Paperback Warrior Podcast - Episode 107

On this spook-filled episode, Eric takes listeners through the darkened hallways and staircases of gothic-romance novels. His feature today looks at the most prolific author of all-time, William Edward Daniel Ross. He wrote over 350 novels of gothic-romance, nurse-fiction, and short-stories. He also authored the 32-book series of Dark Shadows paperbacks that were tie-in novels to the popular supernatural ABC television show. In addition, Eric reviews a 1990 vintage horror novel about a killer amusement park and reads a short-story by Stephen Mertz titled The King of Horror. Stream the episode below or HERE and be sure to check out the companion video HERE.

Listen to "Episode 107: W.E.D. Ross - The King of Gothics" on Spreaker.

Nightmare on Ice

John Stephen Glasby (1928-2011) was a British born author that produced more than 300 novels and shorts during the mid 20th century. Most of his literary work was written using pseudonyms or house names like A.J. Merak, J.L. Powers, Victor La Salle, Chuck Adams, and John E. Muller. Bold Venture Press spotlighted Glasby's Nightmare on Ice in their 45th issue of Pulp Adventures. The novelette was originally published under the pseudonym Peter Laynham in Supernatural Stories in 1963. 

The narrative features five men living in a research station miles from civilization in the Arctic. There's three scientists, a mechanic, and a meteorologist. Inside this base sits three main buildings and each of these tiny buildings is connected by a dark narrow tunnel. One of the men mentions that he can hear animal noises outside the doors, which is unusual considering the area is in a heavy thunderous blizzard. 

Days later one of the men is alone in the storeroom and hears scratching at the outside door. Considering the temperature is hovering at 60 below zero, nothing alive should be outside in the storm. The man opens the door, begins screaming, and then the reader is left guessing at his demise. This sort of thing plays out again with another member of the research team. 

With three survivors remaining, one of them tells the others that through the frost-crusted window he could see both of the dead men standing out in the snow. There's discussion among the men that ancient people in that area believed something supernatural lived in the ice and sort of embodied the winter. Needless to say things happen and eventually we're left with one survivor who is armed with a gun and attempting to keep his sanity knowing he's the next victim. But, what is the thing in the ice? Is it a ghost, a creature, Satan himself? I like that Glasby leaves it all subjective. There is an ending to the story, but it's slippery to determine exactly what's happening. 

Nightmare on Ice is a fantastic reading experience with a sense of dread looming in every dark crevice. I love books and stories set in snowy locales or frozen settings so the atmosphere and temperature was perfect. One of my favorite horror films is John Carpenter's The Thing and this novelette contained those vibes, which in itself was based on the 1938 novella "Who Goes There". Glasby's tale is mostly what I consider a horror entry but I guess you can lump it in as a science-fiction with the possibility that the evil thing is from another world or planet. Regardless of genre, this was entertaining and highly recommended. 

You can get Pulp Adventures for ten bucks on Amazon HERE and as I mentioned earlier it contains this novella and a lot of other great content. Bold Venture Press does such a great job with this magazine and I have no qualms supporting their efforts. This issue also contains pulp fiction stories from E.C. Tubb, Shelley Smith, Ernest Dudley, and contemporary stories from authors like Jack Halliday and Michael Wexler. There's also a Rough Edges article written by author James Reasoner reviewing three novels.

Crawlspace

Occasionally, books just gut us, right? Not in a bad way. I'm referring to the way talented authors can weave compelling stories that just suck you right in. Throughout the reading experience you get this bond with the characters and you become emotionally invested. When events happen in the story you feel personally connected in some sort of literary spiritual way. Just as you become comfortable with the trick – that's the writer 's magic – the crucial plot development and engaging characters get tossed to the wind. It's a bouncy, temporarily unsafe place swooshed into the funnel cloud that quickly appeared from nowhere. If the author did their job effectively (genre plays a partial role), the aftermath is the wreckage descending from the sky to surprises the reader and crush all previous assumptions about the characters or story. Or something like that. 

