|
Post by nightreader on Oct 23, 2007 14:52:49 GMT
The Hand Of Cain by Martin Thomas (Magnum Books 1967) This originally looked to me like it should be one of those creeping ‘beast with five fingers’ kind of novels. But it isn’t. It’s more weird than that. The book starts with the thoroughly unpleasant Mathew Lodway drunkenly stalking a very young girl he fancies. He follows her into the “With-It Amusement Arcade” full of hip young things, but he quickly loses sight of the girl. Frustrated and angry he takes cover in a booth run by “Madame Riva – Genuine Romany Palmiste”. The palmist looks at his hands and abruptly recoils in horror but not explaining what she’s seen there, she demands he leave and claims she is feeling unwell. Mathew Lodway is one of three brothers, the triplet sons of Virgil Lodway, leading surgeon in the town of Stilford. Mathew is the youngest, the wastrel of the family, the reprobate ne’er-do-well. Timothy is his brother who is building a good reputation as a local GP, while the eldest brother Alan has a talent for music and plays violin in the Stilford Philharmonic. This turns out to be one of the most dysfunctional families ever. Mad Mathew returns home after his visit to Madame Riva: “the bile of repetitive disappointment scalded hot in his throat”. Mathew then strangles his brother Alan in a fit of frustrated rage and jealousy, for Mathew lusts after Alan’s fiancée Alison. Virgil Lodway finds Mathew over the body of his brother but cannot bring himself to shop him to the Police, also thinking of the public scandal to himself and Timothy. Then, in a bizarre freak accident, brother Timothy loses his hands, chopped to bits on a circular saw. Virgil the father even more bizarrely drugs Mathew, cuts off his hands and expertly grafts them on to Timothy's stumps. Well, he is a top surgeon with his own operating room after all. That’s when the trouble really begins… Mathew gets false hands fitted and seethes with hatred for his father and brother. While getting drunk in the Nirvana Club he is approached by a midget Indian, the Swami Barham Lal Sivasan. The little swami offers Mathew revenge through the use of magic. They smoke a joint and Mathew agrees to pay the swami £200 (well it is 1967, that was a lot of money then) if he exacts a successful revenge on Mathew’s behalf. Very soon Timothy undergoes a complete character change. He becomes an evil tempered homicidal maniac. He rapes Alison then strangles her and smashes her head in with a rock before hiding her body in the woods. Timothy goes on to strangle a drunk in an alleyway and a young boy he catches vandalising his car. It is as he is disposing of the boy’s body that Mathew discovers his brother is the Stilford Strangler. The swami then turns up at Mathew’s flat, seeking his £200. He gives Mathew three days to come up with the money, hinting that the demons he set on Timothy might be re-directed on to him if payment does not occur. Mathew decides to blackmail Timothy for the money, not such a good idea as Timothy is completely barmy by now. He attacks Mathew, they struggle and fight but Timothy overpowers his brother and kills him. He looks up to see this father, who has seen and heard everything. The book ends suddenly, with another death and plenty of bloodletting. The doorbell rings. It’s Inspector Russell from Stilford C.I.D… This was such a strange book. A big stew of things chucked in and stirred up – palm reading, murder, amputation, black magic, blackmail, more murder, revenge, then more murder. There isn’t really a likeable character in it, the Lodways are all mad. But it does make for a good pulpy read…
|
|
|
Post by nightreader on Oct 23, 2007 14:45:36 GMT
The Block by Gerald Suster (Granada 1984)
This has a great opening hook of a prologue, recounting the events that took place at The Larches in St. John’s Wood in April 1901. The police are called to the house after strange noises are heard from within, followed by a piercing scream and a rush of intense heat – which seared the skin of the girls working at the flaggelation parlour next door! Then The Larches bursts into flames killing all who lived there. When the flames died down the police find the blackened remains of two men and one woman, also an altar bearing the charred corpse of a child. On to present times and the large block of flats called Lavender Gardens, built in the 1920’s. Tom and Veronica Bradley move in with their young son Colin, the flat and the development seem perfect, it has it’s own squash courts, and even an interior shopping arcade. Naturally things soon start to go pear shaped. A large cast of characters are gradually introduced to the young family, from the obnoxious advertising exec, to the pushy insurance salesman, the bestselling authoress, the retired colonel, the racist accountant, the junkie night porter and his despicable dealer. All stereotypes of course, in much the same way you’d expect an Agatha Christie cast to be assembled. The trouble seems to start when writer Vanessa Starr hears a disturbing chanting coming from Flat 13, followed by a malevolent snarl “as though some