Polybius

According to Amazon, Collin Armstrong has worked in the entertainment industry for over a decade, developing, writing, and producing material for outlets including 20th Century Fox, Discovery, and the LA Times Studios. His first publication, Polybius, has just been released by Gallery Books and touted by horror heavyweights like Richard Chizmar and Ronald Malfi. Searching for nostalgic small-town horror, I threw my change in for a delightful turn at Polybius. 

There was an urban myth circulating in the 1980s and 1990s about the U.S. government secretly working on a video game that would infiltrate the minds of the unsuspecting public. It was rumored to be a type of spy-craft where the game would read the player's thoughts and send subliminal messages to control the operator. Armstrong runs with this concept to bring Polybius to the good citizens of the fictional seaside town of Tasker Bay.

In the book's opening chapter, a liquidation firm is sent to clean out an office building. Inside, behind a discreet locked door, they find an unmarked arcade machine. Later, they sell it an auction and it ends up in Tasker Bay's arcade. Anyone that plays the mysterious game seems to experience hallucinations, murderous thoughts, and a tendency to mutilate people and animals. 

Armstrong introduces readers to a handful of important characters that must stop the town's decline into depravity and ruin. Andi is a young whiz-girl who works at the local arcade. Her friend, and later love interest, is Ro, the sheriff's son. Together, they must determine the game's origin, the secret behind the game's deadly messages, and, as tradition serves, convince the town's law enforcement that something unusual or supernatural is happening.

Polybius walks a balance beam of horror and science-fiction while marinating in 1970s/80s nostalgia. Think The Crazies, The Wizard, Wargames, and Deadly Friend blended with Stranger Things. At the root of the novel is a small-town mystery as the sheriff and town doctor dig into the root causes of the homicidal rage, while the kids embark on their own quest to discover the manufacturer. There are also some interesting tidbits about game coding back then, the brink of the internet (Usenet), and early psych ops. 

There's nothing to dislike about Polybius. While it doesn't break any new ground, the novel's character development, small-town charm, and rich nostalgia are worth the price of admission. You could do far worse. Polybius is an easy recommendation. Get it HERE.

October Screams - A Halloween Anthology

Kangas Kahn film company have released horror films like Fear of Clowns, Garden of Hedon, and Terrortory over the last 20 years. In 2015, the film company launched Kangas Kahn Publishing, a small publisher that have released titles like With Teeth and Halloween: The Greatest Holiday of All. This Halloween season, the company has published an impressive short-story collection called October Screams: A Halloween Anthology. It is 27 stories authored by some of Paperback Warrior's favorite horror writers. 

Here are some of my favorites from this collection:

Ronald Malfi's “Tate” is a holiday-themed story that centers on a grieving couple on Halloween. It begins with Nick leaving the house to buy some candy for the visiting trick-or-treaters that will surely be arriving. His wife Alice waits patiently for his quick return, but begins to worry when the minutes turn into hours. When Nick returns, he's upset and heads straight to his dead son's bedroom. Alice comforts him, but both are surprised when a boy arrives at their door that resembles their deceased son. As the story unfolds, readers learn more about the boy's death and the finale was a throwback to the old EC Comics horror tales of the mid-20th century. “Tate” was really effective.

In “Perfect Night for a Perfect Murder”, author Jeremy Bates uses the short-story format to present this first-person perspective on how to properly commit premeditated murder. The protagonist is a crime-fiction author that is detailing the advantages of planning the perfect murder to coincide with what he persists is the best day of the year for murder, Halloween. The story is a blend of dark humor and crime-fiction, and it ends with a little twist that I could see coming. Very enjoyable.  

“Masks” is written by Brian Keene and Richard Chizmar and involves some kids pulling a convenience store robbery on Halloween night. There's some social commentary about Covid masks (no doubt Keene's doing) as the kids don costumes to rob the place. As the robbery ensues, one of the kids is forced to shoot a female customer that's wearing a devil mask. When the kids make the getaway, they begin noticing that all of the streets are empty. There is an eerie silence. When the kids are beckoned to the home of a friend, they see more people wearing devil masks. While the story is a bit scrambled and seems incomplete, it nonetheless provided plenty of entertainment. 

I did enjoy man of the other stories, including Kealan Patrick Burke's haunting “afraid of the dark” tale “Let the Dark Do the Rest” as well as the clever, touching doll-perspective short, “Doll”, by Ryan Van Ells. Overall, this collection has some hits and misses, but is sure to please fans of horror stories. If you are a Bates, Keene, Chizmar, and Malfi fan, then these stories alone are worth the price of admission. Recommended.

Buy a copy of this book HERE.

Chasing the Boogeyman

Richard Chizmar is a horror and suspense novelist who was plucked out of near-obscurity to collaborate with Stephen King on a couple of well-received co-authored novels. His 2022 “hunting a serial killer” book, Chasing the Boogeyman, is a clever bit of meta-fiction taking place in 1988.

The concept behind this novel is fairly audacious and unique, so pay attention or you’ll be lost from page one. First, the book is fiction - like Silence of the Lambs or any of the thousand serial killer mystery-thrillers you’ve read. Second, the book is written as if it’s a true crime paperback. Same style, formatting and pacing. The curve ball is that the main character is horror author Richard Chizmar telling the story of the killer terrorizing his home town in Maryland. This is where it gets meta. Yes, Chizmar is a fictional character in his own novel.

All of this works rather well as Chizmar takes the reader back to Edgewood, Maryland in 1988. A gruesome murder of a teenage girl snatched away from her bedroom at night has everybody terrified. And then it happens again. And again. The police are getting nowhere, and the media dubs the serial killer, The Boogeyman.

22 year-old Chizmar and his female reporter friend at the local newspaper take it upon themselves to undertake their own parallel investigation as the police seem to be chasing their tails. The progress they make creates both a bond and excuse for resentment from the local police, who don’t always take kindly to the meddling of amateur sleuths.

The solution to the mystery was straightforward and very satisfying in its execution. Chizmar has recently published a sequel called Becoming the Boogeyman that you should avoid like the plague until you fully absorb the solution to this one.

Chasing the Boogeyman is a fantastic addition to the serial killer mystery genre and is definitely worth your time. The genre has been beaten to death over the last 40 years, but somehow Chizmar’s gimmick breathes new life into the setup. Recommended. 

Buy a copy of this book HERE.