Horror World Book Reviews
October, 2007

 

THE HAUNTED FOREST TOUR by James A. Moore and Jeff Strand
Review by Mark Justice

For those readers who complain that there are no original ideas in horror fiction, it’s time to rejoice.

For the third volume of Earthling Publication’s Halloween series, James A. Moore and Jeff Strand unleash The Haunted Forest Tour. And it’s one hell of a ride.

How’s this for original? One day a forest sprouts up in the middle of a desert town in New Mexico, crushing cars and houses and people as it grows.

But that’s not all. As the title clearly states, this forest is not uninhabited.

In fact, it’s filled with every variety of monster, demon and horrible nightmare creature you can imagine, and many that only the fevered minds of Moore and Strand could conjure up.

And since this takes place in the good ol’ USA, someone figures out a way to make a buck off of it. Train tracks are built around the forest and the Tour begins, guaranteeing spooky but safe monster sightings.

Safe, that is, until the special Halloween Tour. For the first time, tourists will venture deep in the Forest. The Halloween Tour sells out. And the first trainload of wealthy horror fans takes off for the fright ride of a lifetime.

Do I really have to tell you that things go very wrong very fast?

I won’t spoil the rest of the story. Suffice it to say that Moore and Strand heap scares upon plot twists in one of the freshest and most entertaining novels in recent years.

When two strong authors collaborate, the reader never knows quite what to expect. Will the voice of one writer subjugate the other? Will the authors carefully choose a neutral voice, lacking in personality?

In the case of The Haunted Forest Tour, Moore and Strand seem to play into each other’s strengths. Moore’s rich characterization is present throughout. There’s not a throwaway stereotype in this novel’s large cast. Each character is treated as a living breathing person, with a fully realized back story and distinctive personality. Jeff Strand’s brand of black comedy is abundant, along with Strand’s sure hand on the rudder of the story.

The authors offer a frightening and high-octane tale, presented as an apocalyptic disaster movie. Sort of The Exorcist meets The Towering Inferno meets Dante’s Inferno.

So grab your favorite blanket, pour a cup of that warm cider, make sure the candle is lit in the Jack-O-Lantern and settle in with The Haunted Forest Tour, the perfect horror novel for a cool autumn night.

Earthling Publications

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THE HOLLOWER by Mary SanGiovanni
Review by Steven E. Wedel

In all fairness, it’s tough to review a book by someone you like. What if the product of her blood, sweat and tears sucks hairy monkey butt? How do you write that and post it for all the world to see? Well, you figure if the person is really a friend she’ll accept and even appreciate the critique.

Fortunately, that isn’t the case with Mary SanGiovanni’s debut novel The Hollower, available right this instant from Leisure Books.

What struck me right from the beginning was the smooth prose of the text. This doesn’t read like a debut novel. Rather, you’d think the author has several books under her belt and is an old salt at this tale-spinning game. Transitions flow easily, characters are well defined and the plot follows an easy progression that spirals upward to a suspenseful and satisfying conclusion.

The story is about a seemingly random group of people who find one another because they are all being stalked by a mysterious dark figure wearing a trench coat and hat. But this isn’t Humphrey Bogart trying to break out of “ Casablanca” repeats on cable television. The Hollower wants people to die. He goads them to it. And he’s good at what he does.

As the story progresses, you can’t help but appreciate the way Mary’s characters develop. No cardboard cut-outs here. And we don’t get just one well-drawn character with a group of sidekicks, either. Every character is defined, has a history and a destiny, and we feel like we know each one of them. Think of Stephen King’s The Stand and how those characters were so brilliantly created and how they came together to face the menace threatening them.

In short, The Hollower is one of the best debut novels I’ve read in quite some time. It’s a relatively short book, but one you’ll be happy to spend some time with.

