The Innswich Horror by Edward Lee

Originally released as a limited edition by Cemetary Dance for those who joined the their 2008 Book Club, Edward Lee's The Innswich Horror has been a frustratingly rare item for your average Lee reader. Thankfully Deadite Press (an imprint of Eraserhead Press) have seen fit to publish The Innswich Horror (2010, Deadite Press) as an affordable trade paperback.

On the face of it Lee seems like an author who is unlikely to write something truly Lovecraftian. His typical method of laying on sex and gore with a trowel seems at odds with Lovecraft's method of layering on fear in the form of a slowly encroaching doom. Would this effort prove to be yet another modern attempt at Lovecraftian fiction where the Cthulhu Mythos is merely a background detail? Or perhaps a convenient provider of antagonists, but not a provider of form?

In 1939, Foster Morley, a fan of Lovecraft, decides to take a bus tour that takes in the locations that inspired his idol's work. During the Massachusetts leg he discovers a small town called Olmstead, and this piques his interest: Olmstead is the last name of Lovecraft's protagonist in The Shadow Over Innsmouth.

Electing to stay there (mainly to satisfy his curiosity) he quickly discovers other parallels with the great man's work. Historically significant persons where changing one or two letters gives you the name of a character in Innsmouth. Ship vessels with similarly familiar names. A part of the town called "Innswich Point". It seems increasingly likely that the town of Olmstead was the inspiration for one of Lovecraft's most loved stories.

During his stay he discovers other oddities. Why are there so many pregnant women? Why are the local fishing spots, which the locals are very protective of, so incredibly abundant? Whatever happened to that nice man who was also visiting and staying at the same hotel? Foster's curiosity gets the better of him and he begins to unravel Olmstead's secret: perhaps Lovecraft's story wasn't just the product of imagination. What follows is a well-devised reinterpretation of the material in Innsmouth, with a smattering of other Lovecraftian influences (spoilerish: perhaps even some Herbert West material), blended with Lee's customary sick/sexual overtones.

Edward Lee is well known for upping the ante as far as sexual or gross-out content goes, but he does show some restraint here. Oh sure enough, there is a reasonable amount of sexual deviancy to be found, but less than what is present in his more recent mass market releases. This is a good thing, as Lee's control allows him to build the atmosphere gradually, in a reasonably Lovecraftian fashion. But rest assured if you like a little action in your Lee: though initially slow and measured in pace, this book's last third will get your adrenaline pumping.

So, yes, it's a good story, but does the package live up to it?
The cover is excellent, but I was a little disappointed that it had nothing at all to do with the story - except, that is, for being a vaguely Cthulhu Mythos-esque illustration for a Cthulhu Mythos-related novel. This is not a major annoyance, after all, it is a great cover (though the creature does look a little stoned don't you think?).

One thing that did annoy me a little though was the (at least) half a dozen basic typos. There's even one at the end of the very first paragraph. These are not present in the Cemetery Dance edition (as my spies have corroborated for me). Still, given easy access to an affordable version of this work, it's probably a small price to pay. And I'm probably just a fussy bastard.

Overall I found this an excellent read. Some of Lee's mass market releases, while entertaining, have annoyed me with some sloppy execution. No such problems here. This is a surprisingly controlled outing from Edward Lee; a must for all his fans and an easy recommendation to fans of Lovecraftian fiction.

4 out of 5 scalpels

Seventh Black Book of Horror update

The website of Mortbury Press has been updated with a Seventh Black Book of Horror page.
Go there to order.
Or wait for a review.
Or go there and order in anticipation of a good review.

Your pick.

Horror News... zombies, clickers, and black books

Some things that should be on your horror radar:

Apparently TOR just had their zombie week, which included original and reprint zombie fiction and comics, a contest, blog articles, etc etc. Go here to view handy links to the various parts of the event. I rather liked the zombie art article.


Mortbury Press launched their seventh Black Book of Horror a couple of days ago at Fantasycon. Though there's no announcement on their website, there are a couple of places (e.g. here) where you can view the table of contents. It promises to be an excellent line up, and based on my previous experiences (review here) I intend to get hold of it somehow. Here's the excellent cover:

Brian Keene has announced that, a week after the release of the trade paperback version of Clickers III, Clickers I and II have been re-released in multiple digital formats.Go there to read more and get "buy" links. Alternatively, if you wait a bit longer there will be trade versions of the first two available, "soon".

Gleefully Macabre by Jeff Strand

Dark Regions Press has been gathering an excellent line-up of authors. One of their more recent scalps is Jeff Strand. He's the author of all manner of wickedly funny horror/thriller novels: the recently released Wolf Hunt, Dweller (both released by Dark Regions), Benjamin's Parasite, Pressure, and many others. His interviews are always funny, and I dare you to read his website and not chuckle on occasion; especially his bio.

It turns out that he is also a dab hand at the shorter form. Gleefully Macabre Tales (Dark Regions Press, 2009, 278 pages) is a collection of his short stories, with original publishing dates ranging from 1998 to 2007. As Strand mentions in his humorous introduction, it's a "most of" collection, with the only works missing being those that are really really bad, too recent, or that "didn't fit" for whatever reason - possibly they were neither gleeful or macabre.

Originally released by Delirium as a 300-copy limited, this trade edition from Dark Regions is not only a damn sight more affordable, it also adds the novella "Disposal", previously only available as a limited from Biting Dog Press. This is the longest story by a long shot, with most of the others being under 12 pages, and there are several stories that qualify as "flash fiction". "An Admittedly Rather Pointless But Mercilessly Brief Story With Aliens In It" is barely a page long, the splattery "Quite a Mess" half that; but "Common Sense" is only two sentences long. Naturally, this makes it hard to talk about some of the stories in detail without ruining them, especially those that lead up to what is essentially a punchline.

