dwarf was squat, pot-bellied, black-skinned, and he wore a suit of sloppy clothes as if reluctantly conforming to an insane custom...” All is going well until Dan Fletcher from the insurance company starts to look at the statistics and becomes suspicious of so many apparently natural deaths... 'A Matter of Instinct' This appears as ‘Impulse’ in Groff Conklin’s “Twisted” anthology. Wonder why he changed the title... A good pulpy story about Dr. Blaine, alone in his surgery one evening when a man arrives. The man turns out to be an animated corpse, possessed by sub microscopic thought reading aliens who crashed to Earth the night before. Their purpose is to find a new host body, the one they are using was already dead when they stole it, they want a living one. They need Dr. Blaine’s help because if they take over a conscious person they become instantly insane, they want the doctor to drug someone to make the possession smoother. Then into the surgery walks a young girl... Just as enjoyable the second time around. It’s got a ‘Quatermass’ feel to it I thought. 'I'm A Stranger Here Myself' Mrs. Enderby visits Dr. Wilson with worries about her 15 year old son John - she says his personality is changing, he’s making strange and enigmatic remarks about his origin. When he talks to John it seems the boy and some of his friends have become ‘cosmos-conscious’, claims he has no memory prior to being 4 years old. He believes himself to be non-human and the victim of a conspiracy to keep the truth hidden... 'This One's On Me' Pushy newspaperman Jensen gets more than he bargained for when he visits a shop advertising ‘Mutants For Sale’. The shop owner is polite, even when Jensen is rude and threatening to expose him to the police. He demands to see a mutant. He will do… 'I Hear you Calling' Poor Widgey Bullock. He’s a sailor on shore leave, all he wants to do is get drunk and get laid, without attracting any unwanted official attention. The bar he goes to is empty, the nervous barman tells him people don’t come out at night. He also tells him about the bodies emptied dry of blood, mostly the bodies of strangers to the town. Scornful and a little intoxicated the sailor heads back to his hotel. From his room window he sees a likely looking woman and calls to her to come up to him… 'Wisel' The passengers in the old train compartment are fascinated by Mr. Wisel – even more so by his bag with it’s unusual and brightly coloured sticker. He’s happy to tell them it’s from the Red Range Hotel on Mars, knowing that no-one believes him. An ideal situation for a visitor… 'Dark Tides' seems to fall within that grey area between sci fi and the 'weird tale'. My sci fi threshold is quite low but I'm enjoying these stories and Russell is an entertaining writer, there seems to be a bit of a noir detective thing going on in some of the stories, particularly in the dialogue between characters, laced with a few shots of humour. I've a feeling I've explained that really badly... thats why I'm a reader and not a writer He describes the shop keeper in 'This One's On Me' as: He had a white mane, watery eyes, a crimson nose and a perpetual sniffle. If he had any brothers they were hanging around Snow White"
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Post by nightreader on Nov 17, 2007 8:40:36 GMT
Not sure if these qualify... Has anyone read the 'Black Oak' series by Charles Grant (who seems to have dropped his 'L' for these)?
Black Oak Security is a "crack team of private investigators led by brilliant, enigmatic Ethan Proctor. He takes on cases the range from the normal to the unaccountably bizarre..."
'Black Oak 1: Genesis' 'Black Oak 2: The Hush of Dark Wings' 'Black Oak 3: Winter Knight' 'Black Oak 4: Hunting Ground' 'Black Oak 5: When The Cold Wind Blows'
There could be more...
The series began in the late 90's in the US, published by ROC. It's been a while since I read them but I recall enjoying them - very much along the lines of Sherman's 'Chill' books...
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Post by nightreader on Mar 27, 2008 20:23:59 GMT
I only got into this because I'd enjoyed reading 'The Block' - although this is obviously a very different book.