Leisure Books

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THE HELLBOUND HEART by Clive Barker
Review by Dave Simms

Twenty years ago, Night Visions published their annual collection which included the man which led to the Stephen King quote, “I have seen the face of horror, and his name is Clive Barker.” Within that book, a franchise was born. Almost immediately, a film followed the novella, followed by several sequels. An icon was also born, the cenobite Pinhead, who to this day is as recognizable as Freddy, Jason, and Michael Myers (yet with a brain).

However, many people forgot that the creator of the Hellraiser series wrote a mind-blowing story more literary than 99% of the genre, which does not condemn the horror community of that decade but rather elevates Barker from the crowd. His prose flows like a diamond through an angel’s innards. Who else could skin a man, rip another apart, sit a cenobite on top of a pile of steaming organs and make a reader marvel at the manner in which he twists the language into beautiful sentences? Forget the puzzle box; work at the layers of this story and marvel at the vicious wonders inside.

Earthling’s 20 th Anniversary Edition includes three extras that make the book worthy of purchasing, even if the reader cut his way through the story several times. Introductions by Peter Atkins and Ashley Laurence lend insight both into Barker’s creative mind and the transformation into the movie that spawned Pinhead (who did not truly appear in the novella). A handwritten page of the manuscript is tossed in, which makes the typical writer feel terribly mortal. Finally, as most readers are aware that the author is also a magnificent artist, the original sketchings of Pinhead and other cenobites close the book. Viewing how they were “born” puts the patchwork flesh onto their bodies in a way that even “The Engineer” (the frightening leader of the immortals in the story) would find innovative. With these goodies between the gorgeously demented covers (which Barker designed, one might feel as if he or she found something as valuable as the Lemarchand Configuration (the puzzle box) itself, but the pleasures enjoyed will not result in eternal damnation (I think).

Recommended for both readers and collectors.

Earthling Publishing

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ALL THE PRETTY GIRLS, by J. T. Ellison
Review by Hank Wagner

First novels seem to fall into two categories--they're either outrageously bad, full of rookie mistakes, or surprisingly good, well-written, well-conceived, well- executed tales that create favorable attention for their authors. Books that fall into the first category are extremely tough reads, books that you keep hoping will get better but never do. Books that fall into the second category are distinct pleasures to read, if only because you feel so good for their authors.

All The Pretty Girls falls solidly into the second category. A suspenseful tale of an urgent police investigation into several murders committed by a depraved serial killer (who leaves the hands of his/her previous victim with the handless corpse of his latest victim), it will keep most readers engrossed for several pleasurable hours. Ellison, whose writing is remarkably accomplished for a first time novelist, does a terrific job of getting into her characters' heads, creating a sense of immediacy that is as impressive as it is engrossing. Although the book's final twist is not the outrageous surprise that Ellison no doubt intended, it still provides a highly satisfying climax to an outstanding first novel. Highly recommended.

Mira Books

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THE SERVANTS by Michael Marshall Smith
Review by Dave Simms

After reading the first few chapters of The Servants, I stopped to glance back at the front cover. This was Michael Marshall Smith? The same man who penned such amazing works as Spares, One of Us, Only Forward, and The Straw Men trilogy (ok, so he dropped the Smith for those)?

Why did I check? Those novels harbored a more hardboiled narrative, filled with beautifully nasty images in strange realities, or just strange versions of our reality.

The Servants is just beautiful. Other reviews have called it a parable, coming of age story, or psychological ****** of childhood. I found it simply an enjoyable read - once you realize there won’t be any hideous murders or ass-kicking by some ex-cop or ex-con shenanigans – that will linger long after you realize what Smith accomplished.

The story is simple (in Smith’s world): 11 year old Mark moves with his mother and new stepfather from London to an ocean town just after the tourist season ends. Between learning how to stay alive skateboarding and escaping David, whose major crimes are forgetting to buy Diet Coke, disliking Chinese food, and just being the droll, uninteresting American substitute for his true father, he learns that his mother is very ill.

If it ended there, the novel would make a fine family drama about how a boy finds his place in a strange new world as the one he’s used to crumbles like the sand on the beach in front of him.