Herbert Lieberman's 1971 novel Crawlspace manages to check all of the boxes. The author specialized in crime-fiction and horror, churning out 14 novels between 1967 and 2003. Crawlspace was originally published by David McKay, but was later published multiple times by Pocket Books. The book sold well and was adapted into a made-for-television film that broadcast on CBS in 1972. 

Crawlspace is a difficult novel to review for fear of giving away too much of the story. The book is a character study, and a deep psychological dive, into severe social anxiety as an elderly couple experience domestic turbulence in their quaint New England farmhouse. At over 300 pages, the book's momentum shifts from a slow character development into a more sporadic frenzy as the story changes dynamics. There are crime-fiction elements, some vigilantism, and a focal point on a corrupt sheriff. However, Lieberman's story doesn't have a convincing “bad guy”. It isn't as specific in the storytelling to assign heroism or dastardliness. That's the hook.

If you are looking for a terrific novel look no further than Crawlspace. It is a potboiler that builds in intensity as the couple's fears and suspicious grow. I've never read a book quite like it...and probably never will. Track down a copy of this one. Highly recommended. Get a copy of the book HERE. 

Houses of Horror

When I was a kid, on the third of each month I would spend long days at the grocery store and pharmacy. This was the day my grandmother, aunt, and uncle received their Social Security checks, an event celebrated by my mother driving the three of them "into town" to spend Uncle Sam's dough. My part in this parade, besides being squished into the car, was a dollar's worth of quarters for the arcade machines in the grocery store. At .25 cent a game, the money bought about eight minutes of enjoyment. The rest of the time I would camp out in the magazine aisle, which had some books, and read until the shopping finished. The grocery store at the time preyed on the lower-income, Bible-belt consumers that would believe anything. The stocked books were on UFOs, alien abductions, the Bermuda Triangle, ghosts, and of course, thick books that analyzed and dissected all of the facts about Elvis to determine he was still alive and living on a tropical island off the coast of Africa. 

I would imagine, based on popularity, that I read or thumbed through a book by shock-writer Richard Winer (1925-2016). He edited or authored a handful of spooky non-fiction books about "real" supernatural events. His books, published by Bantam, included three works on the Bermuda Triangle (The Devil's Triangle 1 & 2, From the Devil's Triangle to the Devil's Jaw) and three books on haunted houses and happenings, Haunted Houses, More Haunted Houses, and today's subject for review, Houses of Horror. It was published in 1983 with cover art by David Passalacqua Jr. (Black Christmas). 

As you can see in the photo, Houses of Horror consists of 20 short articles or tales concerning a supposed ghost, haunted house, or supernatural event. I chose three of these to cover in this review:

"The Ghosts of the Wolf House"

The ghost of Jack London? News to me. But, apparently this was a common myth in California's Sonoma Valley. In this tale, Winer outlines bestselling author Jack London's Wolf House. London, who authored the beloved Call of the Wild, The Sea Wolf, and White Fang, designed the house to have 23 rooms and a dining room large enough to seat fifty guests. The plan was to move into the house in September, 1913, but the month before the nearly-complete house burned up. London had planned to rebuild the house but died three years later. The ruins of Wolf House was acquired by Jack London State Park and visitors at the ruins claimed to hear voices and see apparitions. London's widow claimed her brother Jack refused to live in the ranch house that was on the same property. He claimed London's ghost walked the halls and watched visitors. The article also documents some of the spiritual readings that supposedly caught London's voice after his death. Spooky, and creative, stuff. 

