Where the Devil Waits by Wesley Southard and Mark Steensland

 

(pb; 2021)

From the back cover

“What would you do for all the money in the world? Or to get with the girl of your dreams? What if you could make other people do anything you told them? What if all this and more could be yours just for winning a race. . . against the devil?

“A long-abandoned church on top of a mountain in the Pennsylvania backwoods is where the devil waits for anyone brave enough to challenge him. The course runs from the gate, through the cemetery, to the church doors.

“If you win, the prize is yours.

“If you lose. . . you die at sunrise.

“Sounds simple, doesn’t it?

“For four college students looking for a good time, nothing could be further from the truth.”

 

Review

Where, a 141-page novella, is an excellent, sharp-and-short, distinctive, horror image- and sensory-potent satanic spookshow work, with character-focused action and spiraling-beyond-them consequences and fast pacing. Appropriately, given its cemetery setting, undead uprising and other creepy elements, Where is dedicated to movie director Lucio Fulci, the genre-hopping filmmaker who’s best known for his horror films, e.g., ZOMBIE (1979), THE BEYOND (1981) and THE HOUSE BY THE CEMETERY (1981), though Where's ending is more comforting than anything in Fulci’s oeuvre.

Where's stark writing style lends itself to an equally stark screenplay for an excellent hour, hour-and-fifteen-minute short film. Not only that, Where is my favorite Steensland book thus far, and my one of my favorite 2022 reading choices. (I haven’t read Southard’s other writing.)  Worth owning, of course!

Sleeping Dogs by Thomas Perry

 

(pb; 1992: second book in the Butcher’s Boy series)

From the back cover

“He came to England to rest. He calls himself Michael Schaeffer, says he’s a retired American businessman. He goes to the races, dates a kinky aristocrat, and sleeps with dozens of weapons. Ten years ago, it was different. Then, he was the Butcher’s Boy, the highly skilled mob hit man who pulled a slaughter job on some double-crossing clients and started a mob war. Ever since, there’s been a price on his head.

“Now, after a decade, they’ve found him. The Butcher’s Boy escapes back to the States with more reasons to kill. Until the odds turn terrifyingly against him. . . until the Mafia, the cops, the FBI, and the damn Justice Department want his hide. . . until he’s locked into a cross-country odyssey of fear and death that could tear his world to pieces.”

 

Review

Like its source novel, The Butcher's Boy (1982) Sleeping has the same raw-yet-tightly-written immediacy, with strong (further) character development (for its leads), well-sketched supporting players, and enough cinematic, sometimes dark-humored action to make it worth adapting into a film or miniseries. Its leads, Schaeffer and E.V. Waring─the government agent who pursued him in the first book─are true to the earlier incarnations while growing more interesting, more layered as they go along. Looking forward to reading the third Butcher’s Boy novel, The Informant.

All Souls Are Final by Will Viharo

 

(pb; 2022: novella, one half of a two-novella collection, Dixon Gets Lost / All Souls are Final: A P.I. Tales Double Feature, the first novella─Dixon─penned by William Dylan Powell)

From the back cover

“. . . A long-buried memory resurfaces in retired private eye Vic Valentine’s tormented psyche, forcing him to reckon with a pivotal event in his past while recovering from a psychotic break in his present. Most of the Action revolves around his erotic, erratic experiences with a secret satanic pornography cult in turn-of-the-twentieth-century Los Angeles, as he is seduced into a decadent den of delirious danger by a sexy client whose mysterious boyfriend Vic accidentally killed. Or did he? Discover the shocking truth in a sordid truth in a sordid series of twists and turns down this rocky road to raunchy ruin.”

 

Review

The latest adventure in Vic Valentine’s well-storied life has Valentine recounting a previously unmentioned life-chapter to his years-later wife, Val, while they enjoy life in Seattle, Washington.

You can read the back-cover description to get a feel for the story. This time out, Vic’s confession-tinged tale telling is more real world straight-forward, less psychotronic and “dream-or-reality?” in nature, taking place in San Francisco and Los Angeles in the mid-1990s. Raquel Fleming─her real name?─is the latest (possible) femme fatale in Valentine’s sexy line-up, and their meeting impels the horny, often messed-up P.I. into (somewhat) familiar, over-the-top pulptastic, and fast-moving territory. Returning Viharo/Valentine readers will likely recognize themes and characters from previous Valentine outings, new twists on older tales, and new readers might find a fresh good-hearted anti-hero to root for and further read about─as I hope they do.

