Carrion By Gary Brandner

Carrion
By Gary Brandner
1987 Arrow Books
Paperback, 265 pages

 

                This is one of the best books I’ve read in a while, even though at the halfway point I’d started thinking that same thought and realized that no actual horror had actually happened yet. Such is the power of Gary “The Howling” Brandner’s writing. He sets up a handful of interesting (if not completely likable) characters and lets them unfold the plot to the reader.

 

                McAllister “Mac” Fain is a dime store mystic. He is quick with the sleight of hand, and he reads tarot cards, telling gullible old ladies what they want to hear. His girlfriend Jillian, the only character with any real common sense, wishes he’d do something more honest with his life. He gets the chance when he is contacted by billionaire Kruger who, after seeing an ad in a tabloid, asks if Mac can revive his dead wife. Of course! Mac asks a voodoo guy nearby (hey, it’s LA!) for some pointers to make his delivery look believable but finds out that he actually has a gift. Kruger’s wife lives again, freed from her cryogenic tomb.

 

                Of course, this interests the tabloids and Fain becomes somewhat famous. Doing a speaking gig, he gets the chance again, raising a kid who’d just been electrocuted. This got him more press. And more press goes to his head. But what of the resurrected people? Are they really OK? According to the aforementioned voodoo guy, they will be restless until they kill the person responsible for their return, one McAllister Fain.

 

                This book is a study on how not to handle fame as much as anything. Fain wasn’t super-likeable in the early chapters but after he becomes famous, he becomes a total douche. Still, there’s something about him that you root for. Once the chills start and the dead are on the loose, his fear and paranoia are wonderful to witness. Brandner actually gave me a couple of spine chills and that’s no easy feat! I plowed through this one very quickly. Read it. It’s a good ‘un.

 

                Carrion was first published by Fawcett in 1986 in the US, but I suggest you save your pennies and grab the Arrow version that came out in the UK the following year. That green-faced and bloody ghoul bursting through a window is a far more potent and satisfying image!