Here's a sadly brief bibliography (nicked from the 'Fantastic Fiction'website):
'The Devil's Maze' (1979) 'The Elect' (1980) 'The Scar' (1981) 'The Offering' (1982) 'The Block' (1983) 'Stryker' (1984) 'The Force' (1984) 'The Handyman' (1985) 'The God Game' (1986) 'The Labyrinth of Satan' (1997)
He also wrote quite a few non- fiction books, a number of them about Hitler and the Nazi use of Black Magic.
Gerald Suster died in 2001.
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Post by nightreader on Mar 26, 2008 22:49:41 GMT
The Devil's Maze - Gerald Suster (ROC 1994)
Suster’s first novel is an ambitious tale. Set in Victorian London it pits satanic aesthete Dr. Lipsius against unconventional gentleman about town Charles Renshaw. Dr. Lipsius is aided by three devilish thrill seekers, while Renshaw is teamed up with feisty sophisticate Lady Clarissa Mountford, herself an unconventional character.
Lipsius and his clan outline their plan in the Prologue, to perform a Blood Quest carried out with “subtlety, ruthlessness and artistry”, resulting in human sacrifice.
Renshaw and his friend Lady Mountford become embroiled in their elaborate scheme, perpetrated by Lipsius and his three disciples, all popping up in various guises. Also involving a writer of weird fiction named Septimus Keen whose stories weave into the main narrative, and a character known only as The Girl With Flaming Red Hair, there is a tangled web of half truths and lies. Thankfully, after so much effort by Suster, it is all satisfyingly sewn up at the end, even with a few surprises.
In an Author’s Note at the end of the book Suster reveals his love for the works of Arthur Machen. In the ‘Devil’s Maze’ he has used the same device as Machen in his tale “The Three Impostors”, telling his story interspersed with short pieces of fiction (Suster using the character of Septimus Keen). In Machen’s “The Three Impostors” one of the tales within the tale is called ‘The History of the Young Man With Spectacles’ featuring a character called Dr. Lipsius, in “The Devil’s Maze” one of Lipsius’ followers actually mentions this.
Suster isn’t afraid to refer to other writers works, he describes a book used in the Robert Bloch story “The Shambler From The Stars” (‘The Mysteries of the Worm’ by Ludwigg van Prinn). I suspect that the character of Septimus Keen was also partly that of H.P. Lovecraft – in the stories there are references to the “spaces between the stars” etc.
There is a lot in “The Devil’s Maze”. If you’re a Machen (and Lovecraft) fan there is probably a lot more – I only cottoned on to some of it after finishing the book and reading a bit about Machen. At times the structure was a bit frustrating, just when you want the plot to move along another tale by Septimus Keen is introduced, I felt it slowed things down a lot but I appreciated it more when I knew why Suster had done it. I think “The Devil’s Maze” would definitely benefit from more than one reading.
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Post by nightreader on Feb 17, 2008 14:33:27 GMT
Black Lightning - John Saul (BCA 1995) I’ve not read a John Saul novel for years, often finding him fairly predictable in his plots – usually an isolated small town/community haunted by a dead child/youth etc. He seemed to do this over and over again: ‘Suffer The Children’, ‘Punish The Sinners’, ‘Comes The Blind Fury’ etc all come to mind. With ‘Black Lightning’ he looked like he was tackling something different. Set in Seattle the book begins with the execution of serial killer Richard Kraven, closely observed by the police and the journalist who pursued his story in the media. Anne Jeffers is granted one last conversation with the killer before he goes to the electric chair. Kraven continues to deny responsibility for the murders and says: “When I’m dead, and it all starts again, how will you feel?” But Anne has no doubt at all that justice is being done and the real killer is to be executed. While Kraven is being strapped into the electric chair Anne’s architect husband Glenn is suffering a massive heart attack. As Kraven dies so does Glenn, just for a couple of minutes. This is where the story starts to get interesting. Naturally the killings do start again, the bodies are cut open and organs removed in a familiar pattern, and a signature mark that resembles black lightning is found cut into the victims. But who is the killer? It seems that there could be more than one, or maybe a copycat, and for a while it becomes confusing. Anne’s husband also starts behaving strangely following his recovery from his heart attack. He has blackouts and strange dreams, or maybe they are memories. Some of the background