The Beast House by Richard Laymon

(pb; 1986: second book in the Beast House Chronicles)

From the cover

“The house known as Beast House has become a museum of the most twisted and macabre kind. It is a monument to its own infamous past. On display inside was wax figures of its victims, their bodies mangled and chewed, mutilated beyond description. The tourists who come to Beast House can only wonder what sort of terrifying creature could be responsible for such atrocities. Surely nothing human.

“Bur some people don’t believe the beast even exists. They are convinced Beast House is a huge hoax, an elaborate tourist trap, Nora and her friends don’t believe. They are determined to find the truth for themselves. They will dare to enter the house at night, when the tourists hae gone. When the beast is rumored to come out. They will learn, all right.”

Review

Beast is a vast improvement on its predecessor, The Cellar. Beast is a great, fun B-flick of a splatterpunk─extreme horror─novel. It is a fast-paced, waste-no-words work, with its violence, rape-happy monsters, other disturbing sex and humor. Its characters, some of them seen in The Cellar, are stock and sometimes Scooby-Doo gang stupid and gung-ho. These observations are an amused appreciation, not a criticism in this case. Beast is one of the most entertaining B-movie horror books I have read in a long while.

Followed by The Midnight Tour.

Death Angels by Åke Edwardson

(pb; 1997: first book in the Chief Inspector Erik Winter series)

From the back cover

“Meet Erik Winter: a bachelor gourmand with a palate for obscure jazz and Lagavulin─and Sweden’s youngest Chief Inspector. Despite his new promotin, it’s been a tough year─on the heels of losing a childhood friend to AIDS, he now must contend with the parallel murders of young British and Swedish tourists in Gothenburg and South London. Winter and his British counterpart, Steve Macdonald, find clues leading straight into the dark heart of the black-market entertainment trade. But when they hit a dead end, Winter plays a hunch that the bloody fottprints at the crime scenes suggest a macabre performance─a taint intended for Winter himself.”

Review

Death is a mostly lean, entertaining police procedural with a quirky lead character and a semi-philosophical, nostalgic bent─Edwardson allows his characters occasional, brief indulgences of wandering, non-essential-to-plot thoughts, making the characters more than pieces on a storyline chessboard. If you are a minimalist-writing reader, you might want to make slight adjustments your expectations, or not bother trying to read this sometimes-melancholic book. 

Death is a unique-in-tone, excellent novel, one that took me a few chapters to get into. Once I did, I was immersed in its characters and storyline. This is worth reading, possibly owning if you are into melancholic, quirky characters and sometimes philosophical books.  Followed by The Shadow Woman.

The Winds of Dune by Brian Herbert and Kevin J. Anderson

(hb; 2009: second book in the Heroes of Dune duology)

From the inside flap

“Paul-Muab’Dib─cheered as a hero, worshipped as a messiah, hated as a tyrant─has vanished into the endless deserts of the planet Dune. Blinded in an assassination attempt and grieving after the death of his beloved Chani, Paul abandons his newborn twins and leaves his galaxy-spanning empire in the hands of his young sister, Alia.

“And the greatest empire in the history of mankind begins to crumble.

“Living in self-imposed exile on Caladan, Lady Jessica and the faithful Gurney Halleck receive word that Paul has vanished and is presumed dead. They race to Dune, the heart of Muad’Dib’s empire, where they find a planet in turmoil and Jessica’s daughter, Alia─along with the resurrected Duncan Idaho─willing to impose more and more extreme measures to maintain order.

“Fueling the flames of dissent, the outspoken rebel Bronso of Ix─at one time Paul’s closest friend─releases hateful treatises and disrupts sacred ceremonies, doing everything he can to destroy the myth of Paul Muad’Dib and reveal the unvarnished facts about the man who─through his jihad and corrupt priesthood─is responsible for more deaths than any other person in history.

“Working with Princess Irulan, Paul’s self-appointed biographer, Jessica tries to uncover the truth about her son. As winds of rebellion brew and treachery occurs both from outside the government within, Jessica discovers that her son had plans that extend far beyond history and that Maud’Dib may have knowingly planted the seeds for his own downfall.

