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Post by dem bones on Mar 11, 2008 13:39:11 GMT
Michael Slade - Ghoul (Star, 1988) `GHOUL will raise hackles, eyebrows and blood-pressure everywhere. Here is a book that gives you real shock-value for the money' - Robert Bloch, author of PSYCHO
- `One of the sickest thrillers ever to draw blood' KERRANG! magazine
Spectre-like and sinewy, dressed in a grey cape and top hat, with a bone-white face and burning eyes, the Ghoul crawls from the London sewers to kill perversely, bloodily, inexplicably.
Meanwhile in Vancouver the horror-rock group Ghoul shock their audiences with a stage act that could only he described as violent and depraved.
What is the connection between the orgy of killings in London and the Gothic outrage of' Ghoul? The answer lies in the dark obsessions and twisted fantasies of an old Rhode Island family whose tainted past will not lie quiet in its grave ...
"Treads a perverted fantastic with droll skill' THE TIMESCould do with a new and far more in-depth or even vaguely interesting appraisal of this, but to continue the mini-top pops-horror crossover fest .... The rock 'n roll one with the groovy hologram cover, set in London for the most part, and the author's have obviously been reading their newspapers. The infamous occasion when Leeds United fans taunted the police with "You'll never catch the Ripper" after a public appeal is name-checked. One of the murders takes place in a barely disguised London cemetery of some repute, and the bombing of a gay sauna predates the attack on The Admiral Nelson pub. Alice Cooper makes a cameo appearance and there's a bizarre interlude where somebody starts slagging off a "Hugh Lamb" over the telephone for no apparent reason. Why it's in there is any-one's guess, as it has nothing to do with anything else in the story whatsoever. At the beginning of the book, rockstar-to-be Axel Crypt is en-coffined and buried alive as part of an initiation ceremony. Rod Stewart claims to have undergone the same when he briefly worked as a "gravedigger" but then he always was a bit of a drama queen.
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Post by sean on Mar 11, 2008 13:44:18 GMT
I read this ages ago. Unfortunately it was during my drinking days so memory is hazy about it, although I do remember it being a good enough read with a nice (if possibly a bit obvious) twist towards the end.
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Post by dem bones on Mar 11, 2008 13:57:46 GMT
I read this ages ago. Unfortunately it was during my drinking days so memory is hazy about it ... Now there's a coincidence .... The first I ever heard of 'Michael Slade' was when the debut Headhunter was published to a massive advertising campaign on the London Underground. I saw a poster featuring the ghastly cover photo, shook my head and wondered what kind of sick bastard could possibly read stuff like that? It didn't take me long to find out. Michael Slade - Headhunter (Star, 1985) THE MOST CHILLINGLY IMPRESSIVE TOME OF ITS GENRE ... GRUESOMELY MESMERISING ... COMPULSIVE READING' - KERRANG!
The Headhunter is loose on the streets of Vancouver. The Headhunter's victims are everywhere. Floating in the river. Buried in a shallow grave. Tacked to an Indian totem pole. All women. All headless.
Magic, voodoo, ritual murder, sexual slavery: these are the roots of the Headhunter's mystery. It is the toughest challenge the Royal Canadian Mounted Police have ever faced. This time, will the Mounties get their man? It's been way too long since I read either of these beauties but I remember enjoying this and the slightly later Ripper (another Ten Little Indians variation) almost as much as I did Ghoul.
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Post by andydecker on Mar 11, 2008 18:51:28 GMT
The first Slade´s were so fucking great! Sure, they are bloated and rambling, and the plot often makes as much sense as an Agatha Christie novel. But they are a lot of fun. Especially the connection with history was interesting. Which horor novel has both a deranged serial killer and an account of the battle of Rorke´s Drift?
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Post by dem bones on Mar 11, 2008 19:45:05 GMT
The Rorke's Drift outing would be Zombie (NEL, 1996): "A murderous battle against overwhelming odds in Africa over a hundred years ago and a crazed killer on a mission of primal vengeance today ....", etc. Is that the one where Zinc Chandler encounters a family of Sasquatch but it's all a drug-induced hallucination or something? These days, I'd probably run a mile from a 400-plus page novel, especially something as convoluted as Ghoul or Headhunter, so it's as well I read them while I still had some patience. They're so incredibly gory! I like the way the 'Slade'-people go into such painstaking detail over just about everything but especially the murders, citing real-life cases, forensic science papers - and each novel includes a bibliography! Stacks of pop culture references, too - and isn't it brilliant that they run glowing endorsements from such a respected literary source as KERRANG! on the covers? Here's the official website, announcing forthcoming Slade novel, entitled - Crucified! I guess it was only a matter of time .... specialx.net/
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Post by goathunter on Mar 12, 2008 0:34:26 GMT
I've been a Slade fan since the beginning. That same cover image for Headhunter was used on the U.S. hardcover edition, and it was so striking that I picked up the book to try it. I was amazed by Headhunter.
I actually lucked out and was on a business trip to the UK in '88 when Ghoul was published, and I picked up the UK hologram cover in a bookstore there. That made the trip (along with the UK McCammon paperbacks I also picked up).
I highly recommend all the Slade novels, though the more recent ones are a little different from the earlier books (no surprise, as the writers behind the scenes have changed some, though Jay Clarke has always been, and still is, the primary writer).