savage and tormented beast had erupted out of the earth and was bent on devouring all before it”. Very soon strange deaths begin to occur, a brick is dropped from the roof and crashes onto the head of an old lady, then Vivien Mostyn the colonel’s wife is killed in a falling lift, one woman is bashed on the head then stuffed into a tumble dryer in the laundry room, but there are many more. The Bradley’s son Colin meets a strange girl in one of the many corridors in the block. She’s called Perpetua and wants him to play hide and seek with her… It doesn’t take too long for Tom Bradley to emerge as the hero of the piece, he begins to delve into the history of Lavender Gardens and doesn’t like what he finds. During the 1930’s one of the inhabitants of Lavender Gardens was a fanatical British Nazi called Hector Prestwick, who lived with a woman called Maud Naseby – both were put on trial for the kidnap, torture and murder of two Jewish children. It also emerged that the two killers had an illegitimate child, a girl they used to lure other children back to their flat, called Perpetua Naseby… Down in the basement Percy Syme feels the Power growing, feels it has chosen him to direct it’s onslaught against the people living in the block. Already he has enlisted the weak and the cruel, the vengeful and the empty. The Power grows and radiates upward through the block, floor by floor, people answer the call and form an army with a central purpose – to kill everyone else. Considerable bloodshed ensues as the inhabitants split into two factions, the posessed and those fighting to survive. The insanity rises, floor by floor through the block. The story becomes pretty gory from here on in, and this section is probably a bit too drawn out for my liking and would probably have benefited from some pruning here and there. In a brief lull in the carnage some of the main charcters are treated to a shared vision of the history of Lavender Gardens, and before it the events in the Edwardian villa called The Larches, and further back still: “Before Tom’s glazed eyes, half naked savages gathered there in the night to worship dark forces with strange, cruel and terrible rites” The survivors find themselves stranded on the roof, the maniac hordes all around them, so it’s a good time for the police and the army to show up. But it’s not quite over because mad Percy in the basement has one final trick up his sleeve… Overall I really enjoyed this book, it was gripping from the Prologue onward, even if it drifted slightly toward the end. It’s a minor criticism. On the strength of this one I’m definitely going to be looking out for more by Gerald Suster.
|
|
|
Post by nightreader on Oct 23, 2007 14:41:18 GMT
Deathwalker #1: Rites of the Demon by Roman Castevano (Tempo Books 1976)
Luke Payne returns home a hero; he says he’s just a survivor. An idealistic journalist, he survived in a POW camp in Vietnam for five long years, but not without injury. Aside from the mental trauma he suffered Luke was also caught in a bomb blast, which left him with a small piece of shrapnel embedded in his head, between his eyebrows, just over his ‘third eye’. Luke returns to his artist girlfriend Diana but also finds much has changed since he’s been away. Diana and his best friend Dawson have become involved in a cult called the Ancient Peace Movement, led by the enigmatic Symrna and a small inner circle of rich and influential people. Luke starts having terrible nightmares involving hooded figures around an altar on which Diana is to be sacrificed. He turns to psychiatrist Marian Lescault for help, thinking he’s just finding it hard to adjust after his experience. Lescault learns through hypnosis that Luke has paranormal powers, which the doctor herself has but to a lesser degree. Luke sees more of the doctor, explaining his fears for Diana and her involvement with the cult. One evening Luke and Diana argue and he heads out onto the streets, walking. He is mugged, almost killed until his attacker bursts into flames and dies horribly. Thinking he’s responsible he turns to Lescault for help. Diana begins to have her own doubts about what she’s involved in, but she allows herself to be convinced into going to Symrna’s country house to paint murals for her. While she is there she witnesses a horrible ritual, observing the inner circle worshipping Mythos the spider god – a creature Luke had seen in one of his dreams: “…half spider, half man, lusting not for blood but for pleasure in human misery, drawing life from the darkest heart of it’s twisted followers… Horribly the spider god manifested itself, whole and perfect unto itself, with a misshaped ebon head, glittering yellow eyes, a mandible open and hungry to be filled, long spider like multi-jointed arms…a demon god beyond mortal nightmares of darkness and evil” As Luke begins to piece together what is happening he reads in the newspaper that Dr. Lescault has been found dead, inexplicably burned alive though her home was undamaged. He is soon visited by the police, as one of the doctor’s patients. The cop is suspicious and easily links the death of the mugger to Lescault's but can prove nothing and goes away. Luke accepts now he is not responsible, but he knows who is. The story builds to the inevitable showdown at Symrna’s country home called ‘Smallwood’, where she reveals an ancient plan to revive Mythos and take control of everything. She tells Luke that she is immortal, has inhabited different bodies for many thousands of years and has her eye on Diana as her next host body. Luke has to face up to the coven of immortals and Mythos itself in an impressive battle, which results in loss of life and a new mission for Luke Payne. This claims to be the 'first in a new series of non-stop action and unbelievable terror!'... so has anybody heard of this? and is there a 'Deathwalker #2' out there waiting to be found?