“Drawn from secret to secret, from revelation to revelation, Jessica at last will come to the truth about her son’s prescience and visionary plans, a truth that will force her to choose between the memory of her son and the future of the human race.”

Review

Winds is one of my favorite extended-series Dune novels. It, in highly entertaining, plot-twisty fashion, spans the time period and events between Dune Messiah and Children of Dune. It effectively explores its iconic characters at an effective but relatively fast pace as they make wild-time transition changes, changes that will reverberate big time in later Dune novels. Like many of the Dune books, this is worth owning.

Hyde by Daniel Levine

(hb; 2014)

From the back cover

“Mr. Hyde is trapped, locked in Dr. Jekyll’s surgical cabinet, counting the hours until his inevitable capture. As four days pass, he has the chance, finally, to tell his story─the story of his brief, marvelous life.

“Summoned to life by strange potions, Hyde knows not when or how long he will have control of ‘the body.’ When dormant, he watches Dr. Jekyll’s high-class life from a paralyzed remove. Soon, their mutual existence is threatened, not only by the uncertainties of untested science, but also by a mysterious stalker. Hyde is being taunted─possibly framed. Girls have gone missing; someone has been killed. Who stands, watching, from the shadows? In the blur of this shared consciousness, can Hyde ever be confident these crimes were not committed by his hand?”

Review

Hyde is a chatty, often entertaining POV-reversal take on Robert Louis Stevenson’s The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. Levine succeeds in making Hyde a sympathetic character─a victim driven by damage-control circumstances, blackmail and a dominant, uptight personality that is Dr. Jekyll. This is worth reading if you can put up with semi-regular rambling between important plot points and character exchanges. To its credit, Hyde’s tone and other elements match those of its source inspiration book despite its considerably longer length. This is worth reading, checking out from the library.

Will My Cat Eat My Eyeballs? by Caitlin Doughty

(hb; 2019: nonfiction)

From the inside flap

“Every day, funeral director Caitlin Doughty receives dozens of questions about death. The best questions come from kids. What would happen to an astronaut’s body if it were pushed out of a space shuttle? Do people poop when they die? Can Grandma have a Viking funeral?

“In Will My Cat Eat My Eyeballs?, Doughty blends her mortician’s knowledge of the body and the intriguing history behind common misperceptions about corpses to offer factual, hilarious, and candid answers to thirty-five distinctive questions posed by her youngest fans. . .Doughty details lore and science of what happens to, and inside, our bodies after we die. Why do corpses groan? What causes bodies to turn colors during decomposition? And why do hair and nails appear longer after death? Readers will learn the best soil for mummifying your body, whether you can preserve your best friend’s skull as a keepsake, and what happens when you die on a plane.”

Review

Cat is an entertaining, humorous, succinct and informative read, one worth owning─and rereading in a refresh-your-memory way. If you are looking for a relatively light take on a typically heavy subject, this is a book you should make time for. Highly recommended, this.

The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson

(hb; 1886)

From the inside flap

“It is about the strange a London lawyer named John Gabriel Utterson who investigates occurrences between his old friend, Dr. Henry Jekyll, and the evil Mr. Hyde.”

Review

Strange is a superb-for-its-time, sketched-out and memorable short read, one that deserves its characters-iconic status among readers. The writing is occasionally chatty but otherwise it is a true classic, not just a chatfest, hot-air book that a bunch of so-called “intellectuals” deemed to be great. Worth reading and worth owning for a few bucks. It has inspired a lot of offshoot stories and movies, too many to list in this mini-review.

Heavy Duty: Days and Night in Judas Priest by K.K. Downing with Mark Eglinton

(hb; 2018: memoir)

From the inside flap

“Judas Priest formed in the industrial city of Birmingham, England, in 1969. With its distinctive twin-guitar sound, studs-and-lether image, and international sales of over 50 million records, Judas Priest became the archetypal hevy metal band in the 1980s. Iconic tracks like ‘Breaking the Law,’ ‘Living After Midnight,’ and ‘You’ve Got Another Thing Coming’ helped the band achieve extraordinary success, but no one from the band has stepped out to tell their or the band’s story until now.

