The Lake By R. Karl Largent

The Lake
By R. Karl Largent
1993 Leisure
Paperback, 365 pages

 

                I normally do not like books written in first person narrative. Especially in horror books. I mean, you know right away that the storyteller survives. And if that main character is a bit of a smarmy, self-important twat, then it makes it even harder to dig in. I got over it and let the story evolve but I never really liked Elliot Wages.

                Mr. Wages is an author spending the summer in a small vacation town where he somehow becomes the most popular resident. He dates the town’s most beautiful woman, and he has the respect of most of the population. Despite a less than average summer season, the town of Jericho is bracing for the upcoming Jubilee, when tourists will flock to the town’s lake for fun and frivolity. BUT (yes, there is always a big but), there have been a couple of missing or mutilated kids, an oversized, mutant gar, a mysterious fog, and a permeating odor… should the Jubilee actually take place? Holy Jaws, Batman!

                OK, despite the wonderful cover, The Lake is not a Creature Feature story. Yes, there are a few outsized, aggressive gar, but the real danger is that fog. It seems that a factory on the lake is releasing some deadly shit into the water and it’s mixing with some other shit and making a flesh melting fog. OK, I’m still interested.

                At 365 pages, this book is far thicker than I usually like to delve in to and somewhere around the half-way mark, it became quite a slog. But I soldiered on and by the last quarter of the book, I’ll be goddamned… it got pretty damn exciting. After learning that it wasn’t going to be about bloodthirsty gar, I was a bit disappointed, but it really turned out to be a pretty good thriller. Not a horror novel by any stretch, but a tight, suspenseful nail-biter. Largent has a number of actual horror novels under his belt, so I’m looking forward to checking some of them out.

                As long as they’re not written in first person…

The Deadly Deep By Jon Messmann

The Deadly Deep
By Jon Messmann
1976 Signet
Paperback, 222 pages

                If you have read any of my reviews, you know that I love when nature strikes back, and animals start killing humans. This one, despite being fairly early in the nature-runs-amok cycle, was not on my radar until recently. I finally discovered it, picked it up and was rewarded with a pretty fun book. Not perfect by any means, but pretty darn good.

 

                Some disturbances have been happening along the Atlantic Coast of the US, like a whale smashing a fishing boat to bits, and lobsters attacking the men trapping them. Aran Holder, a science writer, thinks he may have a hot new lead on something to write about and, after his girlfriend is nipped by sea bass, he contacts his old pal at the Fish and Wildlife Service. Sure enough, shit has been going down and Holder is not only going to write about this phenomenon, but he’s also going to help investigate it.

 

                Yes, there are plenty of meetings as scientists and the military try to sort things out, but Messman keeps things rolling along with fresh attacks as the epidemic spreads around the world. Cephalopods, fish of all sizes and even crabs get into the action. (This book came out the same year as Guy N. Smith’s essential Night of the Crabs so 1976 was definitely a banner year for crustaceans.) Sealife even get together to form a tsunami to wipe out Miami Beach. Well done!

 

                When it isn’t an action set piece breaking up the meetings, it’s a sex scene. While the women in the book are intelligent and key to the plot, they also have boobs and Messman loves big boobs. So do I, as a matter of fact. So, there’s sex, animals killing humans, and a military zealot being humiliated; what’s not to love? Well, Holder is kind of a dick for a main character. He even cheats on his girlfriend that he realizes he’s fallen in love with… to “comfort” a woman he’s working with. Also, the ending was a bit of a fizzle.

 

                Overall, I can recommend this one, especially to fans of animal attack stories. It is more intellectual than many of its kin (Messmann is no dummy) and the book is well-written. The science is even almost plausible, I guess. So, dig in, grab a boob or two and read about lobsters snipping the Gorton’s fisherman to ribbons. I have no idea who painted the somewhat confusing cover, but it’s a dandy.

Night Mask By William W. Johnstone

Night Mask
By William W. Johnstone
1994 Zebra
Paperback, 350 pages

                There have been a few homicides of late in La Barca, California and the victims’ faces are missing! That’s right, their faces have been flayed off and taken. This revolting turn of events has a somewhat familiar ring to it, so detectives Leo Franks and Lani Prejean start a cross-country investigation to get to the bottom of it. And how does it tie in to La Barca’s easy listening radio station?

 

                Johnstone really puts the pedal to the metal in this one, delivering mind-melting gore and over the top cruelty, but always keeping his sense of humor intact. The body count is staggering, and the two detectives do everything they can, legal or not, to get to the bottom of it. It become clear pretty early on that “The Ripper” is likely more than one person.