|
|
|
Post by nightreader on Oct 20, 2007 5:56:56 GMT
Descendant by Graham Masterton (Severn House 2006) The story begins in Antwerp 1944. Captain James Falcon of a top secret counterintelligence unit is called to the scene of a woman’s murder. Her heart has been ripped out and her blood drained. One of her children saw the killers, three of them and one was wearing a unique distinctive medallion. The old lady in the apartment downstairs talks of the ‘night people’. Captain Falcon knows them as the strigoi – Romanian vampires allied with the Nazis to infiltrate and destroy resistance groups across Europe. Falcon learns there is a powerful leader named Duca, but as he closes in on him the house is bombed by a V2 rocket and Falcon assumes him to be obliterated. Several years later in 1957 Falcon has set up a new life, then he is approached by the military, conscripting him again to hunt the strigoi. It emerges that Falcon’s own Romanian mother had been secretly drafted to hunt the vampires, and he is shocked to learn she actually captured Duca and sealed him in a lead casket for transportation to America where military scientists could study him. The plane carrying the casket then crashes into the Thames en route to the US, and because of the secrecy of the operation it was never listed as missing. Falcon is told his mother also died on the plane, although he’d always believed she’d died while he was serving in Europe. Then a dredger finds the wreckage in 1957, and naturally the casket is opened and the body count in London suddenly rises...bodies with their chests sliced open, hearts removed and drained of blood... Though he is a likeable and charismatic character Falcon is single minded and ruthless when dealing with the strigoi. He no longer sees them as human and has no hesitation about torturing them for information to lead him to his goal - to destroy Duca. The strigoi are fascinating creations. Described as being more like distant cousins of the nosferatu the strigoi were isolated for centuries in the forests and mountains of Romania, becoming inbred they developed different strengths and weaknesses to traditional vampires. They can move about in sunlight but need occult medallions to give them enhanced night vision. They don’t have fangs, using instead sharp knives to slice open their prey. There are two types - strigoi mort are the true undead, always vibrant and beautiful, they retain their memories and skills from when they lived, they can move at incredible speed and can appear only as flickering shadow passing by, they can also squeeze through the smallest of spaces and walk across ceilings and up high walls. They pass on the strigoi curse through the Embrace - an intimate exchange of blood or bodily fluids. The Embrace creates strigoi vii, creatures with a raging taste for blood which is never quenched. When they can stand the thirst no longer they return to the original strigoi mort to sup more blood, which poisons them until they too become strigoi mort. Falcon chases Duca and his offspring through London, killing some in a gory fashion typical of Masterton - nails hammered through the eyes, head cut off, body buried in consecrated ground and the head boiled until the brains melt. Falcon has a hunting kit - the vampires are repelled by mirrors (it shows the corruption of their true selves), can be bound by silver thumbscrews and the open pages of a blessed Bible can blind them with an intense light. The hunt for Duca becomes personal for Falcon and they are well matched adversaries. There’s a good speedy chase to Southampton to catch Duca as he tries to flee to America on the QEII. But that’s not the end of the story... I’m quite a fan of Masterton’s work and this didn’t disappoint in any way. I liked the 1950’s period, it didn’t overpower the story and added some pleasing moments - like when a character comes out of a shop and sees a movie poster for a new picture called ‘The Curse of Frankenstein’ starring Peter Cushing and Christopher Lee, showing at the Regal cinema. The vampire creations are as nasty as you could want them, and Duca is arrogant and aloof and totally bad - not like the flimsy vamps of recent fiction. Shame on those booksellers who only have room on their shelves for a couple of Masterton books, squeezed in between King and Rice. Seems to me he deserves better.