history of the killer comes out, how he was horribly abused by his father and put into psychiatric care by his mother. The murders get too close to Anne for comfort when she herself finds the body of her next door neighbour cut open in the park as she takes her morning jog. Then her daughter’s cat is found dead, also cut open. And Anne can’t understand why her husband suddenly wants to go fishing, just as Richard Kraven used to… It’s fairly obvious that the spirit of the executed serial killer entered Anne’s husband when he had his brush with death, but there is enough in the story to make you unsure about who the murderer is until the last quarter of the book. Kraven is a satisfying baddie, as barmy as they come yet clever and with enough of a terrible past to make him credible. Overall I’d give this a tentative thumbs up. It’s well written without a lot of padding, the characters are all plausible and keep your interest. I think my only hesitation about this book is it’s a bit light on the horror aspect, given the grisly murders that take place there isn’t enough punch or shock, there’s just something missing. I guess I’m contradicting myself here but I generally liked this book, but not enough to recommend it or probably to read it again…
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Post by nightreader on Dec 2, 2007 8:45:36 GMT
Horrorscope #1: The Green Flames Of Aries by Robert Lory (Pinnacle 1974) After reading Justin’s excellent ‘Paperback Fanatic’ and his interview with Robert Lory, I was looking forward to this. He didn’t give too much away about this series, except to say it finished after the fourth book. I’d enjoyed all the Lory Dracula books that I’ve read so far so figured I couldn’t go far wrong with this one. And I didn’t, although this was quite different and lacks a lot of the action of the Dracula series. There’s a brief prologue featuring a mysterious grey robed character who sets the story in motion. He looks out into the stars from a great hall, the signs of the zodiac on the floor. He chooses Aries, for his entertainment… The story begins off the coast of Honalulu with a group of characters aboard ‘The Silver Lining’, a private yacht hired for an exclusive party by Dora Davage, wealthy society queen. They are a mixed bunch, from Mark Larimer (self confessed beach bum, living off the favours of attractive rich ladies), to Harlan (a pop star with a couple of teenage groupies in attendance), to beautiful rich widow Nara Charles (still grieving for her lost husband), to Professor Randall Warren (pipe smoking boffin), to Avery Sorg (unpleasant bald fat banker), to Cantos (mystery man) and finally Lesli Cross (Dora’s “nod to democracy”, for Lesli isn’t one of the rich party set). In addition there’s crusty Captain Craddock at the helm of the ‘Silver Lining’. This has the classic set up for a whodunnit, introduce your mix of unlikely characters then isolate them, in this case in the middle of the Pacific. But instead of a dead body turning up the revellers on the yacht find a raft, drifting toward them. On the raft is a man barely alive and once on board they realise he has no eyes. Dora’s party takes an unlikey turn with the arrival of the old man, starving and dehydrated he rambles about an island and fire and treasure. In his pocket are two gold coins bearing the head of the Ram of Aries. The majority of the book takes place on the yacht. The engines inexplicably burst into flames and are beyond repair, the radio is burned out too, then a dense cloud of fog settles over them and the yacht drifts. Tensions grow between the characters, some of them keen on finding the treasure the blind man has talked about, but there is no island anywhere nearby according to the map. The fog lifts and the yacht drifts. The old man jumps overboard and is consumed by what appear to be green fames…underwater. Before he jumped he seemed to be pointing. To their amazement the crew see an island, a strange island that looks as if it’s been created… The yacht gets closer to the island and seems to pick up speed, crashing into the rocks with just enough time for those on board to get safely on it. Once on the island things move ahead quite quickly – the treasure is discovered, the link to Aries is explained and the fate of the generally unpleasant characters is sealed. It’s a neatly wrapped up ending with death and fate and sacrifice. And it doesn’t finish how you think it will… On reflection I liked this one, it isn't action packed, it isn't bloody or horrifying at all, but it is mysterious and intriguing and sometimes that makes a refreshing change. I wonder what Lory would have done with an out and out whodunnit...