“As the band approaches its golden anniversary, fans will at last be able to delve backstage into the decades of shocking, hilarious, and haunting stories that surround the heavy metal institution. In Heavy Duty, guitarist K.K. Dowining discusses the complex personality conflicts, the business screw-ups, the acrimonious relationship with fellow heavy metal band Iron Maiden, as well as how Judas Priest found itself at the epicenter of a storm of parental outrage that targeted heavy metal in the ‘80s. He also describes his role in cementing the band’s trademark black-leather-and-studes image that would only become synonymous with the entire genre but would also give singer Rob Halford a viable outlet by which to express his sexuality. Lastly, he recounts the life-changing moment when he looked at his bandmates on stage during a 2009 concert and thought, ‘This is the last show.’ Whatever the topic, whoever’s involved, K.K. doesn’t hold back.”

Review

Heavy is a burn-through, deftly written memoir that recounts Downing’s time in Priest as well as his life outside of the band.  A few times, especially near the end of the book, he repeats his mildly stated complaints about certain people (e.g., bandmate-guitarist Glen Tipton) a few times too many in quick succession.  That said, this is a minor nit─I understand that working closely with someone you perceive to be bossy for four decades might inspire deeply felt resentment, as well as a sighing sense of what-could’ve-been for your band.

This book is a fun, informative read that made this Priest fan further appreciate the band and its intentions and music, as well as rethink some of my likes and dislikes regarding their output. Great, friendly and generally friendly read for the genre, worth owning if you are a Priest fan.

The Cellar by Richard Laymon

(pb; 1980: first book in the Beast House Chronicles)

From the back cover

“They call it Beast House. Tourists flock to see it, lured by its history of butchery and sadistic sexual enslavement. They enter, armed with cameras and camcorders, but many never return. The men are slaughtered quickly. The women have a far worse fate in store. But the worst part of the house is what lies beneath it. Behind the cellar door, down the creaky steps, waits a creature of pure evil. At night, when the house is dark and all is quiet. . .the beast comes out.

“Awakened by an early-morning phone call, Donna found out that her ex-husband, Roy, has been released from prison. She immediately dragged her twelve-year-old daughter out of bed and together they hit the road─fast. The last thing she wants is for Roy to get his hands on them again. But in fleeing one danger, Donna and her daughter are unknowingly heading straight toward another. They’re heading toward Beast House.”

Review

Warning: Possible spoilers in this review.

Cellar is a sleazy, fast-paced and mostly fun extreme horror novel that is often effective and constantly disturbing. Most of the male characters and many of the female characters have alarming qualities (Roy, the violent child rapist; Larry, the wuss who shows hints of being into underage girls; etc.).

What undercuts Cellar’s unsettling, not-for-the-squeamish effectiveness is its sometimes choppy writing (especially in its last two time-shift/characters-go-insane chapters) and how some of its characters make abrupt, plot-convenient attitude changes (e.g., two of its characters fall in love immediately and tell each other as much).

Cellar is a disappointing read (especially its finish), but it has some decent, disturbing writing, and provides a setup for the next Beast Chronicles novel, The Beast House. Check it out from the library before committing cash─even a few bucks─to it.

Paul of Dune by Brian Herbert and Kevin J. Anderson

(hb; 2008: first book in the Heroes of Dune duology)

From the inside flap

“Dune, Frank Herbert’s classic, ended with Paul Muad’Dib in control of the planet Dune. Herbert’s second book, Dune Messiah, picks up the story several years later when Paul’s armies have conquered the galaxy and Paul has become a religious figure. But what happened between Dune and Dune Messiah? What about the details of Paul Muad’Dib’s jihad and the formation of his empire? How did Paul become the prophet he is in Dune Messiah?

“The Muad’Dib’s jihad is in full swing. His warrior legions, led by Stilgar, march from victory to victory. But beneath the joy of victory and the pride of Fremen devotion there are dangerous undercurrents. Paul, like nearly every great conqueror, has enemies and those who would betray him to steal the awesome power he commands. . .

