Came a Spider By Edward Levy

 

Came a Spider
By Edward Levy
1978 Berkley
Paperback, 232 pages

 

Genetically altered, huge, hungry black spiders overrun Los Angeles. I know, we’ve heard all this before but this lesser-known spiders-attack book has plenty of new ideas to offer and is written in a breathless style that kept the pages a-turnin’.

 

Starting off with a young boy getting bitten by a voracious spider in the desert, it never really lets up. Oh yeah, kids buy the farm in this one. In fact, little Lee, the victim, was now an incubator. These spiders lay eggs in their human victims or just completely devour them. “A thick, black, hairy carpet…” is a pretty nice way to describe the onslaught of arachnid atrocities.

 

In addition to the spider juggernaut, Levy gives us some pretty good characters. The police lieutenant in charge is a very relatable guy for me… a bit overweight, getting a bit old and tired. This is not what he needed. There is also a touched upon, but never fully explored, nerd romance between the scientist in charge of finding a solution and one of the scientists responsible for creating the new strain.

 

Real science is out the window here… this new species reproduces super-fast and are ready to eat up LA at the drop of a coin. They eat up the zoo, and there is a wildly entertaining attack on a movie theater. Fuck The Blob… these guys mean business. Containing them proves to be a real problem.

 

Yeah, like I said; nothing brand new here but a very entertaining take on the Spiders Attack genre. It’s as good as a Richard Lewis spider novel and better than much of the swill I read and enjoy. Levy has a few other novels that I’m interested in reading, including The Beast Within which was adapted by Tom Holland for a film for MGM in 1982.

Blood Flies By Gene Lazuta

Blood Flies
By Gene Lazuta
1990 Charter/ Diamond
Paperback, 265 pages

    
                                              

                I just finished this book and I have absolutely no idea what I just read. Never have I slogged through a more confusing book.

                OK… here’s the gist. Pete Blackwell is summoned to Sharthington, Ohio in a dream. His grandfather had basically built the town and discovered an old Indian legend living beneath Black Island. Oh, and there’s a tower on the island. Anyhoo, Pete’s grandad experimented with this legendary life-form, mixing the DNA with other animals, creating new, weird animals.

                The Blood Flies? They’re described in many different ways, but mainly like toads with wings. They secrete a poison that Kyrik, the bad guy-sheriff, milks to sell and do his own nasty experiments. The flies themselves aren’t even mentioned after the half-way point. Kyrik doesn’t last much longer. The last third of the book is the old Indian legend taking over.

                Or something.

                Now, the story did hold a kernel of interest in it for me, but Lazuta overwrites to the point of parody at times. Conversely, some elements are glossed over so I had no idea what he was “talking” about. The story has an epic scope but seems only partially told. An early 10 pages of exposition told by a drunken sot sets it up, but it still never became clear for me.

Overwriting and senseless prose; a case in point, talking about a girl that Kyrik was holding captive for vivisection (yeah, I know…):

                “She wore a pair of dark trousers, with cuffs— Kyrik always liked cuffs, Pete didn’t think, he just knew, somehow, without thinking, he wasn’t thinking, he just… was— and her shirt was pink.”

                I shit you not. I didn’t change a thing.

                At the end of Part 2, the story pretty much seemed like it should end, but no… there were 100 more pages of word soup to go. Other than some cool mutated animals in the beginning of the section, the third part drags on and on and on. I had to power through to finish it. No fucking clue what went on. Cool cover, though.

                Sorry, Gene. I won’t be looking for your other books.

Croc Attack By Brian Gatto

Croc Attack
By Brian Gatto
2022 Raven Tale Publishing
Paperback, 188 pages

 

                When I see there’s a book called Croc Attack, you bet your sweet ass I want to read it. The author mentioned it on the Books of Horror Facebook page, putting it on my radar, and since it is reasonably priced, I grabbed a copy.

 

                A group of twenty-something conservationists head into the Everglades to tag some animals, take some samples and, in general, do science stuff. This rubs some of the locals the wrong way (damn tree-huggers) but even worse is the thirty-seven-foot Crocodile that has started to make itself known. The book does exactly what it promises; there are loads of Croc attacks as well as inappropriate sex. Gatto is obviously a fan of 80s pulp horror and knows what is required for a book of this type.

 

                The characters don’t really matter; it’s a case of set ‘em up and knock ‘em down, which I am a fan of. To an almost comical point, all of the women are stone cold gorgeous, but if I can suspend disbelief for a 37-foot Croc, I have no trouble doing the same for every woman in the book who is a perfect 10 with a huge rack. No wonder everybody is so horny! People hook up left and right and some think about sex even as they are about to be chomped.

 

                The main storyline is similar to Numunwari (aka Killer Croc) by Grahame Webb and the film Dark Age (1987), which is loosely based on Webb’s book. Coincidentally, there is even a common surname of Darwin in both books. Croc Attack isn’t as gory as I wanted for the first two thirds of the book, with the Croc relying more on stealth, but towards the end, the kills get juicier.

 

                Like almost all self-published works, another pass at editing could have helped. There are a few sentences I would have reworked, and some word changes I would have done. (Yes, the mouth is cavernous, and the hide is scale-laden, but both terms were used too often.) Also, ecosystem, not echo system. These quibbles don’t put me off, they just bug the editor in me.