"Wisconsin's House of Curses"

The haunted house here is the Hille Farm in Waukesha, Wisconsin, a two-hundred-acre spread that was built in 1848 by German-American John Hille. Hille died around 1900, but his two sons and daughter took over the farm. In 1916, one of the sons was killed by a bull in the barn. In 1917, a stranger came to the house and convinced the Hilles to hire him as a farmhand. After a few weeks he advised the Hilles he was really a United States Secret Service agent that was investigating reports that the Hilles were German sympathizers. This was all a ruse to extort the Hilles out of money. A confrontation occurred and all of the Hilles died. The man was later arrested for extortion. In 1927 a couple bought the farm and after a few years went bankrupt. A couple then moved in to rent the place and they experiened the death of their two children. In 1932 a man named Pratt bought the place and then accidentally blew himself up blasting trees and rocks. A Chicago couple moved into the farm house in 1948 and restored it. However, the couple's son drowned in the nearby lake and a few years later the couple separated and moved away. In 1972 the next owner's young son fell from the barn's hayloft and was impaled on an auger. Coincidental events? I think not. Something is seriously wrong with that place. This was disturbing.

"Just Like One of the Family"

May, 1968. Mac Goldfinch and his family move into a house in Conway, South Carolina. Mac was an undertaker and didn't believe in ghosts. His business is the dead and he had never experienced anything unusual. Until now. A little girl with brown hair is seen moving around the house. From outside, visitors claim to have seen her moving in front of the window. Also, loud noises of banging and crashing was often heard, but nothing to source the sounds. The television would flip channels by itself, cries of "Help Me!" were heard multiple times, and the little girl's hand could be seen holding doors. Eventually, after discovering the child meant no harm, they accepted her as just one of the family. 

The book also includes eight pages of black and white photos of various haunted places examined in the book's chapters. As a harmless, enjoyable look at the supernatural, I found it a delightful read. If you treat it as horror-fiction, and not buy into the "real" idea, then there is plenty to like here. Recommended!

Note

According to The Washington Post, Winer campaigned to have Fort Lauderdale cleared of drugs and prostitutes. On July 19, 1980, an unidentified person rigged a bomb to Winer's truck ignition. Winer tragically lost his right leg in the fiery explosion.

Torture Tomb

According to Goodreads, C. Dean Andersson (1946-2021) wrote science-fiction, fantasy, and horror novels for a variety of publishers. He authored a three-book series of sword-and-sorcery novels known as the Bloodsong Saga under the pseudonym Asa Drake. He also penned two horror novels dedicated to the icons, I am Dracula and I am Frankenstein. I decided to try one of the author's stand-alone horror novels, Torture Tomb. It was originally published by Popular Library in 1987 with a cover by Sonja Lamut (who weirdly enough does children's books).

Torture Tomb is void of a main character, instead the narrative shifts around a half-dozen characters in the third-person. First off is Jim Brock, a Vietnam Veteran and former prisoner-of-war that was tortured by the enemy before a miraculous rescue. He writes computer software manuals for a living while typing away the night as a part-time novelist. His genre is dark fantasy with an emphasis on bondage. Due to Jim's torture he now has a fascination with bondage – collects the magazines, displays the posters, watches the movies. But, he's sort of the good guy here. Weird.

Jim's ex-girlfriend Gina shows up at his office. It turns out her sister is missing, so instead of calling law-enforcement she seeks out a guy she hasn't spoken to in ten years. That specializes in writing tech language instead of finding missing people. But, she drags him into finding her sister. What does he do? He doesn't get the police either! Instead, the best hope in finding her beloved sister is consulting a group of witches. What the Hell!?!

In the meantime, Andersson spends three-fourths of the narrative describing intense torture to get his rocks off. This guy goes completely Girl Next Door Jack Ketchum for the reader. Gina's sister Bernice is kidnapped in a parking lot by a group of mobsters. They rape her and fling her into a pit that contains some sort of zombie. When they finish with that nonsense they sell her to two guys named Jock and Jack. They place her in a soundproof basement and go medieval - filming themselves torturing her for a snuff movie. They use the Middle-Ages devices like the rack, the sawhorse, thumbscrews, whips, knives, pliers, hot tongs, fire, and of course ropes. Lots of ropes. There is pages and pages of rape and torture for Bernice but also for one of the torturer's soon-to-be ex-wives. I thought divorce court was bad enough.

