Satan’s Snowdrop
By Guy N. Smith
1980 Pocket Books
Paperback, 256 pages
My love of Guy N. Smith is well
known. As an addict of nature-strikes-back novels, many of his books are near
and dear to my heart. Some of his non-animal books can be hit or miss with me
but he always weaves an interesting story. Satan’s Snowdrop is an
excellent book by anyone’s standard and there aren’t even any killer crabs in
it. It is a hard-core haunted house tale.
A rich American dude buys a picturesque
Swiss mansion that had been the stomping ground of a Nazi torturer. Within the
walls walk not only the tortured souls of the victims but the very evil that
made all of the shit go down. Even moving the house, brick by brick, to America
doesn’t quell the spirits. His family falls victim to the house and he finally
sells it… to a new buyer who fares no better.
The story is told in two parts,
essentially from the viewpoint of two young boys who are forced to live there
by their fathers, one after the other. Smith doesn’t blink when it comes to
putting children in harm’s way and that is a welcome change from a lot of
horror literature. Normally, I’m not into creepy kid novels but when the kids are innocents and the supernatural threatens them, I’m in.
Satan’s Snowdrop is a haunted house book that works; there are many unnerving passages and Smith toys with the reader, setting up scenes that he knows will mess with you, and he succeeds. This sits in my top-5 of non-animal Guy N.
Smith books. For now.
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