 

                I admit that I got a bit confused near the end when the action is told from a few different perspectives. Still, I will keep an eye out for this young writer. He has a good sense of humor on display and seems to have his teeth in the right place.

Bugged! By Donald F. Glut

 

Bugged!
By Donald F. Glut
1974 Manor Books
Paperback, 192 pages

 

                To me, Don Glut has always been a true Renaissance Man. Filmmaker, actor, screenwriter, director, musician, and dinosaur expert. It is his comic book writing that first made his name familiar in my life. He wrote for Warren’s seminal horror mags in the early Seventies (Creepy, Eerie, and Vampirella) as well and countless stories for Gold Key, including creating Dr. Spektor and Tragg, two familiar titles in my house when I was growing up. I was excited to finally catch up with this pulpy horror novel from back in the day, written concurrently with much of his comic work that I’m most familiar with.

 

                Members of a college fraternity show up for their 20-year reunion. The meeting place is one member’s home, deep in the swamp. What could possibly go wrong? Well, first off, one by one, the members get devoured by various insects. Could the member they called “Bugs” be behind the nefarious deed? And if so, just how is he accomplishing this sordid feat?

 

                Glut’s comic book sensibility is on full display here and it works well, pushing along the quick pace of the book. The characters aren’t deep and Glut sets ‘em up and knocks ‘em down. You have a mad scientist, his hulking henchman and plenty of victims that deserve their fate. The short novel plays like an old mystery more than anything; it would have fit well into Popular Library’s Frankenstein Horror Series. But never fear… Glut ladles on huge dollops of gore to keep things from reading too antiquated.

 

                Bugged! Is back in print now in both paperback and as an audiobook. It’s a fun way to spend some time relaxing with an old fashioned, good ol’ pulp horror book. It will fit nicely in between the Glut-penned Star Wars novelizations on your bookshelf. Yes- he is a true Renaissance Man.

 

Manor actually gives the cover illustration a credit. It is by Robert Owens. Thank you, Manor.

‘Gator By George Ford

 

‘Gator
By George Ford
1976 Award Books
Paperback, 170 pages

 

                Take a ragtag team of unmatched characters- criminals, moneymen, and a crooked cop, put them in a defunct, deserted motel deep in the Everglades and have them there to receive and then distribute 5 million dollars’ worth of cocaine. Add to the mix one 12-foot alligator who is wounded by one of the men and is very pissed off. What could possibly go wrong?

               

                I must admit that I had a ton of fun with this book. Every one of the characters in it is a complete moron except an innocent cocktail waitress who followed one of the palookas along for kicks. Bad decisions, idiotic moves and really dumb choices abound. Once the big boss and the cocaine arrives, there are almost Rube Goldberg-esque chains of bad events that occur.

 

                The wounded ‘gator doesn’t get as much ink as one might like in this type of story, but he is actually well-written and the only truly sympathetic character in the book. The slimy, buggy swamp is a character unto itself, as well. Except for a Water Moccasin eating a fly on the first page, the reptile science is all pretty cogent, and Ford paints the atmosphere on in thick strokes.

 

                Justin Marriott’s Pulp Horror #8 suggests that George Ford is a one-off nom-de-plume for Paul Fulford. I can’t find any more books under either name that look like they’d be of any interest to me, unfortunately, because this one is a great deal of fun, and I would love to read more like it. Ford/ Fulford must have read a lot of comic books and delivered at least one super-fun paperback.

Satan’s Snowdrop By Guy N. Smith

 

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.

Cat’s Cradle By William W. Johnstone

Cat’s Cradle
By William W. Johnstone
1986 Zebra
Paperback, 412 pages

 

                Oh, William Johnstone, how I hate to love you. But I just can’t help myself! We would never agree on anything in real life but you sure can write an entertaining horror novel.

 

                Every 25 years, a small girl and her cat, born of the same mother (so I guess they are twins), emerge from hiding to devour a few people and get ready to invoke the big guy… Satan. They are awakened early this time, but the murderous rampage begins anew. Their victims age rapidly, mummify, and dead or not, become instruments of evil themselves. Large groups of cats gather to shred the population. One of the mummified arms starts spewing forth millions of huge, flesh-eating maggots. Pools of curdled blood are passageways for the Old Ones, demon minions of the big guy himself. Man, Ruger County is fucked.

 

                As you can see, this is typical Johnstone kitchen-sink storytelling but by god it never gets dull. When the government (The OSS, Office of Special Studies) gets involved and begins a cover-up, it makes things even more difficult for our manly-man cop hero Dan. With so much going on and a lot of characters, many chapters tell the tale with short paragraphs checking in on different situations happening around the county. I kind of liked this, it kept my lazy brain up to date with the turmoil.

 

                This book doesn’t utilize all of Johnstone’s usual tropes. The action takes place in Virginia, rather than Louisiana, and Dan is ex-CIA rather than a Viet Nam vet. Most of the right-wing viewpoints are saved for picking on an intrepid female reporter; one of the OSS crazies is even called a right-wing fanatic for his overt, dangerous patriotism. But Christianity is still big and is called on in hopes of saving the day. Admittedly, I got confused by all of the characters a few times, but you can’t deny Johnstone’s gory, eyeball melting, flesh-shredding madness. If one bonkers horror scene doesn’t tickle your fancy, the next one will. Or the one after that. Richard Newton's lovely cover has nothing to do with the narrative but it might as well!

 

                Oh, and there’s a phone call from Satan. In the days before caller ID, that was possible.