|
|
|
Post by nightreader on Feb 23, 2008 11:24:17 GMT
Nothing to add to Dem's excellent summary. "The Slime Beast" delivers on a very basic level, it's definitely a no-frills romp for one of those times when you just dont want to make too much effort to read something. The Professor is disagreeable from the start and the least likely archaeologist you'd ever come across - he'd never get on 'Time Team'. His neice Liz Beck is virginal fluff, serving no purpose other than to get the menfolk aroused - she does this very successfully. Her charms are soon sampled by Gavin Royle, assistant curator at the British Museum, which again seems hardly likely - it's easier to believe in the Slime Beast. God knows how, but this does work. It's very basic but you get exactly what you expect. A quick pulpy interlude.
|
|
|
Post by nightreader on Feb 1, 2008 19:00:54 GMT
Darker - Simon Clark (NEL 2002) ‘Darker’ is mostly a chase story. It begins with a stranger in a flash BMW making a proposition to sixteen year old Rosemary Snow: “Do you want power?” Rosemary is whisked off into the Yorkshire countryside and told to wait in a field for the power to come to her. She waits but ultimately rejects what is approaching. It is massive and invisible and crushes flat anything in its path. Rosemary watches as trees are flattened and a farmhouse destroyed. She runs. The BMW man drives off and assumes she’s been crushed but Rosemary survives and wakes up in hospital, battered and her face stitched back on by a surgeon. In her agony she swears to get revenge on the man who nearly got her killed. The man in the car is called Michael, he describes the invisible titan simply as the Beast. He had control of it once and it brought him immense power and riches but he’s lost that control and is desperate to get it back. He will do anything to control the Beast once more, before it kills him. It tracks him relentlessly and he has to keep on the move or he too will be crushed. Michael infiltrates an unsuspecting family, eventually manipulating them into his drama. He tells them that merely by being with him they are ‘infected’ and the Beast will track them as it tracks him. They see for themselves the destruction the immense entity can do. The Young family, including four year old Amy, take to the road with Michael, the Beast in constant pursuit. It emerges that whoever controls the Beast pays for the privilege with their lives, rapidly aging and suffering agonies. Michael reveals that Alexander the Great controlled the Beast and the secret of his success was written in an ancient manuscript which Michael’s team of academics are close to decoding. He neglects to tell the Young family that Alexander controlled the Beast by proxy, using a string of young girls to channel the power, and that is why Michael wants Amy. So this is mostly a chase story, the characters desperate to stay ahead of the invisible Beast. Personally I found it a bit long, at 410 pages that’s a lot of driving around. Having said that it was nice to have it set in Yorkshire (my home turf) and there’s a great sequence where York Minster is smashed to bits by the Beast – reminiscent of the St. Paul’s sequence in ‘The Medusa Touch’. It strongly reminded me of a Dean Koontz type novel, which isn’t necessarily a criticism as I’ve enjoyed a lot of his earlier work. The characters are strong, the villain Michael is charismatic but without any conscience – he’d happily sacrifice a four year old girl to control the Beast again. The family caught up in all this are believable, and even the little girl Amy manages not to be annoying. The story of Rosemary Snow, her hatred for Michael and her struggles to catch up with him and avenge herself are also well done. Overall I liked the book even if it felt a little bit too long but still definitely worth a look if you come across it.