Yet this is the man who has delivered us into many unique places with an imagination rivaling any other world class fantasist. So, there is more. He discovers, with the help of the elderly tenant below, servants quarters behind a thick door. What he finds there intrigues him and changes him forever.

The prose flows in a way one familiar with Smith’s novels is used to, but instead of ragged, razor sharp plotlines, The Servants rolls in like the morning tide. Then it sweeps the you out in its undertow and holds you hostage to play upon the emotions young Mark experiences until they become part of your own. This reminded me of early Bradbury or Charles DeLint in the manner that a mundane setting morphs into a world of fantasy, sometimes dark and disturbing, but so easily done, you don’t notice it happening – or don’t care because it’s so finely written.

Recommended for anyone who still visits his or her inner child.

Earthling Publications

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HEBREW PUNK By Lavie Tidhar

Review by Norm Rubenstein

I’ll readily admit that I’d never heard of Lavie Tidhar prior to reading this newly released small soft cover volume which collects four of his short works of fiction; two stories, The Heist and Transylvania Mission, run approximately twenty pages each in length, while the remaining two, Uganda and The Dope Fiend, each run near fifty pages. However, after reading this delightful and fast-paced book, I can not only highly recommend it, but anxiously look forward to further stories and longer works by this talented writer.

Tidhar takes many of the tropes of traditional Hebraic myth and mysticism and gives them entertaining and fresh new twists. Thus, in these four stories, the Reader is introduced to such characters as a Jewish vampire (who isn’t effected by the Christian Cross), a hard-boiled, dark Rabbi, steeped in the knowledge and training of Kaballah with his Golem gunsel, and a “fallen” Tzaddik; literally, a “righteous person,” as per tradition and legend. At any given time, there exist thirty-six (36) such spiritually superior humans, the Lamed Vov, a/k/a the Tzadikim Nistorim, chosen by God, to preserve and maintain the order of the world, without whom, the Earth itself would cease to exist. Tidhar’s spin on this legend creates a notable character, Frankie Bloomenthal a/k/a The Tzaddik, who, while immortal, has been thrown out of the Tzadikim Nistorim by the other thirty-five members due to vague, but acknowledged, misdeeds relating to “an unfortunate taste for expensive drugs and young girls.”

Let me stress that no potential Reader of Hebrew Punk need worry about having any prior knowledge of these, or any other, myths/legends/tenants of Jewish Mysticism or Hebraic supernatural tradition. The author makes sure to adequately explain any and all such terms and tropes within the context of each story, and does so very entertainingly and unobtrusively.

Each of the four stories contained within this collection is a minor gem, with the Author re—using these interesting and memorable characters, and even, in one story, The Heist, teaming them up to delightful, if intense, effect.

Tidhar’s stories remind me, in a good way, of the very best of the Golden Age Pulps, stories that in a bygone age would have been cover-featured in an especially good classic issue of Weird Tales. There is no filler in any of the stories, they move forward commandingly and quickly. Yet, Tidhar’s writing style is more sophisticated than that found in the vast majority of the Pulps, making the stories something more than mere easy escapist literature. The book is an engaging read and leaves you hungry for much more of both Tidhar’s creative characters, and for more of the Author’s nicely conceived and styled writing. Highly recommended.

Apex Publications

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THE BLACKBURN & SCARLETTI MYSTERIES, VOLUME TWO by Karen Koehler
Review by Patricia Snodgrass

I am an unabashed fan of Karen Koehler’s work. I loved the first installment of the Blackburn and Scarletti Mysteries and looked forward to the second volume. I adore the character of Dorian Scarletti and liked January Blackburn and anxiously awaited the second installment.

Sadly, I was disappointed in the second volume. The first story, entitled “Legion,” opens to find January Blackburn hanging out at a science fiction convention. She is summoned to New Orleans where she is reunited with an apparently ailing Dorian Scarletti, and of course, the Jackal. Blackburn and Scarletti have been assigned the task solving several baffling murders in the Crescent City.