“And Paul begins to have doubts: Is the jihad getting out of his control? Has he created anarchy? Has he been betrayed by those he loves and trusts the most? And most of all, he wonders: Am I going mad?”

Review

Paul is an excellent, immediately immersive entry in the Heroes of Dune (and its umbrella Dune) series, one that bridges Dune and Dune Messiah. Paul fleshes out the details that bring about the events of Messiah, while answering some questions readers might have about relationships between its key players. This is a welcome and entertaining midquel, a book worth owning if you are a Dune fan. Followed by The Winds of Dune, which was initially announced as Jessica of Dune in the inside flap of the hardback version of Paul.

The Glass Cell by Patricia Highsmith

(pb; 1964)

From the back cover

“In 1961, Patricia Highsmith received a fan letter from a prison inmate. A correspondence ensued between author and inmate, and Highsmith became fascinated with the psychological traumas that incarceration can inflict. Based on a true story, The Glass Cell is Highsmith’s deeply disturbing fictionalization of everything she learned. Falsely convicted of fraud, the easy-going but naïve Philip Carter is sent to prison. Despite his devotion to Hazel, his wife, and the support of David Sullivan, a lwayer and friend who tries to avenge the injustice done to him, Carter endures six lonely and drug-ravaged years. Upon his release, Carter is a much more discerning, suspicious, and violent man. For those around him, earning back his trust can mean the difference between life and death.”

Review

Glass is a good novel that shows the horrors of prison and how it can change a person, twist him into something darker. Glass also sports a protagonist worth rooting for even as he becomes jaded and violent. Highsmith, as always, is adept at showing how everyday instances and items─innocuous in most writers’ hands─become troubling, damning when one has gone around some bleak, lonely bend and come out of the turn a fractured person.

Glass is entertaining, with interesting characters and an ending that satisfies, transcends the usual crime-and-punishment genre. Worth checking out, this.

Shattered Angel: Morelli’s Private Inquiries, Book 1 by Baird Nuckolls and James R. Sands

(pb; 2019)

From the back cover

“Set amid the growing roar of the 1920’s, a beautiful young flapper named Angel has hired Adriano Morelli, an ex-cop turned private detective, to follow her cheating husband. When Morelli steps into the rarified air of a Fifth Avenue apartment looking for his client, what he discovers changes the stakes of the game.

“He now has a murder to solve while staying one step ahead of the cops. And with a history of failure, especially when it comes to beautiful women, Morelli is hoping to redeem himself for past sins. From the Cotton Club and the city’s speakeasies to the Polo Grounds where heavyweight Jack Dempsey faces his greatest opponent, the life of New York comes right off the pages of the newspapers of the day. . .”

Review

Shattered is an excellent, burn-through pulp novel with all the best, classic-for-the-genre elements driving the characters toward their familiar but still-involving actions and destinations. It is a vivid entry in the private dick genre─it made this reader feel as if he were transported back to New York in the 1920s. (That said, its immersive feel is not achieved by slowing down its relatively fast pace, a good, all-too-rare skill.)  Shattered is worth owning.

The Amulet by Michael McDowell

(pb; 1979)

From the back cover

“When a rifle range accident leaves Dean Howell disfigured and in a vegetative state, his wife Sarah finds her dreary life in Pine Cone, Alabama made even worse. After long and tedious days on the assembly line, she returns home to care for her corpselike husband while enduring her loathsome and hateful mother-in-law, Jo. Jo blames the entire town for her son’s mishap, and when she gives a strange piece of jewelry to the man she believes most responsible, a series of gruesome deaths is set in motion. Sarah thinks the amulet has something to do with the rising body count, but no one will listen to her. As the inexplicable murders continue, Sarah and her friend Becca Blair have no choice but to track down the amulet themselves, before it’s too late.”

Review

Amulet is a good, playful, bleakly funny and sometimes gory read, one that fans of slasher films might especially enjoy, in a Final Destination “accidental death” way. McDowell, to his credit, imbues his familiar storyline with creative kill variations and even, briefly, a sense of mystery within its familiar storyline. He also keeps the tone lively and fast-moving, making for a book that─despite its occasional chatty characters─is largely entertaining, with a finish that is stunning in its simply put, mini-twist impact.