 

                Of course, most of Johnstone’s usual right-wing bullshit is on display here, in fact, he spouts off more than usual. Guns are good, heavy metal is evil, the gay community are freaks, and only God can really be trusted. Whereas that usually adds to the camp charm of a Johnstone book, it gets to be a little too much in Night Mask. Don’t get me wrong; denouncing heavy metal as the work of Satan is never not fun but the gay bashing gets quite irksome.

 

                The scope of the book gets a little too big after a while, as well, and the cozy little killer-thriller starts to get a little long in the tooth. The kill-pits and the disenchanted (heavy-metal) teen followers of The Ripper gets silly. He had a nice little, gory potboiler going but went and made it too big to truly satisfy. Still, I enjoyed this book a lot. Huge print, lots of breaks, gallons of blood, mounds of rotting corpses, and a compelling story (to a point) had me blowing through this one in just a couple of days. There are more twists and turns than needed but dig in, check your brain at the door, load your gun and genuflect… you’re in for a fun ride.

 

               

Nightmare By Lewis Mallory

Nightmare
By Lewis Mallory
1984 Hamlyn
Paperback, 157 pages

 

                This one isn’t terrible, but it feels kind of like a contractual obligation book. The story, such as it is, just meanders along until its somewhat predictable conclusion. There is no passion in the storytelling. Maybe Mallory mailed it in or maybe this is just how he writes: it is the first novel of his that I have read. The book moves quickly enough and there are some excellent set-pieces but many of the settings and characters are paper-thin. But then, I don’t ask for much, so I read on.

 

                The book is about Gideon, a young brat who wants to be left alone, wants things his way, and has the power to make it happen. After torching his parents’ house with them in it, he winds up in a hospital ward, locked away from his sister. She is the only person he has any kind of need for and having survived the fire, she is the key to getting him out. But it won’t be easy as he is fucking weird, and everybody sees it. He remains silent when doctors (or anyone) ask him anything.

               

                Gideon has the power to take a person’s most intimate fear and turn it on them. Policeman Cooper is attacked by spiders, Nurse Simpson has a run-in with a pack of dogs, his sister’s boyfriend Phil was besieged by rats… or was it all in their heads? At any rate, their fear killed them, and nobody knew it was Gideon’s fault except Phil, who survived the rodent rage. Can he make Gideon’s sister see the light before he destroys her, too?

 

                As mentioned above, there are some good set-pieces, such as when Gideon drives his hospital roommate over the edge, and he cuts his own throat with a broken window. The animal attacks are fun: they are the reason I bought the book in the first place. So, while overall the writing seems kind of lazy, it’s still a quick, short novel that delivers the goods as long as you’re not looking for anything too deep. As per usual, Hamlyn gave this a corker of a cover!

Feeding Ground By John Monsees

Feeding Ground
By John Monsees
2025 Grindhouse Horror
Paperback, 232 pages

 

                How to review a book that is dedicated to me and my friend Eric Wright, the guy who got me started on reviewing paperbacks? Easy! I’ll just review it. Mr. Monsees is a friend, but I can be objective. But he does write directly to my tastes so he always gets glowing reviews! He, along with Hunter Shea, absolutely get it! And yes, the author acknowledges that this book is an unofficial Guy N. Smith crab book and he really gets the flavor down perfectly.

 

                The seaside town of Saltwick in North Yorkshire, England is in deep shit. The fish processing plant has contaminated the water with industrial runoff and it has made the local crabs bigger, more aggressive and smarter. After an attack in that very plant and a few missing vacationers, surely they’ll call off the town’s annual festival! No, the mayor wants to cover it up, in true Larry Vaughn style and that puts every townsperson and visitor in even deeper shit. Giant razor-sharp claws shred, dissect and inspect the many humans who go down in a pool of red. These crabs not only destroy humans, but they’re also studying them, learning how to take over the world to become the top species. In all honesty, seeing what’s going on in the US these days (March 2025), I should think they’d do a better job.

 

                A lesser author would have saved up the festival massacre for the climax but Monsees throws us to the crabs in the middle of the book, stranding our main characters (and plenty of crab fodder) in unsafe buildings and stores and eventually, the labyrinthine tunnels under the city where they’re still very much prone to attack. The crabs had been rebuilding these tunnels for decades. Scientist Emma Carlisle, drunken fisherman Jack, factory worker Danny and others are the  town’s last chance. But good luck, because the crabs are using tactical intelligence, cutting off escape routes, rounding humans up into kill zones. See? I told you they were smart.

 

                This book delivers everything you would want and hope for, and more. Obviously, we come for the gore and Monsees never disappoints in that respect. Entrails spill, blood sprays and limbs are severed. The gore is deliciously rendered with prose that would make Ramsey Campbell proud. Monsees, an American, serves up a British flavor that rings true to my eyes (admittedly, also American). Top shelf writing all around, though I must confess that I thought the word “systematically” got a little overused when describing the crabs’ intelligent actions, but I guess there’s no better word for it. In truth, I felt that the last third of the book lapsed a little into information overload and some repetition. Not that the climax isn’t thrilling but for a few chapters working towards the end, things felt a little bogged down.