Viharo’s distinctive mix of clever sleaze, hope, neo-pulp, retro-pop and decades-old cinema still thrills (living up to part of Viharo’s website name, Thrillville). This quick, ninety-five-page for mature audiences only read is worth owning.

As noted above, Souls is part of a two-author collection, the other novella William Dylan Powell’s Dixon Guidry Gets Lost, a work I did not read.

The Addams Family by Jack Sharkey

 

(pb; 1965)

From the back cover

“Meet the Addams family.

“Gomez─master of the house─and several strange powers.

“Morticia─dressed in an attractive shroud, she casts a spell over everyone─and everything─around her.

“Pugsley─he took in stray kittens─straight into the dog kennel.

“Wednesday─a pigtailed daughter whose close friend is a headless doll.

“Uncle Fester─loved to feed the dog─to the crocodile.

“Plus Granny, Lurch the butler, and the family retainer, Thing─gift of a friend who had lent the Addams family a helping hand.”

 

Review

Based on Charles Addams's popular comic strip, this prequel to the television/ABC show of the same name (1964-66) is an episodic read, with each chapter-section a loosely linked continuation of the preceding chapter-section. Sometimes the set-up humor (with its offscreen, mentioned macabre action) gets stretched a bit thin writing-wise─it’s not a deal-breaking quality (the show also has that occasional, formulaic weakness)─but the characters (and their charm), the mostly spot-on wit, and overall concept make that nit a minor concern. Worth owning and reading, this, if you’re a fan of the series, or curious about how the characters, as shown in the ABC series, came to be where and the way they are.

Story breakdown

In “Be It Ever So Horrible,” the Addams move into a house that other people would consider horrible, bordering on offensive.

“What is the Sound of One Hand Cackling?” introduces Thing, their disembodied hand-servant, when they discover him living in their new house.

The third chapter, “Dear Old Mold and Ghoul Days,” finds Wednesday and Pugsley, with their macabre worldviews, freaking out their classmates and teacher.

“The Loud, Fragrant Flavor of Sharp Purple”: Abigail Glimmer, Wednesday and Pugsley’s schoolteacher (introduced in the previous chapter), visits the Addams. While she’s there, Gomez tries out one of his experiments on her─the Pentatronic Esthesidor, which allows its user to “experience any given sensation. In all five sense. Simulatneously” (Gomez). Things go delightfully awry for most involved.

In “The Inside is Definitely Out” an interior decorator (Miss Wyckwyre) with ulterior motives tries to─like other series-formulaic characters─fleece the Addams and, karmically, ends up paying the price for her deception, her payment not as pleasant as others’.

“The Weakness That Was” has Gomez opening a “clinic” for those who are supernaturally afflicted─not to cure them of them, but to make said afflictions, weaknesses, into strengths. Beowulf Moosefoot, city official “staff Psychologist on the City’s Chamber of  Commerce” comes to the Addams residence to investigate whether Gomez is a fraud.

“Ah, What’s the Youth?”: The Addams’ easily frightened accountant (Mr. Alden Fisk) is compelled to attend the Addams’ annual Halloween party, along with other mismatched guests.

The Army tries to induct Uncle Fester in “From Here to Perplexity,” only to see their battery of intake medical and psychological tests backfire in bizarre (for them) ways. Fester, born in 1626 and a military veteran, is especially amusing in this chapter, though it, like the television series and the tales within this book, run a bit long, threatening to mar the clever wit and distinctive feel of works relating to the Addams.

“You Can’t Leave Home Again” finds Morticia and Granny going to a posh resort while the former ponders and laments Gomez’s recent habit changes─he’s so nice, so kind!─and she fends off the advances of a con-artist lothario (Jed Justin). The ending to this has a particularly heartwarming, clever, and character-centric twist. This is one of my favorite story-chapters in Addams.

In “After Cousin Charles, What?”, Gomez and Morticia, look for fresh adventures to engage in. Especially fun and short (in relation to other chapters), this is a perfect and laugh-out-loud fun lead-in to the television series.