Nightmare Child

Author Ed Gorman (1941-2016) was a prolific author that wrote series titles like Jack Dwyer, Dev Conrad, Tobin, and Sam McCain. He also used pseudonyms like E.J. Gorman and Robert David Chase to pen stand-alone novels. My experience with the writer has mostly been his western contributions, but I found that he wrote many horror novels using the name Daniel Ransom. Books like Toys in the Attic, The Forsaken, and The Babysitter are genre fun published by paperback pushers like Zebra. My first sample of Gorman's horror novels is Nightmare Child. It was published in 1990 by St. Martin's Press. 

The book's opening paragraphs informs readers that a married couple named Jeff and Mindy are driving in an air-conditioned BMW on a hot August afternoon. In the car's trunk lies a dying nine -year old girl – Mindy's little sister Jenny. By the time the couple arrive in a secluded forest little Jenny has perished from heat and lack of oxygen...which was the plan all along. Mindy needs Jenny dead and buried so she can inherit her uncle's fortune. 

The next chapters occur three-months later. Jeff is banging a co-worker at his advertising firm and Mindy is busy eating Swiss Cake Rolls and working hard brainstorming about the intended exercise regiment she plans to achieve. Next door is the book's main character, a widowed woman named Diane. Diane loved Jenny and often cared for her. But, Jenny has been missing for months and the police fear she is dead. 

Everything changes one afternoon when Jenny appears at Diane's house and asks to come inside. Then Nightmare Child begins to live up to its name with a traditional creepy kid outing that features young Jenny attempting to enact vengeance upon the couple that killed her. Diane seeks help from the local sheriff, creating a romantic chemistry as the two struggle to learn who or what Jenny really is. 

Gorman can write just about anything so traditional horror isn't outside of his wheelhouse. But, I felt this book wasn't indicative of his storytelling prowess. The book's main activity is experiencing the weird things that happen next door as Jeff and Mindy accept Jenny's mysterious return. Diane is suspicious when the couple begin acting strange (like getting nude and prancing around in the snow) and begins to investigate all of this weirdness. I attempted to suspend disbelief and go with it, but logically the plot has holes that could swallow Nebraska. I felt like at some point police or a medical staff would check Jenny's pulse. But, that's my “minor” complaints of Nightmare Child. Read and enjoy, but don't expect a revelation.

Get the book for an astronomical amount of money HERE. 

Conan - The Flame Knife

“Three-Bladed Doom” was a short story authored by Robert E. Howard starring his character El Borak. It was not published during Howard's lifetime. There were two versions of the story, one printed in REH Lone Star Fictioneer in 1976 and a longer version in the Zebra paperback of the same name published in 1977. However, L. Sprague de Camp decided to rewrite the story to feature Conan, which was a common occurrence for both de Camp and Lin Carter in the 1960s and 1970s. “Three-Bladed Doom” was rewritten and included as part of de Camp's novella The Flame Knife. It was originally published in Tales of Conan in 1955. The novella was then reprinted as part of the Conan the Wanderer collection by Lancer in 1968 and then again as its own book, Conan: The Flame Knife, in 1981 by Ace. The story was also adapted to comic form in Savage Sword of Conan #31-32.

The Flame Knife is set during Conan's “Free Companions” era. He's instructed by Kobad Shah, the king of Iranistan, to lead a team of men to hunt a bandit named Balash. The problem is that Conan and Balash are old allies and Conan refuses the task. Instead, he teams with his companion Tubal and the two, along with a woman named Nanaia, ride to Balash's camp in the Ilbars Mountains to warn him of Shah's pursuit. Meanwhile, Shah is stabbed in his chambers by an assassin carrying a sacred knife marked with a symbol of the Hidden Ones. Whatever that means. Shah, along with his royal guard's captain, believe that Conan's sudden departure and the arrival of this assassin means that the Cimmerian is instrumental to this Hidden Ones cult. Shah orders a large army to hunt and kill Conan.