|
|
|
Post by nightreader on Nov 8, 2007 7:20:57 GMT
Wasn't there one called 'The Saxonbury Printout' by Phil Smith? Sounds like a similar offering to this one. I doubt there'd be much trashy fun in that one either...
|
|
|
Post by nightreader on Nov 7, 2007 19:15:31 GMT
The Resurrection Machine - Phil Smith (NEL 1978) "There's a fire locked in yon hill, fire that you won't find in your science books. Fire that burns in the heart of the stones. Fire that can take human shape and dance across yon ridge. Fire that can burn inside a man's soul and destroy his will. Hell fire!"Arthur Hindle, his niece Kath and her scientist husband Steve are busy excavating a Bronze Age skeleton on a remote Yorkshire Moor. They are confronted by angry local farmer Dick Berrisford, who objects to the dig and the machine on the brow of the nearby hill. He says how he’s found one of his sheep burned to death and he predicts it’s only the beginning. He’s not wrong, he himself is found burned to death by Kath who has felt a strange feeling of oppression on the moor. Kath is very sensitive to the atmosphere of the place, totally the opposite of her husband who is determined not to believe in anything unless it can be scientifically proven. On the hill at Ligginstones stands the machine the local community dislikes so much. It’s an un-manned experimental research station, monitored from a lab in Leeds. The machine is geared up to experiment with “the transmission of data by means of laser beams”. The Police make the connection between the discovery of Berrisford’s body and the machine but there is no real evidence to link the death to the machine, and the Government scientists convince them it is totally safe. What they don’t realise until very much later in the book is that the machine stands at the exact centre of a circular burial ground from ancient times... There is also local talk of a ghostly apparition on the moors known as the Druid and Kath learns that the dead farmer had recently been taking an interest in spiritualism and the old history of the region. Kath believes there is some kind of force up on the moor and spends a great deal of time trying to convince her unimaginative husband. The force in the earth is growing with each use of the machine on the hill... At 205 pages this seemed quite a long 70’s NEL to me, it felt a bit hard work at times with the central characters of Kath and Steven being fairly irritating and the story a bit of a jumble. There isn’t much excitement to be had here, it’s a bit of a plodder. It is resolved fairly well at the end but given there seemed to be the dreaded padding elsewhere the end was quite abrupt. Not really sure what to make of it, I can’t say I really enjoyed it but then I didn’t totally hate it either. Don’t think I’ll be reading it again in a hurry though...
|
|
|
Post by nightreader on Nov 2, 2007 18:33:12 GMT
Paradise Lost- Laurence James (NEL 1984) Paradise is the name of a very secluded, very exclusive and expensive Caribbean resort village for the pampered rich. The inhabitants of the luxury cabins on this remote island are real horrors in themselves: a surgery enhanced old lady with her stud toy boy, an aging gangster with his underage hooker playmate, a honeymooning gossip columnist with a cocaine habit and a very rich wife... There's also a brutal psychotic killer on the island, waiting to pick them off one by one. The island staff are routinely swapped on Mondays, just when a huge storm hits the island, ensuring that the relief staff from the mainland are unable to land. The guests on the island are trapped. Someone has sent a message to the mainland saying the jetty is damaged and can't receive the new staff...then the radio is smashed to bits. And the killings start. This was a great fun read. Basically it's Agatha Christie's 'Ten Little Niggers' but with lots of sex and gory murders. And in the best tradition of whodunnits the killer isn't revealed till the very end. There are lots of music references - one couple meet a very sticky end while Rod Stewart is playing on the stereo! Nothing complicated here, the characters are interesting and superficially pretty awful people (just how we imagine celebs to be). Strangely you find yourself rooting for them by the end. Good stuff. Reccommended.