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Post by nightreader on Oct 26, 2007 17:29:08 GMT
Another from MFA The Woodsmen (my copy Heywood Books 1989, but originally published 1986 by Robert hale).
Back cover: Karen Mallon's date was angry with her for rejecting him. Drunkenly he pushed her out of the car in a deserted country lane and drove off. That'd teach her! little did he know the terror that would shortly engulf them both...
For Karen, frightened by the dark and creepy forest, accidentally witnesses the savage sacrificial rituals of the Woodsmen. And after that, they persue her mindlessly - half-dead monsters from another age, filled with demonic strength, lusting for blood, unstoppable...
Plotwise not much to add to that really. This starts off at a cracking pace - there's the Woodsmen doing some very nasty things in the deserted church, they are zombie like but more maliciously aware of their actions and they have purpose. "Soil matted their skin and fingernails as if they had been scratching in the earth... There was something odd too in their walk, something stiff and unnatural." Poor Karen on a date-from-hell stumbles on their handiwork and sets off a cat and mouse chase which spans the rest of the book.
The real stars of this are clearly the Woodsmen, named Oates and Clay, their history is only hinted at - the evil pair were possibly burned at the stake in 1805, supposedly possessed by demons. Thankfully there isn't too much time wasted on explanations, they are mean and vicious and they know Karen saw them in action and they plan on tearing her apart.
Sadly Karen is a bit irritating at times, doing lots of running backward and forwards through the woods and up country lanes. There's not that much more to her. But that's a minor criticism really, she serves her purpose - to be frightened out of her wits and give Oates and Clay someone to chase.
Overall I really liked this book, it was undemanding yet sometimes surprisingly violent and gory at times with strong central baddies. Entertaining.
(Another dreadful cover on this one - bargain books these, but it deserved better)
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Post by nightreader on Oct 26, 2007 17:25:15 GMT
'God Of A Thousand Faces' - Michael Falconer Anderson (Heywood Books 1987) From the back cover: "A chance conversation in a Delhi bar leads Jack Law to the Indian town of Srinwanat to see the festival of the child godess, the Sedali. She is the earthly incarnation of one of the most evil of the Old Gods, Dacari - God Of A Thousand Faces..." While viewing the festival travel writer Jack Law causes a terrible accident, resulting in the death of the Sedali (the young girl chosen as the vessel for the evil god Dacari). He wisely flees back to London, but his troubles are just beginning. He's brought more than Delhi belly back with him. He becomes the centre of a series of manifestations, growing in intensity as the book goes on. People around him begin to die, one by multiple cobra bites in the middle of London... This is a good, quick, fun read. Nothing demanding about this. The supernatural bits are gripping enough, even though the exorcism sequence may seem a little familiar if you've seen a certain film... It ends with a great cliffhanger, an opportunity for a sequel that never came. Sadly. Shame about the uninspiring cover though - what Les Edwards could have done with this! MFA has also written: The Woodsmen (1986), Blood Rite (1986), The Unholy (1987), The Covenant (1988), Black Trinity (1988) and The Clan Of Golgotha Scalp (1989). As far as I know nothing more recent. Wonder what ever happened to him...