Convinced by Balash that there are mysterious things happening on the Drujistan border, Conan, Tulal, and Nanaia head there. This is where the narrative finally begins to settle in. Conan discovers a large city within the rocky terrain housing the Zuagirs, a mysterious tribe led by a leader deemed The Magus who declares he is part of the ancient Hidden Ones cult. 

Soon, the book kicks off a rapid pace as Conan escapes imprisonment and commits to freeing Nanaia, who has been captured by The Magus. Conan's overall goal is to overtake the Zuagirs and use their fortified city as a compound where he and the Free Companions can hold off Shah's oncoming forces. Conan fights a giant snow ape (depicted beautifully by Sanjulian on the Ace paperback cover) and finally ends a longtime rivalry with Olgerd Vladislav, the raider he usurped in Howard's 1934 Weird Tales story ”A Witch Shall Be Born”. 

Overall, this was just an average novella. If you have read de Camp's Conan stories you know that his version of Conan is much different than Robert E. Howard's. In de Camp's novels Conan is a cookie-cutter hero that personifies all that is good. The bad guys are carbon-copy bad. In The Flame Knife, Conan wants to free Nanaia. If Howard wrote this, Conan's nihilistic approach would be something to the effect of, “So what?” Additionally, I'm not sure under Howard's watch if Conan would attempt to even save Balash. With de Camp's writing, I mentally can compartmentalize his work as more of Conan the Barbarian's comic character. I do the same with the Tor paperbacks. These are “heroic” Conan stories. 

The Flame Knife is an average Conan novella filled with swordplay, prison escapes, crazy cults, and a fiendish cave creature. If the comic version of Conan is your jam, then this knife spreads the enjoyment. Get the book HERE.

Black Hound of Death

Robert E. Howard's weird fiction story “Black Hound of Death” first appeared in the November 1936 issue of Weird Tales. It was also included in the Summer 1976 issue of Dark Phantasms, the 1978 Sphere collection Weird Tales Vol. 1, and countless other volumes housing weird fiction and Howard stories. My review is from the Trails in Darkness 1996 paperback collection from Baen.

The story takes place at night in a dense forested area in the American southeast. While Howard doesn't specifically state Kirby Garfield is a lawman, it is implied based on his actions in the story. Through a first-person perspective, Garfield explains to readers that he's in the part of the forest to deliver a message. A man named Braxton has escaped from the law leaving a “ghastly toll of dead behind him.” Garfield believes Braxton is in the area and he is riding on horseback to warn a reclusive man named Richard Brent of the potential danger. 

On his way he stumbles upon a man begging for help after being ripped to shreds by some sort of animal. He screams at Garfield saying that “HE” done it. He relays a story to Garfield on how he was hired by a white man (wearing a mask) as a guide to Brent's house. But, somewhere along the way the mask slipped away and the man went on the attack. The man later dies in front of Garfield after providing him a warning to leave the area.

The book ventures into a pulpy horror nightmare as Garfield and a few stragglers venture to Brent's house and prepare for the flesh-ripping forest menace to appear. Of course there is an explanation on who – or what – is killing people and how it all ties to the fugitive Braxton. I can't give away any more details because it would inevitably spoil the reading fun. Trust me, the story is worth pursuing and delivers a hair-raising creature-feature experience. Recommended! Get the vintage copy of Trails in Darkness HERE.

Isle of the Undead

Pennsylvania native Lloyd Arthur Eshbach (1910-2003) discovered science-fiction at the age of 15. He soon began writing his own stories and sold his first to Science Wonder Stories in 1929. Eshbach became influential with his small Fantasy Press, initially publishing authors like E.E. Smith and Robert A. Heinlein. My first experience with Eshbach is the novelette Isle of the Undead, originally published in the October 1936 issue of Weird Tales. 