|
|
|
Post by nightreader on Nov 2, 2007 18:27:18 GMT
Blood Summer - Louise Cooper (NEL 1976) Marion and Roland, two students on a camping holiday in Cornwall, meet the mysterious Keith Sharwood while looking for a spot to set up camp. Sharwood is a strange man, looking like "a half-finished painting by an artist with an obsession about death". Marion soon falls under his spell and when the couple are invited to Sharwood's house party her attraction to him intensifies. Sharwood shows Marion a unique gold statue, in the image of a hermaphrodite with the head of a bird of prey and two giant serpents entwined around it - it is a four thousand year old statue from the ancient city of Ninevah. It isn't long before Sharwood beds Marion and poor unsuspecting Roland gets the heave-ho. Soon after her decision to be with Sharwood she discovers his secret - that he is a vampire who has just killed Roland, she finds Sharwood still covered in his blood. Sharwood has a lot of explaining to do, and Marion is surprisingly easy to convince. He admits to being a vampire, except he doesn't sleep in a coffin during the daylight hours and is not repelled by the crucifix. The light of the sun merely weakens and tires him and he can be killed by any conventional method. Sharwood says: "I'm a human being who can only survive by drinking blood. Human or animal, it doesn't matter... Sometimes I am completely taken over by the compelling force within me; I know I must eat, and I kill. I can't control it until my hunger is completely satiated". Marion resolves to help Sharwood cure his 'vampirism', for actually it's a four thousand year old curse put on his ancestor in Ninevah and passed down through reincarnation. There are strong gothic romance elements in this story - the plucky, determined damsel who falls in love with the charismatic, yet cursed, hero. The atmospheric Cornish setting, lots of impending menace, and the triumph of love over all. For me the enjoyment factor was quite low, I'm not a huge fan of this kind of story (although I can occasionally appreciate a Dark Shadows/Barnabas Collins story). The cover held so much promise, and to be fair this isn't bad, just not my cup of coffee. I see also that Keith Sharwood turns up in Cooper's 'In Memory Of Sarah Bailey' which appears to be a direct sequel. It's on the shelf waiting, might be a while before I get to that one though...
|
|
|
Post by nightreader on Nov 2, 2007 18:23:25 GMT
Who Sups With The Devil?- P. McCartney (NEL 1975) Really enjoyed this one, literally from start to finish. It’s got a great opening scene, with Sister Mary Clare hearing a strange noise in the dark. On investigating she sees a figure which she initially thinks is another nun, but… “…then it turned around to face the light… With a scream that shattered the silence and sent echoes ringing throughout the old castle, she sank unconscious to the floor and the crucifix and the torch clinked and clattered across the stone flags, for the face that looked out from beneath the black habit was the face of death. Wild staring lidless eyes in a mask of decay.” The story takes place in and around Pwll Castle in Wales, now home to a community of nuns who also run a boarding school for girls. Strange things have been seen and heard in the castle but it isn’t until the murder of one of the nuns that the Police are called in. Detective Inspector Bob March and his assistant Sergeant John Fitzgerald of Scotland Yard don’t like being in the wilds of Wales and DI Bob doesn’t have much time for the supernatural either. It isn’t long before there is evidence of a Black Mass being held in the crypt of the castle, another body turns up, the mysterious cowled figure makes regular appearances and a strange black dog is seen around the castle walls. There are also secret tunnels and a dodgy Doctor with an exotic and beautiful wife. Very enjoyable read with a good strong ending (which I won’t spoil). Anyone know anything about the writer? It can’t be Paul McBeatle can it?
|
|
|
Post by nightreader on Mar 22, 2008 19:29:28 GMT
Yeah thats the one Dem - creepy old dude isnt he? Pretty lucky Sean - the blessing of ebay was on me this time This book buying business is way too addictive... wonder if I'll ever get to actually read them....
|
|
|
Post by nightreader on Mar 22, 2008 11:13:48 GMT
New arrivals ... "Dr. Terror's House of Horrors" - John Burke (Pan 1965) "Weird Shadows from Beyond" - Ed. by John Carnell (Corgi 1965) "What Dreams May Come" - Cynthia Asquith (NEL Four Square 1965) "The Edge" - Charles Beaumont (Panther 1966) 65/66 looked like a good year...
|
|
|
Post by nightreader on Feb 27, 2008 18:54:26 GMT
This looks interesting.....arrived today ;D NEL - 1997 According to the cover there's one by Suster called 'The God Game' - never heard of it before...
|
|
|
Post by nightreader on Feb 3, 2008 14:08:29 GMT
Nightie here The 'Not At Night' is the Arrow reprint and does look the business...
|
|