Apparently there is a demon on the loose, and Blackburn, who falls ill during the investigation fears she is possessed. What she doesn’t realize is that her partner is getting steadily more sick and acting abnormally.

There are some spectacular scenes in this story. The fight with the demon in the chapel, as well as the exorcism of Scarletti is very creepy. And I loved Blackburn’s encounters with the Jackal. Further, the climax of the story is new and unexpected and I found myself quite satisfied with the ending, and feeling more than a little sorry for poor Scarletti.

However, there were moments in the story that didn’t work for me. For instance, she sets the story in New Orleans; which is now a stereotypical vampire haunt. The descriptions of the decaying old mansion, the chapel, and the grounds, Blackburn’s encounter with the Jackal in the basement of the house are all reminiscent of an Anne Rice novel. I found this somewhat unsettling because I know Koehler’s work is innovative and new. Further, I found myself skimming over descriptions of what people were wearing.

During the possession of Scarletti, there are two scenes where there is great internal conflict, but Koehler doesn’t expand on it. Scarletti calls Blackburn a swine, and then drives off in Jackal’s car. Blackburn doesn’t seem to find this unusual, and is more worried about her personal inner workings than her partner’s odd behavior.

Shortly after Scarletti leaves, Koehler describes a scene in which Scarletti is being held prisoner and is tormented by what he believes is his former teacher.

I found this scene change abrupt and confusing. When I first read these scenes I thought Scarletti was literally abducted and was being held somewhere. I had to go back and re read the passages before I realized that this was something going on inside Scarletti himself and not an actual abduction.

“The Phantom of the Soap Opera” is the second installment of the “ Blackburn and Scarletti Mysteries”. This story opens to the filming of an abysmally bad vampire soap opera. The series is failing, not just because the writing is terrible—which it is—but also because of several inexplicable incidents happening around the studio. When leading man, Jamieson Frost begins hemorrhaging, co-star and pop singer, Canary calls an old friend to determine the problem.

At this time we find Dorian Scarletti healing quietly at the Vatican. His beautiful face ruined, he now tends the gardens and attempts to find peace. He is called upon by his old student, Canary, to investigate the happenings at the studio. He reluctantly agrees, and enlists his former partner, January Blackburn to help solve this mystery.

There are scenes in “Phantom of the Soap Opera” that are brilliant. I loved the flashback scenes where Scarletti and the Jackal back in 1800’s California, stranded in a small town called Calico. The stagecoach scene and Scarletti’s quarrel with the saloonkeeper was simply wonderful. I also loved Scarletti’s interaction with the most unusual character of Robin Blue. I found these more interesting and more real than the present day scenes where the Hollywood characters are undeveloped and somewhat cliché.

Frost, for example, comes with a carrying case filled with medication. When he started vomiting blood I assumed he was simply ill. Had he been healthy, the vomiting blood scene would have caused me to pause.

Mike, the producer, comes from a porn queen background. Ariel is a vicious Bette Davis wannabe. Further, when Blackburn is forced into makeup and dress in order to become a part of the cast reminded me too much of the film “Miss Congeniality.”

Koehler’s flashbacks to 19 th Century California were much more original than the rest of the story and it seemed, at times that the story was written by two separate people.

As much as I admire Karen as a writer—and she is truly talented—I just wasn’t happy with the way this volume came out. I expect new and original ideas from her and sadly this time I didn’t get it.

Black Death Books

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FRIGHT by Cornell Woolrich
Review by W.D. Gagliani

Noir crime is always horror-tinged. Black is horror's color, after all. Characters in noir are always perched on the precipice, about to fall into the abyss – often an abyss of their own making. Their lusts, their greed, their need for revenge, their weaknesses (such as an inability to resist temptation) all draw them in. And once they are in over their heads, their world turns dark. Though not necessarily a strict definition of noir, it certainly fits most of the time.