It begins with Cliff and his girlfriend Vilma on a rented yacht sailing through a sea of fog. Cliff rented the yacht, and it's captain, a guy named Corio, to entertain his small group of vacationing friends. Cliff and Vilma are horrified when they spot a strange galley ship approaching. As it nears, the couple see the crumbling timbers are blackened with rot, the prowl is bent backwards, and the mast is a jutted broken arm. But, the real terror lies in discovering the wretched crew of undead “things” sailing on the ship, a group of raggedy men that appear bloodless white with puffed and bloated skins as if they had been drowned and left in the sea for a very long time.

Soon, Cliff, Vilma, and the crew are manhandled by these monstrosities and taken to an obscure island hosting an enormous castle. Inside, they discover that this island is home to an undead legion of vampires that ransack vacationers and use them as sustenance to quench their nocturnal thirst.

I was thoroughly entertained by this pulpy horror tale and found Eshbach's writing so descriptive and imaginative. He creates scenes of stark-white terror when the group learn of their fate inside the Hellish castle. He really had to deliver the goods to match J. Allen St. John's ferocious cover design. However, his writing blends a sense of swashbuckling adventure as Cliff attempts to liberate his lover and friends. There are rescue attempts, sacrifices, nautical adventure, and plenty of fisticuffs as the group fight to survive the Isle of the Undead. 

You can listen to this story for free using Librivox, read it online at archive.org, or order a cheap copy online HERE. 

Open Season

Open Season began life as the novel The All-Americans, authored by David Osborn. Osborn simultaneously wrote the book and the screenplay and it was purchased by Columbia Pictures. The title was changed to Open Season and the novel was published under that title in 1974 to coincide with the film release. The movie starred popular actor Peter Fonda. In other parts of the world the film was titled Recon Game. 

In Open Season, the book introduces three college buddies who take an annual trip into the Wisconsin forest to hunt deer...and people. So the deal is that these three guys, Art, Greg, and Ken, take this sabbatical hunting trip to drink beer, kill deer and other wildlife, and rape a woman. Here's how it works. 

These three men kidnap a man and woman each year, a couple of lovers, and take them into the wilderness to hunt. The victims are chosen at random and after they are hunted and killed they sink the bodies into a scummy lake. So, it is The Most Dangerous Game just changed slightly. However there is something a little different with this plot point. 

While these three men are out hunting deer as well as the two people they have captured as targets, another mysterious hunter is in the forest hunting the hunters. So, the niche is that deer hunters are being targeted and hunted which fits into a little niche I like to refer to as “Deer Hunter Horror”. 

In the book, three men capture a man and woman who are secretly having an affair away from their tranquil married life. They leave their spouses behind for a short vacation into the woods to do the nasty. But the two are targeted at a motel by Art, Greg, and Ken and hauled into the Wisconsin wilderness. There, they shackle the man in the kitchen and then convince the woman to consent to sex with all three men repeatedly. She goes along with it thinking they will befriend her and she can then escape whatever awful things they have planned for her. She even likes the whole ordeal when she gets going with the men. 

On day two the three hunters give each of the victims a 20 minute head start to run into the wilderness and commence to being chased. The three men of course have rifles and the victims have twigs and branches. Totally fair. Kinda like deer hunting, right? The fight is fixed. But, once the chase ensues another hunter unknown to the reader begins hunting the three hunters. 

Open Season is a savage and violent book at 267 paperback pages and definitely not for the squeamish. There is graphic sex with faces and heads being shot off. But, the book is really good at about page 120 and the pace never slows down. It is also double-pleasure as Open Season works as both a high-octane action novel but also as a mystery as readers guess who the hunter-killer may be. High recommendation.

Solomon Kane - Rattle of Bones

Robert E. Howard's story “Rattle of Bones” was first published in Weird Tales in the June 1929 issue. The story was also printed in Skull-Face and Others, Magazine of Horror #11, Red Shadows, and a host of collections by the likes of Wildside Press, Del Rey, Bantam, and Baen. The story was adapted to comic form in the Savage Sword of Conan #18. 

