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Post by H_P_Saucecraft on Feb 18, 2009 22:14:57 GMT
Looking forward to this one, sounds as if it could have almost come from Guy N. Smith ;D . Cover scan: |
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Post by dem on Feb 19, 2009 0:41:31 GMT
Oh, now this one looks like it has potential and no mistake. A proper Hamlyn nasty! You're certainly on a roll with these, Saucy. I think i've actually had more joy turning up copies of '70's NEL's in the past year than these despicably lovely Hamlyns. It's getting so we're gonna all have to think about excavating some land-fill sites.  |
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Post by bushwick on Feb 19, 2009 14:24:38 GMT
I've had this one for yonks but have never got round to reading it for some reason. Might give it a go soon. Anyone read it? any cop?
i'm sure i may have something else by this guy too, but i may be mistaken...
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Post by bushwick on Apr 15, 2009 16:11:15 GMT
Read this a couple of day ago, and it truly does not disappoint. Thought it was superb - really well-plotted, very little cheese, mean-spirited and pretty damned enthralling. Best thing I've read for ages. Some very nasty gore and some horrible, completely deviant villains that reminded me of 'Eat Them Alive'! Reads a bit like 'Paradise Lost' by Laurence James, a bit Laymon, and a bit like 'Savage' by Paul Boorstin (which I keep going on about but still haven't reviewed). The swamp setting is very effective. Highly recommended and completely surpassed my expectations. Get on it HP!
Now I'm going to try and find out about the author...
...and it looks like this is the only thing he wrote, zero info on internet, can't find any reviews. Gotta be a penname, but who? I want more! Someone on here must have an inkling?
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Post by H_P_Saucecraft on Apr 24, 2009 19:10:34 GMT
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Post by H_P_Saucecraft on Aug 9, 2009 2:33:25 GMT
Just found this when doing a search for the author. Ivan Mckenzie-Lamb, Obviously Ivan may share nothing more than surname & there's no real evidence that they are the same person, but it set me wondering. www.jstor.org/pss/3243974The part that mentions him having published scientific papers over a 43 year period (1936 - 1978) was of interest, as I think Labyrinth was written in 79. It also says he was a lichenologist & this from the cover & blurb would seem to tie in with the book a bit. So, could this be our man? Edit: more Info on Ivan Mckenzie Lamb here: www.huh.harvard.edu/libraries/fieldwork_exhibit/lamb/Lamb_biog.htm& it would appear, I need to ask could this be our woman; as Ivan eventually became Elke. |
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Post by bushwick on Aug 9, 2009 8:57:17 GMT
I wonder...
Would really like to know though, as this is a cracking novel. Have you read it yet HP? what did you reckon?
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Post by H_P_Saucecraft on Aug 9, 2009 13:23:50 GMT
Haven't read it yet, but I'm off on holiday next week, so I'll probably take a few Hamlyns including this one with me. I'll report back once I've read it.
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Post by H_P_Saucecraft on Sept 2, 2009 19:16:17 GMT
Well, I can confirm it's a great book, some good nasty killings in it, a psycho bar owner in league with a corrupt official who controls the town(the bar owner actually has the upper hand on him via blackmail). The teacher (Davison) mentioned in the blurb is hiding out in the swamp after false rape accusations (guess who her father is). Throw in Snakes & Alligators + a final chase by said psycho bar owner & his gang and you have quite a book.
A standout scene is Davison getting his student to confess she's lying by waving a rattlesnake in her face, when he returns after being fired.
One point that confuses me, is the bar owner appears to be gay later on in the book, yet earlier his lover is mentioned as she (& not just once) & feminine terms used in reference. A change halfway through that wasn't picked up in editing or deliberate? at any rate it doesn't detract, the pace rattles along nicely. Quite possibly a classic.
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Post by bushwick on Sept 2, 2009 20:08:11 GMT
I was also quite taken aback by a very OTT sex scene featuring breast milk.
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Post by bushwick on Sept 3, 2009 13:14:11 GMT
Sorry, I'm mixing up two books. The freaky scene I'm talking about is from 'Savage' by Paul Boorstin.