After skipping whole chapters of torture, I finally got to the part where Jim and Gina are surely going to align, ask some questions, interview an underground network of snuff film producers, and maybe, just maybe, smash some skulls. Jim doesn't go Mack Bolan. He doesn't even go Deputy Fife. Instead, Jim, Gina, and the circle of crazy witches get captured by the torturers and guess what...they get tortured too! 

Listen, Torture Tomb is absolutely horrible. I'd rather sign up for 50 time-share presentations than read one more page of this drivel. Do yourself a favor and absolutely avoid the Torture Tomb...unless you really like to be tortured with literary awfulness. In that case, C. Dean Andersson is your new master. Pass the ball gag bub. 

Simon Ark #06 - The Wolves of Werclaw

I reviewed a novel called Murder's Old Maid by Donald Bayne Hobart. It was published in the October 1956 issue of Famous Detective. I was happy to find a digital scan of the issue online and even more delighted when I saw that the sixth Simon Ark story, “The Wolves of Werclaw”, was included in this same issue. 

Simon Ark, written and created by Edward D. Hoch, may or may not be a 2,000 year old occult detective who is endlessly searching for Satan. He teams with an unnamed narrator who normally presents each Simon Ark story in first-person perspective. These stories have Ark and the narrator somewhere on Earth investigating a weird menace that typically has more in common with crime-fiction than the supernatural. But, Hoch writes the stories subjectively with the reader still thinking something creepy really happened long after the last page is read. That is sort of the Ark gimmick with these tales.

In “The Wolves of Werclaw” novelet, the narrator is now serving as vice-president of a major New York publishing firm. He journeys to Poland to witness firsthand the gradual lifting of the Iron Curtain. In the Polish city of Werclaw (not to be confused with the real Polish city of Wroclaw) the narrator is joined by a co-worker named Franklin Fangler. A celebration is occurring to commemorate the fifteenth anniversary of a historic battle in which the tiny town held off a thousand Nazi troops. The survivors are being honored for their achievements and patriotism.

That night the narrator and Fangler are invited to the cavernous home of Berza, the town's Chief of Police. Later, the two are awakened by a frantic Berza claiming that giant wolves are savagely attacking the town. The narrator witnesses three large grey wolves running through the streets and a rifle crack as police officers attempt to stop the bloody carnage. The next morning Berza calls for a wolf expert. 

Simon Ark appears with an introduction and is pleased to discover his friend from years ago in the unnamed narrator. The two catch up and then discuss the pesky wolves. As the narrative tightens the two friends are thrust into protecting a man named Otto from the town's vigilantes. The people feel that Otto is an actual werewolf and may be behind the brutal murders (or a pack leader). But, as usual, Ark has a different theory that may suggest the real killers are the communists hoping to keep a firm foothold on Poland's throat. 

This story was just terrific with plenty of action, foul play, murder, and violence. With so much carnage and mayhem the author was still able to create an imposing chilly ambiance to the storytelling. While certainly maintaining a political vibe, this tale had more of a supernatural feeling to it than any other Ark story I've read. The white-knuckled hatred from the town combined with the innocent nature of Otto was such a great blend. The story was clever, entrancing, and just excellent. I'm loving these Simon Ark stories. Get a lot of stories starring Simon Ark HERE.

The Tent

The few stories and novellas I've read by Kealan Patrick Burke were exceptional. Burke is a veteran Irish author that won a 2004 Bram Stoker Award for his novella The Turtle Boy, a work that kicked off a series of novellas starring a character named Timmy Quinn. His work has appeared in publications by Cemetery Dance and the collections Shivers, Grave Tales, and Inhuman. I've slacked off a bit on horror but wanted to read a few of the “newish” authors that I've enjoyed in the past to get back into the genre more. I chose Burke's 2015 self-published novella The Tent as a good camping spot.