Cornell Woolrich is an unheralded master of noir. His name belongs in any sentence that includes Hammett, Chandler, and Thompson. The famed Hitchcock movie "Rear Window" was based on a Woolrich story, and most of his work has found its way to film or television many times over as inspiration for all sorts of projects. In bringing back Fright, Hard Case is giving us a peek at a minor classic, mostly forgotten, but still as crisp and poetic as its 1950 debut.

Prescott Marshall is an accidental murderer. He marries Marjorie, a New York society girl, but earlier that same day he rid himself of a blackmailing young woman by killing her. Accident or not, at this point Prescott is a bit sympathetic – after all, both the straying and the murder were mistakes, accidents. But immediately he begins to sink in a pool of his own fear, constantly hyper-aware of others and their motives. Every stranger's hand is a potential threat. Every look, every word, every nuance becomes a new brick in the wall of his obsessive fear of capture. He flees the city, his wife's city, with her in tow and begins the slide that will turn him from marginally sympathetic to irretrievably monstrous. As his reason fades, his reactions to perceived threats grow in intensity and before long he becomes a loathsome figure, a calculating, claustrophobic, impaired husk of a man who has ruined all around him. The descent is chilling. And fascinating, for it rings psychologically true.

Sometimes approaching stream-of-consciousness narrative, and occasionally structured in puzzling, poetic paragraphs in which the verb almost hides coiled underneath the words like a venomous snake, Fright is an unusually heady reading experience. There is sardonic humor in the narrator's 1950 recounting of the 1914-1916 events, often referring to "those days" as if it were a tale being personally delivered, but there is little humor in the story itself. Woolrich maintains both a raconteur's detachment and also an extremely limited point of view, telling the story through Prescott's compulsively neurotic eyes and perceptions, tightening the claustrophobic effect first of being in Prescott's guilty world, and then in the even more tightly-wound inner space of his obsessive fear of discovery. Read carefully, the novel could double as a manual on insanity and its symptoms. Irrevocable bleakness, finishing with a literary shiv between the reader's ribs – that's as noir as it gets.

Hard Case should be thanked and rewarded for continuing to reintroduce modern audiences to the masters of the genre. Their work shines forth in these new editions regardless of the original publication year. Why? Because human psychology never goes out of date.

Hard case Crime

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LORD OF HOMICIDES by Dennis Latham
Review by Ron Dickie

Nathan Bright has an unusual talent. He sees things. Things that other people cannot, or will not, see. Nathan sees demons, and they're real, and they're everywhere. The problem is, they know he can see them, and they're curious as to why. With the coming war against Heaven, the demons will stop at nothing to insure their own victory, including making Nathan's life a living hell.

Labeled as "paranormal humor", Lord Of Homicides seems confused at times as to whether or not it wants to be laugh out loud funny, or a more serious piece of fiction. Make no mistake, there are humorous moments, just not as many as one would expect when the publisher makes a point of telling you it's supposed to be funny.

The characters are a bit stereotypical throughout, but with just enough "over the top" enthusiasm to make you keep reading them. You'll cheer for some, and pray for the slow agonizing death of others. In that sense, Latham has made us feel something for his characters, rather than filling the book with ciphers.

Overall, I'd give Lord Of Homicides two and a half star out of five. It's not the greatest read in the world, but it will help you escape for a few hours, and to me, that makes it worth picking up.

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IN A DARK PLACE by Steven Shiverdecker
Review by Keith Latch

At less than two hundred pages, In a Dark Place is a little novel, but tells a very big story. Steven Shiverdecker’s debut is a combination of classic slasher concepts: Freddy Krueger, Jason Voorhees, and Michael Myers all enlivened by his own unique twist on the thrilling subject matter.

The book is the story of Megan Baker, a normal teenager with all the pressures and problems such a pivotal time often entails. Set in the ideal small town of Lucasburg, we’re introduced to Megan just as her maternal grandmother passes. Megan, who is incredibly close to the older woman, takes this loss hard. Fortunately, she has her friends, Tiffany and Taylor, to help see her through.