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Post by H_P_Saucecraft on Sept 3, 2009 16:54:38 GMT
Ah, sounds like another recommendation  I wondered why I couldn't remember that scene. |
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Post by dem on Jun 25, 2010 21:25:13 GMT
Perceived wisdom has it that the Hamlyns are just a bunch of supernatural slashers and giant insect-reptile-mammal The Rats-rip offs, but dig a little deeper and you find VARIETY in the form of Robin Hardy & Anthony Shaffer's classic novelisation of The Wicker Man, Les Daniels' The Black Castle which gave the vampire Don Sebastian his first run out, etc. And then you get a neat surprise like The Labyrinth. Dr. Tom Davidson, all-action biology teacher of Rawlings college, Winterton, South Georgia, organises a field trip to the Okefenoke swampland, much to the concern of Dean Reardon who is terrified of catastrophe befalling the students. Davidson is too capable for that to happen but still finds himself in a whole load of trouble. He's incurred the enmity of Frank Garson, powerful owner of the local paper and plywood mill, having testified against him in a pollution suit filed by an environment agency. Thanks to a generous donation to the college, Garson has landed a seat on the board, while his daughter, Helen, is among Davidson's swamp expedition. One night Davidson awakens in the wild to find her snuggled up close, attempting to give him a hand job. He strikes out, the poor little rich girl wails that she loves him then takes off into the wood. Once they've returned to the college Helen totally blanks her tutor and that seems to be that except we've read the blurb. With Davidson out of town consulting shady numismatist Mr. Conklin about two silver coins his student Kirby unearthed at the swamp, Helen and her father approach Reardon with an accusation that Tom sodomised the girl on the field trip and, whatever he believes, the Dean isn't about to contradict them. He suspends Davidson with immediate effect. According to Conklin, the coins almost certainly belong to the Kirby-Smith consignment, a fund intended to fill the Confederate coffers during the Civil War. If he's correct, there's a treasure trove waiting to be found in the area of swamp known as the Devil's Playground. With his career in ruins and wife Heloise concerned he's on the verge of a nervous breakdown what better has Davidson to do than try and find it? Grizzled old timer Amen Barker, poacher and hermit, lives in a secluded hut by the swamp, forever fearful of discovery and eviction as a trespasser. Amen has just discovered a severed head in the slime of the Devil's Playground, "the remains of a solitary eye, withered to a gelatinous pustule, was the only thing that might possibly have conveyed any semblance of a human being." Yes, it's a Hamlyn novel for sure. Mundus is a thirty-something ex-Viet vet who has just earned a big promotion at the sawmill. Not sure what he has to do with anything yet, but he just brutally murdered Maria Chico, the town's resident nymphomaniac, and the implication is that he makes a habit of this sort of thing. Amen has just made a second grisly find .... To be continued .... Thanks to Dave (the artist aka H. P. Saucecraft) for kindly providing me with copies of both this and Gerald Suster's The Offering! |
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Post by dem on Jun 27, 2010 8:17:41 GMT
Well, I can confirm it's a great book, some good nasty killings in it, a psycho bar owner in league with a corrupt official who controls the town(the bar owner actually has the upper hand on him via blackmail). The teacher (Davison) mentioned in the blurb is hiding out in the swamp after false rape accusations (guess who her father is). Throw in Snakes & Alligators + a final chase by said psycho bar owner & his gang and you have quite a book. A standout scene is Davison getting his student to confess she's lying by waving a rattlesnake in her face, when he returns after being fired. One point that confuses me, is the bar owner appears to be gay later on in the book, yet earlier his lover is mentioned as she (& not just once) & feminine terms used in reference. A change halfway through that wasn't picked up in editing or deliberate? at any rate it doesn't detract, the pace rattles along nicely. Quite possibly a classic. It threw me as well but I'd say it was deliberate. Even when it first comes up and Mundus refers to "her" and "that bitch" in the bar it kind of jarred. "Laurance'? is that a girl's name?" Once Dr. Davidson and snake extract a full confession from Helen before her fellow students and Dean Rearden, the security goons set upon him. He only escapes a brutal beating on the intervention of Prof. Ted Walker, a Morgan Freeman-type (it's surprising just how many sympathetic characters we meet in this novel, and most of them better drawn than the usual Hamlyn & NEL ciphers) who displays a previously unsuspected talent for busting head. It transpires that Garson had been blackmailing Rearden over a sexual liaison with a student and the dean only fired Davidson on the old man's orders. Davidson, now on the run, heads back to swampland. Conklin, the shady coin-dealer is arrested and the Florida police congratulate themselves on taking out a major player in the South's most extensive contraband operations. Conklin's sidelines include porn films, emeralds, moody artefact's and the import of illegal migrant workers. Frank Garson has employed several of the latter at the mill and now he's getting jumpy. His mood doesn't improve any when Mundus blithely mentions that he's committed eleven cold-blooded murders since he's been in his employment. By close of interview he's up to twelve and it is not pleasant to contemplate just how he intends to dispose of the corpse .... At last we meet Laurance, Mundus's machete-wielding lover, and youthful accomplices Roland and Petri (one of whom contemplates shagging Garson's corpse). Helen Garson, who has witnessed the murder through the keyhole, is beaten up by Mundus and left in no doubt that she's next for a box-pressing at the mill. Helen makes an unlikely escape using one of her late father's hunting trophies as a weapon, impaling Laurance into the bargain. She makes for the swamp ... Ted Walker and Davidson's loyal pupil Kirby make for the swamp .... A vengeful Mundus, Roland and Petri make for the swamp ... Forty pages to go. One last push should do it ... |
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Post by dem on Jun 28, 2010 10:18:08 GMT
Finished this yesterday and can only echo Bush 'n Saucy's sentiments. That final 40 pages proved very suspenseful indeed. Mundus and his woman-hating homosexual stooges (not to mention poor old Amen's gangrenous leg and a novel-stealing cameo from the alligator) see to it that there's no shortage of horror, but Labyrinth has more of a 'mens adventure' feel to it, as though it were written with both the Paperback Fanatic and Men Of Violence audiences in mind. Yet another smart pulp gem.
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