Mike and Emma are a married couple on the tattered fringes of divorce. In an effort to restore synergy back into their failing relationship the couple decide to try camping in rural Ohio with their son. When Mike's cheap tent fails to provide adequate shelter the three very-bad-campers head to the car to call it a night. However, Mike gets the family lost in the woods - in the dark in the middle of nowhere with no cell phone service. 

While Mike and Emma turn on each other they discover that their son has vanished. They conduct a frantic search for their boy and find a weird tent that seems to have been made from flesh and bone. Is the tent hiding a body? A psychotic killer? Or, is the tent itself a monster?

At roughly 63 pages The Tent delivers a spooky atmosphere, unlikable characters, and a terrifying menace to consume the unlikable characters. It is easy to compare horror fiction with horror films, so I venture to say The Tent sort of works like Invasion of the Body Snatchers meets The Blob with a companion in Jeepers Creepers. Burke changes the presentation to different characters and scenarios to give readers a break from all the shrubbery. If you need a light horror fix then this is a fun hour. Get your ebook HERE.

Oasis of the Damned

Massachusetts author Greg F. Gifune (b. 1963) has earned many accolades, highlighted by winning Bram Stoker, British Fantasy, and International Horror Guild awards. I've enjoyed reading his novels like Midnight Solitaire, Children of Chaos, and Apartment Seven. It has been a long time since I've picked up one of his books so I decided to read a military-styled horror novella called Oasis of the Damned. It was originally published in 2014 by the now defunct DarkFuse and now exists as the first half of a twofer titled Oasis of the Damned & Heretics: A Novella Double-Shot. 

The novella begins with a woman named Richter awakening from a helicopter crash. Readers learn she is a U.S. Army Transport Helicopter Pilot that has been downed somewhere in the middle of a vast scorching desert. Miraculously, a man named Owens arrives quickly on the scene and helps her gather some belongings for a long walk to a really odd place. 

Owens leads Richter to an old WWII camp that consists of one small square building and a larger tower-styled building. As Richter gets closer she sees sandbags stacked up near the entrance of the tower. Owens is fairly discreet and doesn't provide many details other than the place exists in the middle of nowhere, the chances of rescue are non-existent, and the only thing keeping him alive are the leftover rations from decades ago and the oasis of fresh water inside the camp. 

After a quick introduction Owens begins preparing for some sort of invasion. But what could possibly be happening in this doomed and desolate place? As night falls Richter learns that zombie-like creatures with razor sharp talons and teeth descend onto the camp in an effort to kill Owens. Through the battle, which includes both of them fighting hordes of monsters with guns, grenades, and swords, Richter discovers that Owens is the last survivor of a large crew of refinery engineers. Every night these creatures emerge and a battle of willpower and determination ensues. The key to success is decapitating the creatures and then burning the bodies. However, the creatures can also appear in other forms including hyenas and the bodies of the people they have killed. Needless to say these are some truly terrifying creatures.

Gifune's novella is like a cross between any first-person creature-shooter game and a deranged episode of Lost. This desolate military camp isn't all that it seems to be. When Richter decides to leave the facility the end result is something out of an old Twilight Zone episode – all roads out of town just lead back to town. To spruce up the one-dimensional “1-2-3-Kill!” action, there is a terrific backstory as Richter recalls the tragedy that befell her younger brother in their childhood home. These flashback sequences explain Richter's fighting spirit and her battles in Iraq during two years of active duty. 

Oasis of the Damned was a quick enjoyable read at roughly 90 pages, give or take a large font or two. Gifune's style has always been “hit 'em hard” while still embracing a smooth calculated delivery to spook his reader. I've never read a bad book by this author and Oasis of the Damned is another testimony to his storytelling talent. Recommended. 

Get a copy of the book HERE 

Ranking My September 2024 Reads

I rank my Top 10 reads of September 2024 with capsule reviews and photos of the books. Check it out HERE or stream below: