Night-Shriek
by Michael Wolfitt
Paperback, 223 pages
I swear I thought I was reading
a William Johnstone novel except there was no right-wing agenda and it took
place in London, not Louisiana! But holy hell, it’s just as batshit crazy as anything
in the Johnstone oeuvre!
A couple, Roger and Hilary, get
into an accident on the way home from their friends’ house and wind up in the
hospital. Hilary was pregnant and loses the baby. The fetus was a weird looking
thing, so the doctor saved it to examine later. The fetus breaks out of the
storage cupboard. Cats start spying on people. Nurses die. Everyone involved
with the case start dying violently. It seems Hilary had the bloodline of the
ancient Cat Goddess Bast. See what I mean?
You know me. I can’t resist
cat-horror. There is plenty of feline fear in the pages of this book, be it a
sleek black cat staring a victim down through a window or a person actually
becoming a cat. The more convoluted the storyline became, the more I had fun
with this absolute mess of a book. Egyptology often loses my interest in books
but this time, it all worked for me because of the laughably over the top
audacity of the story.
I’m not saying this is a
terrible book. I found it thoroughly entertaining. Yes, it is batshit crazy,
but it never dragged and kept me smiling throughout. And if the cover art by
Tim White (actually credited on the back cover!) doesn’t grab you, then I don’t
know what will. Filled with kinky sex, mutilations and mind-control… they just
don’t publish books like this anymore.
Online sources say that Wolfitt is actually Mystery writer/
poet Mike Fredman but I haven’t seen Fredman himself admit that anywhere. I
won’t be searching out his recent poetry or any of his Willie Halliday
detective novels, but I will cherish this strange little piece of pulp forever.
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