“Rattle of Bones” features Howard's Puritan hero Solomon Kane. In the Black Forest of Germany, both Kane and a man named Gaston L'Armon stop for the night at the Cleft Skull Inn. After the bartender's strange behavior, Kane advises Gaston that they should bar the door to their room. While searching for something to secure the door with L'Armon discovers the skeleton of a man. One of the legs is shackled to the floor. Something is amiss in the strange Cleft Skull Inn.

This is a very simple but effective story. Kane discovers that he knows L'Armon from somewhere else. As the two investigate the skeleton, Kane is held at gunpoint by an assailant. I can't tell you too much more due to spoilers. “Rattle of Bones” is a mere eight pages, so anything else would disrupt your enjoyment of Howard's writing. Thus far, this is my least favorite of the Solomon Kane stories I've read, but that isn't necessarily a bad thing considering how much I enjoy this series. Every installment has been entertaining. Get it HERE.

Note - Howard's first draft was published in the first issue of The Robert E. Howard Foundation Newsletter in Spring of 2007. That version apparently has a different ending.

Fred Fellows #04 - Born Victim

Here's what we know about Fred Fellows, the protagonist of 11 crime-fiction novels by Hillary Waugh, a Mystery Writers of America Grand Master. He is the Chief of Police in the fictional city of Stockford, Connecticut. His right-hand man is Detective Sergeant Sidney Wilkes with back-up assists in the stories from Sergeants Unger and Gorman. He likes milk and sugar in his coffee. I gained these significant details from reading the series first two installments, Sleep Long, My Love and Road Block.  I don't have the series third installment at the time of this writing so I had to jump ahead to the fourth book, Born Victim (1962). The order you read these books plays no part in the storytelling. 

In Born Victim, I discovered that Fellows has a wife named Cecilia, sons named Peter and Larry, and two daughters (no names provided in this book). The author makes note that Peter is age 13, which adds a personal connection. The plot for the book has Fellows and his men challenged with the disappearance of a 13-year old girl. 

In prior books Waugh would title each chapter a date and time of the investigation. In this novel he has elected to standardize the chapters numerically. The first chapter kicks off the story with Fellows receiving a call from his officers that Barbara Markle, the aforementioned girl, hasn't returned home in a few hours. Fellows initially dismisses the sense of urgency and importance due to the child only appearing to be tardy for a curfew - not a revelation of murder or malicious intent. He goes out to visit Barbara's mother Evelyn to gain any insight on the girl's disappearance.

Evelyn lives on a poor stretch of suburbia backed up to a river. She's a single mom that works long hours. Her response to various questions is alarming - she acts as if Barbara is already dead. Fellows can't quite grasp why the mother is assuming the worst. Over the course of several interviews Fellows learns that Barbara's family history is murky. As more and more time passes without the girl's return the case evolves from locating the girl to solving a homicide. 

Waugh's novels follow a standard formula of introducing the crime, typically murder, and then taking the readers along the police procedure of investigating every tip, clue, and piece of evidence. The running theme behind the girl's disappearance runs from dates for the dance to a mysterious truck idling beside her house. But, the focus of the investigation, which ties into the book's title, is Barbara's murky family history. Evelyn's secrecy on who Barbara's father is, a faked marriage, and a family dynasty in jeopardy of exposure. 

An aspect of the series debut was conflict with the press. Fellows often battles press leaks and aggressive reporters that seem to infiltrate his office. This novel touches on the police providing the public with details but not allowing the press to pressure his men. There is also a rare occurrence where Fellows loses his cool on one of his officers. Typically Fellows is level-headed and keeps an air of professionalism. As the case presents more challenges the pressure to find the girl's whereabouts - dead or alive - begins to weigh on his shoulders.  

Born Victim was another fantastic police procedural installment. Hillary Waugh has a knack for this style of storytelling and draws the readers into the investigation smoothly. It's an easy reading experience that delivers a few surprises and an emotional ending. The characters are interesting and persuasive, the crime is compelling, and the prose is ultra-tight and plot-propulsive. In other words, track down a copy of this one. Highly recommended. 

Buy a copy of the book HERE