Hunter
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Post by dem bones on Mar 12, 2008 13:14:31 GMT
While we're about it, here's the uncredited cover from the Guild/ BCA UK hardcover edition of Ghoul (1987), which also runs a remixed, extended version of the blurb. Spectre-like and sinewy, dressed in a grey cape and top hat, with a bone-white face and madman's eyes, The Ghoul crawls from the London sewers to kill perversely, bloodily, inexplicably.
From a pub, Jack The Bomber watches the Saturday night crowd of gay patrons enter a steambath. Then he calmly blows it to bits, killing seventeen, and sends a bunch of flowers to Scotland Yard.
Detective Chief Superintendent Hilary Rand is already investigating seven murders by a psychotic butcher the press have dubbed the Vampire Killer when these two new crimes land on her desk. Her career is already on the line, and if she doesn't get results soon, it will be over.
In Vancouver, the horror-rock group Ghoul cavort on stage, their act a bizarre and violent front for what – drugs, snuff-films, dirty money, contract killings? Inspector Zinc Chandler of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police thinks he knows, and is prepared to throw away the rule book to find out.
Is there a connection between London's orgy of murder and Vancouver's underworld of sleaze? The answer could lie in the dark obsessions and twisted fantasies of an old Rhode Island family whose tainted past will not lie quiet in its grave.
GHOUL is a powerful, bloody thriller, as complex and gripping as Michael Slade's sensational first novel, HEADHUNTER.
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Post by bushwick on May 28, 2008 10:37:25 GMT
Am reading this at the mo (slowly, not like me...have interspersed with a Herne the Hunter and will read some more short pulps before I finish). As stated, it's very long! Many, many story threads, impeccably researched, big emphasis on forensics/police procedurals that make it almost like an episode of CSI or something. Some very gory deaths so far. I'm enjoying it...in a way it reminds me of Rex Miller stuff, espec Frenzy, much exposition of the detective's character. Very much set in the 'real world'. More of a murder mystery than a straight horror, in my book. References to Lovecraft, EC comics, heavy metal, horror movies. I get the feeling the end of this may be anti-climatic, not sure why, but I'll let you know!
My copy IS a NEL, btw, 1993, with a nice cover painting - close up of ghoul's masked face, blade glistening in the night...
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Post by bushwick on Jun 15, 2008 14:51:46 GMT
Finally got round to finishing this...I let it rest for a while when I probably should have just piled through it. I was a bit tired of it by the end, to be honest. The climax is VERY far-fetched and hard to follow, to say the least, and feels a bit rushed despite the 400 or so pages that precede it.
Hmmmm. Can't quite get my head round why I wasn't more into this. As I said before, I was finding it enjoyable, then it started pissing me off. It's pretty gory, but I can't really class it as horror. Perhaps if I'd been expecting a straight procedural crime thriller I would have been pleasantly surprised by the 'ghoulish' stuff. Might bother with 'Headhunter' but I'm in no rush.
That's the last 'long' book i'm going to be attempting for a while. God I have become very retarded. Crow 2 at the mo then the Sabat series I think.
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Post by killercrab on Jun 15, 2008 17:02:11 GMT
That's the last 'long' book i'm going to be attempting for a while. God I have become very retarded. >>
Interesting comment Bush. I know what you mean. After reading a bunch of 120 pagers - I was enjoying getting a read down fast and enjoying too the no padding aspect. Started a 178 pager ( which let's face it is still pretty short by current standard) - boy I bellyached to myself about it. I'm in the mood for short sharp novels too it seems.
KC
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Post by bushwick on Jun 15, 2008 17:21:02 GMT
It's an interesting one KC...my theory here is, shorter books tend to stick in my head as a visual thing a lot more, like a film. Around 120 pages, like all the PC Westerns, really resonates in a visual way for me, no padding, lots of set-pieces, broad characterisation. A longer book has resonant moments but can be too sprawling. Case in point - i can remember just about all of 'The Sucking Pit' but can I remember anything about 'The Illuminatus Trilogy' by R A Wilson and R O'Shea?? Pulpy stuff is definitely better short.
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Post by erebus on Feb 1, 2009 21:00:34 GMT
Got this years ago tried reading it and got a little browned off with it IDIOT I came back to this after reading Headhunter. Ghoul is a brilliant novel and then on in I became a SLADIST and bought the rest of his books. Ok some are a little indepth and feel like a history lesson at times but hell they deliver . But I must add that his books are read in sequence as there do have a pattern. HEADHUNTER GHOUL CUTTHROAT RIPPER ZOMBIE SHRINK BURNT BONES HANGMAN DEATHS DOOR BED OF NAILS SWASTIKA KAMIKAZEE CRUCIFIED ........................Read em on this sequence and you'll do fine. Sadly I don't think the later books got published here so go root through ebay.
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Post by franklinmarsh on Jan 2, 2010 16:51:22 GMT
Just reread this for the third time. First time thought it was good but not as good as Headhunter. Second time didn't enjoy it at all. This time round it worked, and worked very well. Perhaps over ambitious in parts, and the convolutions for convolutions sake....Chock full o' references though and enjoyable on a number of levels.
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Post by H_P_Saucecraft on Jan 8, 2010 19:27:22 GMT
Is Evil Eye, Zombie under another name? saw a hardback of EE in the local oxfam & the cover seemed very familiar.
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Post by dem bones on Jan 8, 2010 21:20:28 GMT
yep, it's the same book, dave. if memory serves, it's the one where Zinc Chandler is adopted by the Sasquash but it's all a drug trip or something? on first read, didn't enjoy it half as much as its predecessors.
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