The Girl Who Lived Twice by David Lagercrantz

(hb; 2019: sixth book in the Millennium series. Translated from the Swedish by George Goulding.)

From the inside flap

“Lisbeth Salander─the fierce, unstoppable girl with the dragon tattoo─has disappeared. She’s sold her apartment in Stockholm. She’s gone silent electronically. She’s told no one where she is. And no one is aware that at long last she’s got her primal enemy, her twin sister, Camilla, squarely in her sights.

“Mikael Blomkvist is trying to reach Lisbeth. He needs her help unraveling the identity of a man who lived and died on the streets in Stockholm─a man who does not exist in any official records and whose garbled last words hinted at possible damaging knowledge of people in the highest echelons of government and industry. In his pocket was a crumpled piece of paper with Blomkvist’s phone number on it.

“Once again, Salander and Blomkvist will come to each other’s aid, moving in tandem toward the truths they each seek. In the end, it will be Blomkvist─in a moment of unimaginable self-sacrifice─who will make it possible for Lisbeth to face the most important battle of her life, and, finally to put her past to rest.”

Review

Twice is another excellent, burn-through entry in the Millennium series, more action-oriented and lighter in tone and storyline than its predecessor books. As with previous Millennium stories, Twice’s references and events are timely, this time around because of certain characters’ ties to Russia, hacking and other dark, often nefarious, deeds and intentions.  At this point in the series, there are less revelations about its key characters (the Salander sisters, Blomkvist), making it feel less personal than its first four books, but this is not a problem for this reader, because Twice is an entertaining wrap-up of sorts, concluding the second within-the-series trilogy. This, like the other books in this series, is worth owning.

Mr. Know-It-All: The Tarnished Wisdom of a Filth Elder by John Waters

(hb; 2019: nonfiction)

From the inside flap

“No one knows more about everything─especially rude, clever, and offensively compelling─than John Waters. The man in the pencil-thin mustache, auteur of the transgressive movie classics Pink Flamingos, Polyester, Hairspray, Cry-Baby, and A Dirty Shame, is one of the world’s great sophisticates, and in Mr. Know-It-All he serves it up raw: how to fail upward in Hollywood:; how to develop musical taste, from Nervous Norvus to Maria Callas: how to build a home so ugly and trendy that no one but you would dare live in it; more important, how to tell someone you love them without emotional risk; and, yes, how to cheat death itself. Through it all, Waters swears by one undeniable truth: ‘Whatever you might have heard, there is absolutely no downside to being famous. None at all.’

“Studded with cameos, from Divine and Mink Stole to Johnny Depp, Kathleen Turner, Patricia Hearst, and Tracy Ullman, and illustrated with unseen photos from the author’s personal collection, Mr. Know-It-All is Waters’ most hypnotically readable, upsetting, and revelatory book─another instant Waters classic.”

Review

Know-It-All is an amusing, smart-minded and sometimes laugh-out-loud read from the Pope of Filth, who dispenses advice, anecdotes and observations, gleaned from his years of experience. As one might expect, his advice is sound, his stories sometimes are a bit dirty, and humor laces many of observations. While it is not one of my favorite books by Waters─some of his wilder tangents lost me─it is worth reading, maybe owning for a few bucks.

The Guardian by Jeffrey Konvitz

(pb; 1979: sequel to The Sentinel)

From the back cover

“Evil is raging on the twentieth floor of an apartment building on the West Side. In an open window, a hideous blind nun perpetually gazing. . .watching. A body burned beyond recognition. Then two more murders. . .strangely connected. And the discoverer, a beautiful young woman, raped. Her innocent child exposed to horror. Her husband, furious, relentlessly set on revenge. A cool, calculating, laughing priest intent on saving more lives from destruction. And so it begins. . .powerful, satanic, terrifying.”

Review

Possible spoilers in this review.

Guardian is a strange, problematic and disappointing sequel to The Sentinel. Several things mar this ambitious, unwieldy novel.