 

                But that’s just a small bit of nitpicking. This book is to be relished right up alongside the GNS crab literature and I plan on filing it in the crustacean section of my library with those classics. If you haven’t yet checked out John Monsees’ writing, do yourself a favor and dig in. I can guarantee a good read.

Throwback By Guy N. Smith

Throwback
By Guy N. Smith
1985 New English Library
Paperback, 256 pages

                            

                                NEL 1985                                                                                                             Arrow 1990

                This is something a little different from the Master, an epidemic/ horror/ romance story with complete unpredictability. At 256 pages, it is a little chunkier than many of my favorite books of his, but the scope of this story is worthy of the extra ink. Think of it as GNS’s The Stand without all of the extra padding and useless characters of King’s (admittedly pretty good) book. A tidy epic.

 

                The book opens with our main character Jackie Quinn in the midst of physically and mentally reverting back to early man. Germ warfare has fallen on Britain (from who we don’t know) and it is turning everyone into throwbacks from primitive times. Thick brows, extra-hairy bodies and, of course, animal lust. A country filled with cavemen. Jackie’s plight is so well-rendered that I must admit that I was feeling a bit ill following her transformation. It felt like what happens in my own mind sometimes, without the bodily changes.

 

                A handful of people have been spared the horrible germs. Jackie’s husband Jon was in his bomb shelter with his mistress, and they remain normal. Unlike radiation, the germs eventually dissipate and there is no fallout so the normies are eventually safe to leave. But things aren’t quite so rosy out there. Animals have reverted to pre-human form as well and the farmyard is full of beasts. And what will the throwbacks do when they encounter the unscathed?

 

                There is plenty going on here, with tribes of prehistoric people trying to survive, a sadistic Nazi-esque doctor trying to find a cure but reveling in torture and annihilation, primitive “me man, you property” sex, and an army that has no clue what to do. With the narrative being told from both the sick and the unaffected point of view, the frustration level gets cranked up to ten. Did I say romance? Yes, it’s there, just a little different than what you might be used to.

 

                This isn’t my favorite GNS book, but it whizzes by and tells a story of great scope in an efficient page count. It is easy to recommend to fans of the Great Scribbler and the Terry Oakes cover on the NEL edition is pretty sweet. It should be noted that when Arrow reprinted the book, they commissioned a new, different (but still great) cover from Oakes.

Satan’s Seductress By Brian McNaughton

Satan’s Seductress
By Brian McNaughton
1981 Star Books
Paperback, 254 pages

                This is the direct follow-up to McNaughton’s Satan’s Mistress, which was a follow-up (in name only) to his previous Satan’s Love Child. This book picks up four years after the killing and satanic craziness that happened in Mistress and some of the characters from that book return. Should you read Satan’s Mistress before this one? Yes, you probably should.

 

                Amy Miniter had a small role in the previous book, but she managed to survive the massacre that happened in Mount Tabor, Connecticut and she’s back. Away for four years, she returned to settle her mother’s affairs, so she moved into a new apartment complex. The complex, not so surprisingly, was built on top of the town dump where the witch Mirdath was buried. Strange things are afoot in the apartments and the shy, frail and neurotic Amy is targeted to house Mirdath’s resurrected spirit. Tatty journalist Martin Paige (really, it must be McNaughton himself!) is in town looking to write a book on the massacre and puts himself into Amy’s life whether she wants him or not.

 

                Cult leader Howard Ashcroft returns from the previous book as does Amy’s old high-school teacher Mr. Bamberger, both seeking to reincarnate the witch. Amy’s downstairs neighbors provide plenty of sex and violence as the apartment complex goes loony. Todd is an Ashcroft follower and has a mean streak a mile wide anyway. Just ask his girlfriend Toni. What the cult really wants is the Necronomicon and Martin has found it, but can he hold onto it as the world fills with unreality, danger and time-loops?

 

                This book isn’t nearly as action-packed as its predecessor, but it matches it in the surrealism department. Events happen, but then things change back to “normal”, and then back until the reader and the characters are unsure what is real anymore. That is not a knock on the story telling, it is all part of the fun. McNaughton blends suspense, hallucinations, humor and desperation in sure even strokes. Gorehounds will enjoy Toni’s death and subsequent appearances in the story.

 

                This book was rereleased in 2000 by Wildside Press with McNaughton’s original, intended text and title as Worse Things Waiting. As I suggest with Satan’s Mistress, why not go with the more fun and loopier version as Satan’s Seductress? And rather than the big Satan face used on the 1980 Carlyle cover, hold out for the nude art by Gino D'Achille on the Star Books release. His covers are stunning.