Review of The Nightwalker (Mass Market Paperback)

As Jack Ketchum notes in the introduction to Thomas Tessier's The Nightwalker, the werewolf is generally underrepresented in fiction, especially compared to ghosts, vampires and zombies.This reprint of Tessier's 1979 novel helps to fill the void.

Actually, Bobby Ives may or may not be a werewolf.He is, however, an American in London who is haunted by memories of the Vietnam War as well as a possible past life.He is also occasionally finding himself disconnected from reality and overwhelmed with violent feelings.He is possibly becoming a werewolf, but he is certainly because some sort of beast, and he is relishing the feeling more and more.

This is a decent enough novel, which plays with the werewolf legend while not necessarily adhering to it.For one thing, Ives is not the victim of a werewolf bite, nor are his transformations constrained by the moon.Since the whole story follows Ives's point-of-view, for the most part we only given glimpses into what he becomes.Indeed, that is the heart of this small novel:it has less to do with the physical monster than the transformation of Ives's soul.

As I just mentioned, this is a small novel, just a shade over 200 pages.As a bonus, this book includes a 100 page novella called The Dreams of Dr. Ladybank.This is a tale of the title psychiatrist who has discovered he can project his thoughts into other people.Unfortunately, it only works on two people, a male prostitute and a pimp; Ladybank manipulates both of their lives, quickly discarding the motive of "scientific interest" in favor of sadistic pleasure.

Both stories are good tales of both psychological and supernatural horror.While entertaining, they lack that extra oomph that could make them truly great; in part, this is because there are times when things are a little predictable.They do have enough originality, however, to merit reading if you're a horror fan.




Click Here to see more reviews about: The Nightwalker (Mass Market Paperback)

Review of One Rainy Night (Mass Market Paperback)

Having read this novel last year as an import, I was thrilled to see it on bookshelves here in the US.This book is an excellent example of the writing abilities of this author."One Rainy Night" opens withthe murder of a black student by a bunch of rednecks. Shortly thereafterthe small town is plagued by black rain that continues to fall without end. The townspeople who are exposed to the black rain find themselves becomingincreasingly violent towards each other.Within a couple of chapters thewhole town has become insane.Killings are rampant asdecent people turninto maniacs.At every junction where people meet there are attacks.Theviolence is extremely brutal and raw.What makes it even more disturbingis that all the acts are completely realistic.Laymon has a way ofexposing mankind's ugly side that would make even the most hardened readercringe.This is not gratuitous gore like you find in a lot of hack horrornovels but a glimpse at what happens when good people give in to theiranimal nature.

Another distinction in Laymon's writing is that he takesthe conventional roles of hero, victim, villain and completely turns themaround.It is not uncommon for the hero to become a victim, for the victimto become a villain and so on.In Laymon's books heroes sometimes die andvillains get away.The battle between good and evil rages on, often withinone character.The character's in this book are real people forced intothe most extreme of situations with shocking outcomes.

Without givingaway too much of the storyline, I must add that the ending was a bigsurprise.The twists and turns that occurred within the story kept meguessing through the end.The book was a fast, action packed read thatpulled no punches.I highly recommend itbut be warned it is not for thefaint of heart.

Product Description
A horror novel set in a sleepy backwater where a stark madness invades the inhabitants during a prolonged period of 'unnatural rainfall'.--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Click Here to see more reviews about: One Rainy Night (Mass Market Paperback)

Review of A Hard Ticket Home (Mac McKenzie Mysteries) (Mass Market Paperback)

As others have mentioned, this author should get more press and marketing than he does. His stories are different in such a good way. His characterizations are real, his sense of humor is tops and his stories have diversity. I would also like to thank Amazon for introducing me to this author. I liked the Holland Taylor stories and would like to see him trade off between the two. I would recommend reading just one of his books and you will be hooked...



Click Here to see more reviews about: A Hard Ticket Home (Mac McKenzie Mysteries) (Mass Market Paperback)