One of these glaring flaws is the expanded homophobia (initially seen with the slovenly, craven lesbians in Sentinel). While this expressed disgust is reflective of the characters and their Catholicism in both novels, Konvitz lays it on thicker than necessary in Guardian, shoe-horning that outsized hatred into the storyline, even basing one of its key twists on that disgust.

Also, there are too many subplots, red herrings and Satanic cannon fodder characters running around, making Guardian feel like an odd, badly cobbled together tale. Sentinel was a focused, organic work for the most part; Guardian is not.

Not only that, Charles Chazen, revealed to be Satan-with-limited-powers in the first book, now has the abilities of the Almighty: he can strike anyone, anywhere, at any time, whereas in Sentinel he had boundaries─he inflicted influence over and visions onto select people but he could not kill them outright. In Guardian, he can. I write this last criticism bearing in mind that Chazen/Satan has been unbound from the Sentinel’s brownstone. That said, Chazen’s sudden power blossom reads like Konvitz discarded series consistency and opted for plot convenient, Omen-like ubiquitous satanic dread.

This brings me to what I like about Guardian. I appreciate its dark atmosphere, consistent with its source novel. I like that it features some of the characters from the original book, and it shows the process through which the priests sought and psychologically groomed the next Sentinel candidate─it is clear that Konvitz wants to expand the storyline, not merely write a pro forma sequel.

Unfortunately, its flaws outweigh its bleakish joys, and Guardian comes off as a rough draft in need of serious editorial whittling. If you must read it, buy it for cheap or, better yet, borrow it from your local library if you can.

People Who Knock on the Door by Patricia Highsmith

(hb; 1983)

From the inside flap

“. . .It begins when Richard Alderman becomes a born-again Christian and starts to tear apart the fabric of his life.

“Arthur, his teenaged son, rejects the church; Robbie, several years younger, adopts his father’s views. Caught in the middle of the ensuing web of lies is Lois Alderman, wife and mother, trying to do right, trying to keep her family together in the face of hypocrisy and inevitable tragedy. When an attempt is made to regulate Arthur’s love life, an unhappy situation becomes frighteningly worse.

“Like vultures preparing to feed, the Aldermans and church elders circle and attack, tearing at each other and unveiling at each other and unveiling disconcerting notions of justice.”

Review

People is a good, pressure boiler novel, made incisive by Highsmith’s usual, eagle-eyed take on human light and darkness simmering just below its suburban smiles and passive-aggressive invasions, with characters whose emotions, actions and consequences are thoroughly explored and shown─without becoming tiresome. While murder and crime are not the immediate vibe of this deft tale of family and community relations, religiosity, hypocrisy, and eventual sociopathy, People, although lighter in subject matter, sits well with Highsmith’s often darker works, and is worth reading. I would suggest that those with religious inclinations avoid this novel, as the “Christians” in People are not shown in a sympathetic light─not that they deserve to be. 

The Mad Robot by William P. McGivern

(pb; 1944, 2013: novella)

From the inside flap

“It seemed like a fairly simple mission. Make a routine supply run to Jupiter and plant yourself in the Earth-Mars robot experimental station. Then hang around for awhile and see if you can figure out what problems they’re having with the robot development program out there. Just don’t let anybody know that you’re spying on them.

“But when Rick Weston arrived on Jupiter, he soon found himself in a maze of hatred and intrigue. Robots were going beserk on occasion─and sometimes taking human lives! With the help of a friendly Martian scientist and a beautiful girl, it didn’t take Weston long to figure out the problems with the robots weren’t just mechanical.”

Review

Robot is a sixty-five-page blast of science fiction fun and action, with deftly sketched characters and zero lag in the smart, tightly written storyline. The betrayals and mini- twists are by-the-numbers but that did not ruin the read. It is simply McGivern, an excellent writer, thrilling within a familiar genre structure. 

The 2013 “Deluxe Paperback Edition” I read was by Armchair Fiction as a two-novellas-in-one-paperbook work. Its companion novella is J. Hunter Holly’s 1963 The Running Man.