Kiss of the Cobra By Peter Tremayne

Kiss of the Cobra
By Peter Tremayne
1984 Sphere Books
Paperback, 182 pages.

                                                 

    Ah, Peter Tremayne. I am of two minds about his work. His books are impeccably researched, thus making the setting perfect for his adventures, but at times it can be to the detriment of the narrative. His Snowbeast (1983) put you right into the Scottish mountains and maintained a good pace with a few chills, but Ants (1980) was a bit tepid because he spent so much time showing his research of Brazil that it deflated the storytelling. Swamp! (1985) is the best Tremayne book that I have read so far. Taking place in the Everglades, he gives us more horror than history lesson and the book is better for it.

    There’s no doubt that Tremayne (real name Peter Berresford Ellis) put a shit-ton of research into Kiss of the Cobra and the fruit of his studies clog up nearly every page of this novel. Yes, he sets the table nicely, putting you right into Indian culture and teaching you dozens of Hindi words but when you get right down to it, there’s hardly any story. It’s the ol’ “open the tomb- suffer the curse” routine with a cobra goddess rather than a mummy and it really doesn’t do much with what little potential it has. It is horror-lite and it seems like Tremayne just wanted to show off how cultured and intellectual he is rather than tell a scary, exciting story. Never has a 182-page book felt so much like a 900-page book.

    I’m not giving up on Tremayne; there are still a few horror titles of his out there that interest me, but I’m hoping for more like Swamp! and less like Kiss of the Cobra. One thing, though… the cover on that Sphere paperback is pretty sweet.

This review originally appeared in Midnight Magazine #8, July 2021.

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The Montauk Monster By Hunter Shea

 

The Montauk Monster
By Hunter Shea
2014 Pinnacle Books
Paperback, 347 pages

 

I admit it. I’m stuck-up. I don’t give new things a chance. Any horror novel written after 1990 surely sucks. But while perusing the books at Savers recently, this one caught my eye. Despite being newer (2014) and twice as thick as I like to read, the back cover hype made me give it a chance. A gory monster book for $3; it was worth a shot.

Remember when the mangy, hairless raccoon carcass washed up in Montauk, NY and a new cryptozoological hero was born? Well, Shea took that sensational (if fleeting) story and fleshed it out as reality and the results are phenomenal. Indescribable monsters are flooding into Long Island and shredding everyone in sight. Where do they come from and how do you stop them?

Shea gets it. He knows how to write a nature-strikes-back/ bloody monster story and this one is right up there with the best of this beloved genre. All of my favorite tropes are present: introducing characters that are mere monster fodder, gratuitous gore and sex, snarling, unstoppable monsters and the death of characters that you thought would live. One welcome update to the model that I love so much is an ass-kicking, disabled woman; someone that Guy N. Smith would never have had the presence of mind include in a story.

After enjoying this one as much as I did, I looked up Shea’s other titles and it seems that the cryptozoology monsters are his thing. I look forward to reading more of his work, especially his Skunk Ape novel, which clocks in at well under 200 pages. The Montauk Monster runs a bit long because plenty of explanation is needed for the beasts’ existence, but it still moves quickly, and I couldn’t be happier with my $3 purchase.

This review originally appeared in Midnight Magazine #8, July 2021.

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Panther! by Alan Ryan

Panther!
By Alan Ryan
1981 New American Library
Paperback, 212 pages

                To promote his new film Panther, a studio head plans on having twenty live, wild black panthers, freshly imported from Africa, caged in the lobby of the theater on opening night. What could possibly go wrong?

                Granted, I prefer gory action to characterization, but Ryan gives us a collection of good characters to enjoy while we await the inevitable. Once the cats are loose, some (not all) hell breaks loose and Ryan occasionally lets himself slip into Guy N. Smith mode, where he introduces new characters only to dispatch them a few pages later. I live for that shit. Of particular interest is a backfired blowjob scene.

                Considering the mayhem doesn’t kick in until well after the halfway mark, Panther! still manages to stay consistently interesting, if a bit predictable at times. Some plotline shit gets a little convenient by the end, but the story never drags. And I never once rolled my eyes that they were able to capture twenty wild black panthers for this promotional stunt.

                “Black panthers” are a color morph of the leopard in Africa and Asia (and jaguars in the Americas), a fact that is given less than a full sentence in the book. Though roughly 10% of leopards are prone to a degree of melanism, it seems highly unlikely that Ransome, the panther hunter, could have been so successful. But who cares, right?

                So, there you have it… today’s science fact and a thumbs up for Panther! The cover art is by Tom Hallman.

This review originally appeared in Midnight Magazine #8, July 2021.

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