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Post by nightreader on Oct 26, 2007 17:20:40 GMT
i115.photobucket.com/albums/n299/andynmagic/Clawsreduced.jpgClaws Of The Night - Vern Hansen (1963 Digit Books) The story opens with Ray Lemmings, a young research metallurgist at a giant steelworks, going home after a long day at work. The Canaver Steelworks state of the art laboratory is close to a breakthrough in its creation of a new metal, one which has qualities of a living organism. Ray decides to take a short cut back to his lodgings, where he is staying with his girlfriend Pamela and her mother Agnes. The short cut goes across the waste ground to the rear of the steelworks. He passes the old incinerator which has been extracting waste from the works and dumping the residue on to the waste ground. He notices something faintly glowing in the darkness and the thickening fog... Ray is attacked by some thing which claws at his leg and shreds his raincoat. When he gets home he is delirious, put to bed and a doctor called. On his torn raincoat there is a foul smelling pale yellow slime... Ray is the first to fall victim of the unknown thing on the waste ground. A young girl is killed and found with a hole in her stomach, covered in the horribly smelling yellow slime which is faintly glowing. In the hospital mortuary Old Sims, the creepy and possibly pervy porter, loves his job and can't wait to look at the new dead girl that has just been brought in. As he approaches he sees the body has swollen massively and there is a sickening stench in the air which sends him fleeing for help - and only just in time as the girls body explodes and the mortuary goes up in flames... Superintendant Ronan and Inspector Cooley (granite faced, implacable but imaginative) are called in and it's not long before they realise the site of the old incinerator is the focal point of a spate of unexplained deaths. They also start to understand the killer may not be human. They find claw marks in the earth and a trail of stinking yellow slime, where once there had been a slag heap. The slag heap has gone... Then it all kicks off, the Army are called in bearing machine guns and flame throwers. Their prey, the thing, has become known as the slag... "There was no more fog yet but the night was dark. And this was the night that to the journalists first of all, and to the police, and then to the general public became known as the Night of the Slag..." This has got a kind of 'Quatermass' and 'The Blob' feel about it, with a great cast of 60's characters - like Elizabeth Guttering "a thirty five year old alcoholic tart" now known locally as 'Old Betty', who nearly comes a cropper on the waste ground while entertaining Bert the farmhand. As with many of these creature features the means of finishing off the beast is quite ludicrous, but taken in the spirit of the novel it's totally appropriate. This aint art but it is thoroughly enjoyable from start to finish. It's got it all - a mysterious and deadly creature stalking the unwary in foggy darkness, leaving only a stinking yellow trail of slime in it's wake. A cast of enjoyable and engaging characters. Masses of unintentional humour... Brilliant.
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Post by nightreader on Oct 23, 2007 15:09:48 GMT
Effigies by William K. Wells (Granada 1981)
Cracking start to this book. Nicole Bannister unwraps a small box delivered to her in the mail, inside is a child's finger. Chief of Police Frank Liscomb begins his investigations, believing the owner of the finger to be dead, his priority to find the body. The event sends ripples through peaceful Broadmoor in the Holland Township, USA. Liscomb is baffled when no body turns up and no child is reported missing. Suspicion soon falls on the former hippy community near the town. There are rumours that they perform Satanic rites involving drugs and sex orgies. There is also the possibility of an involvement with Charles Manson's Family. One Freddie Loftus stands out as a nasty piece of work, secretive and violent, probably insane, definitely dangerous. Round about this time the Bannisters daughter loses her harmless imaginary friend, Elsie. The voice replacing Elsie belongs to Elvida, who is not like Elsie at all. Then the severed finger mummifies overnight, and at Nicole's birthday party another package is delivered, this one containing the rest of the child's hand, sans finger. They obviously match - the hand is dry, wrinkled and hard... There's a seance held by some of the neighbours of the Bannisters, with devastating consequences, loss of life and general mayhem. Liscomb has so far scorned the speculation of the Devil being present but he too soon starts to wonder. Tension mounts in Broadmoor, the temperature rises in a freak heatwave and a stranger with a shrivelled and mis-shapen ear calmly takes pictures of the townspeople, the accidents begin to occur and before long the death toll rises... This was a surprise - it was one of those books that I didn't expect a great deal from, it's been sat on the shelf for a while, it's got quite a poor cover (always a turn off for me), it's quite hefty at 398 pages...so I don't know exactly why I started it, but I'm so glad I did. It was great, never a dull moment from start to finish (quite an achievement for a long novel). Never heard of this writer before (tried Googling him but didn't come up with much, also nothing on 'Fantastic Fiction either). Well worth a look if you see this lurking around the charity shop
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