While going through her grandmother’s belongings, Megan discovers a trunk with newspaper clippings from the 1920’s. The articles concern a rash of horrendous murders committed by a carnival clown by the name of Screeches. For some reason, the evil clown has returned to Lucasburg, and its sights are set on Megan and soon begin invading her dreams.

Instead of quickly dispatching the young Megan, the clown begins picking off her friends, one by one including Kyle, a recent attraction of Megan’s. Consequently, Screeches doesn’t believe in painless death, as witnessed by the hook he uses to send his victims into the afterlife.

While this novel isn’t as polished as that of a veteran, and could use a bit more development, Shiverdecker has penned a tale but entertaining and disturbing.

Rich indulgences such as jack-o-lantern Molotov cocktails and the dead speaking to the living via telephone are great details that I have to thank Shiverdecker for. And with the jarring conclusion, In a Dark Place is a remarkable ode to all things horrific that should not be missed by a writer that’s sure to be around for a while.

Infinity Publishing

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REHEARSALS FOR OBLIVION: ACT I edited by Peter A. Worthy
Review by Steve Middaugh

This anthology is a worthy successor to Robert W. Chambers' The King In Yellow. A reader could only wish that Chambers himself would have written more and developed further this Carcosan mythos. Rehearsals For Oblivion is still the next best thing any reader could ask for.

You don't have to go and read the four stories by Robert Chambers before reading this book. The Rehearsals stands by itself. Most of the stories follow the ground rules set by Chambers. However, most of the information for the Carcosan mythos were expanded in a few select details. Too much details would ruin the mystery of the two-act play of the notorious "The King In Yellow". It is said that anyone who reads or even browses through the play will descend into madness. Only a lucky few may survive the ordeal.

"Dream Leech" by the late William Laughlin is purely Lovecraftian in construction rather than Chambers but still a damn good yarn. It concerns a reluctant artist creating set pieces for a stage play put forth by a mysterious curator by the name of Wake. Things go terribly strange and the artist can’t help but get suspicious. It isn’t until everything comes to a head that he realizes what Wake really had in mind.

"Chartreuse" by Michael Minnis is Sam Peckinpah's "Cross Of Iron" with The King In Yellow tossed in. Five Germans soldiers, desperate for a break from the fighting, come upon a derelict farmstead by the lake which they figured was a convenient place to stay for a spell. Unfortunately, one of the Germans had a book The King In Yellow and read it.

"Lilloth" by Susan McAdam is a Twilight Zone tale concerning a strange skinny girl with a talent for making things happen with her imagination.

"A Cat With the Hand Of a Child" by Mark McLaughlin is equally strange with dry humor tossed in. The title says it all, literally. A tale about a feline with a paw for a kid's hand.

In "Broadalbin" by John Scott Tynes, I’m immediately reminded of Raymond Chandler and Nelson Algren, the story is about a junkie in the 1930s holing up in a hotel, Broadalbin, after a shoot out with a gangster, where strange things occur in a periphery at first, then full blown at the end.

"The Adventure Of the Yellow Sign" by G. Warlock Vance is a fun Sherlock Holmes story. Holmes and Watson are lured to an out of the way place by an artist craving for revenge with a Lovecraftian angle.

"The Machine In Yellow" by Carlos Orsi Mortinho is set in Portugal under a dictatorial regime, where the playwright translated The King In Yellow into something very daring and with scary results.

Rehearsals For Oblivion is a fine mixed bag collection of stories and a few poems pertaining to Carcosa. They're all well written and well edited by Peter Worthy. They're diverse in construction and execution; and strange, haunting, and very nightmarish. A worthy successor to Robert W. Chambers' The King In Yellow. I'm definitely looking forward to the Second Act.

Dimension Books, an imprint of Elder Sign Press

 

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