Richard Lewis - Devil's Coach-Horse

[dem]

Richard Lewis - Devil's Coach-Horse (Hamlyn, 1979)

Cover: Stephen Crisp

I see that mankind has been at it again, endangering every species including their own with all that pollution and an insistence on building on every last blade of grass. Thank goodness for Professor of Biology and specialist in entomology John Masters! He and his crack team have been experimenting with bugs and small rodents to develop a strain of survivalist creepy crawlies. But .... disaster strikes!

Flying home from a conference in Rome, their light aircraft crashes in the Swiss Alps, killing everything .... human. The specimen devil's coach-horse beetles endure long enough to burrow inside the mangled corpses of Masters and his colleagues and lay their eggs. Now there's nothing to do but await the rescue party when they come to recover the corpses ....

The bug-infested bodies are flown home to Chicago and Cambridge respectively and soon all Hell breaks loose. There's a stampede and sickening abattoir bloodbath in the States and poor Geoffrey and Alison come to a gory end while having it off in a cemetery hut back home, but no-body's onto the beetles yet.

Inspector Mallet is the first to suspect flesh-eating bug involvement when he discovers what little is left of the two Cambridge students but sheepishly admits to Dr. Paul Adam at the Institute that it's madness and he's "been reading too much science fiction." Adams agrees - "insects do not eat people" - but takes away some specimen beetles for analysis, has a shag and forgets all about them. Bad news, that, for the patients in the intensive care unit of Addensbrooke Hospital ....

The Lewis trademark - paragraphs that end with an ominous "By then, however, it would be too late and they'd all be dead anyway" - is much in evidence and the nasty set-pieces are up to his usual high standard. I've not read Parasite but I note from Andy's review that Lewis's ecological concerns are again well to the fore. I think they are possibly more convincing on that occasion.

Thanks to Jerrylad for kindly sending me this!

[nightreader]

Just finished this one and I have to say I really enjoyed it. It's been on the shelf for a while but after reading the brilliant 'Bugged' piece in the excellent Paperback Fanatic 5 I had to give it a go. I preferred it to Lewis' 'Parasite' but the eco-horror still works with worrying relevance, Lewis' mutated beetles are almost possible and you almost end up wondering why this hasn't happened already...

Thanks to the nudge from PF5 I've now got 'Spiders' (Lewis), and 'Maggots' (Edward Jarvis) to look forward to

[dem]

Agreed that Parasite is slightly disappointing. It's the only Lewis bug fest I've merely enjoyed, all the rest are tremendous fun. Although i haven't got Spiders yet, I can't see it letting the side down as sequel The Web is way up there with Devils Coach-Horse and, maybe the creepy crawliest of the lot, Night Killers.

Well done on landing Maggots, nightie! Read it once years ago and thought it was the absolute nadir although I'm sure I'd think the opposite these days!

[fullbreakfast]

It seems a bit of a shame the horror bubble burst before Lewis got to Woodlice!

Much scarier than a devil's coach horse I reckon. Especially if you have a wooden leg

[dem]

Shame nobody thought to do Tapeworms either. If only brainy horror hadn't made a comeback with all that 'dark fantasy' stuff in the mid-eighties.

Your avitar is making me peckish. Can somebody post instructions how to make a mushroom sandwich

[hugegadjit]

This one was a constant on the shelves of Fareham John Menzies, but I never picked it up till about 6 months ago... it's ok, didn't think that special. Great cover art tho!