Of the shorter works a standout for me was "Really, Really Ferocious". It's about a harmless looking dog who surely can't be a threat, right? Wrong, but not in the way you think. "High Stakes" is a nasty little comment on the extreme consequences of not being able to quit while you're ahead. "Cap'n Hank's Five Alarm Nuclear Larva Wings" has a truly shocking ending, and a reminder to be pleasant to those who serve us at eateries.

Of the longer pieces, a stand-out for me was "Werewolf Porno". It, as the title implies, features a werewolf on the set of a porn film. Sex, blood, chaos, hilarity (not necessarily in that order) ensue. Another longer stand-out was "Abby's Shriek". It's about a couple of kids and their abusive father, who may or may not be a sexual deviant and killer. It has an excellent twist.

A section titled "Gross Out!" contains his 2006 and 2007 entries in the World Horror Convention gross-out contest. And, yes, they are very gross, but apparently nowhere near as gross as the winners. Just as gross as these (at least to me) is "The Socket", which is about a man and his eye socket, and the gross things he can do with it. Ech.

And just when you think that Strand is only capable of humour, along comes "Glimpses" to kick you in the nuts. Displaying a similar style of "life glimpses" as used in Dweller, it's a story about Dennis and Patricia; how they grow up together, get married and so on... and then an accident occurs that changes everything. It turns out that one of them is hiding a sick compulsion. A truly excellent story.

Of course, not all are excellent.  In fact there is one down-right stinker: "The Bad Man In The Blue House". It's written in an odd style, and I'm not certain how to describe it other than to say that it doesn't really work for me at all. "One Of Them" is a demonstration on how to suck the fun out of something, and as a consequence, is not a fun read. In Jeff's defense, he does point out some of these flaws in his notes (which, by the way, are a very entertaining read themselves), but as the word count wouldn't have suffered very much, I feel the collection would have been stronger without them.

Luckily, the aforementioned "Disposal" makes up for these in spades. Frank is a self-confessed scumbag who gets employed by Gretchen to kill her husband and dispose of the body. The only thing is, her husband won't die, no matter what violence is inflicted on his body. Dealings with the occult, dastardly deeds, double crossings, it's all there. In short, it's good.

Overall, it's a very good collection, with a title that is as apt as apt can be. I was expecting it to be very funny- and it was - but I had no idea that it would be so impressively gross at times. It's one of those books that you can pull off the shelf on occasion, open at a random story and have a little chuckle. Or a little grimace. Or both at the same time.
Or, if your friends are open minded, show a story to them at a social gathering. It's something I've been doing, and the smiles have outnumbered the frowns, though there are those occasions when they're not certain which expression to use.

It's funny, and dark. Its gleeful and macabre. It's very good.

4 out of 5 scalpels

Clark Ashton Smith: master of the eldritch

I found out about Clark Ashton Smith mainly through his association with H P Lovecraft and the Cthulhu mythos. I've always liked Smith's stories as much as Lovecraft's, and in many ways they are superior. There's something more lyrical, evocative, poetic about his writing.

It's no surprise, then, that Smith rose to popularity at a fairly young age through his poetry, circa 1920. Unfortunately this fame only lasted a few years - Romantic poetry plummeted in popularity a little later - and Smith may have fallen into complete anonymity if not for Lovecraft convincing him to write fiction.

Smith often used the Cthulhu mythos in his stories, but it wasn't entirely a one-way street, with Lovecraft borrowing Tsathoggua for his elder gods pantheon. According to the Penguin Encyclopedia of Horror "Lovecraft actually held Smith in something like awe, considering him the greatest writer of their weird circle".

The man himself, older and younger

If you want to find out more about Clark Ashton Smith then there is no better place to go than a website called The Eldritch Dark - The Sanctum of Clark Ashton Smith.

There you will find the majority of his fiction (I noticed only a handful missing) and poetry, as well as non-fiction. There's even a heap of his correspondence with the likes of H P Lovecraft and August Derleth, amongst others. It's an eldritch feast.

The Cimmerian has an article about collecting physical copies of Smith's work, but only makes passing comment about the versions that I have a soft spot for: the cheap, affordable, Panther versions. There are around nine of these volumes, all printed in the 70s. Here are some groovy cover scans:

Alas, I misplaced The Abominations of Yondo many years ago. This makes me sad. I'll endeavour to replace it sometime, but in the meantime the above is a cover scan courtesy of The Vault of Evil.

Fine Slices*: The "Sexually Frustrated Male" Edition

The sexually frustrated male is a staple in horror fiction. Frustration leads to unwise acts, unwise acts to fear or violence, and a bit of titillation along the way doesn't hurt readership, I guess.
Here's a couple of examples; one by a relative newcomer on the scene, Christopher Ransom, and one by a veteran of sex-saturated horror, Edward Lee.

The Birthing House by Christopher Ransom
(Sphere, 2008, 407 pages)

 I really love a good haunted house story, and on the face of it this book had a lot of potential. An old birthing house is almost guaranteed to have a tragic history: dead babies, dead (or at least emotionally damaged) mothers, the echoes of childbirth gone wrong, and the associated creepy hauntings.

And there are hauntings: mainly jerkily animated figures with long dark hair, seemingly lifted from certain popular horror movies. So far, so derivative, except that he gets to have sex with them. Yes, you read that right. Still, there are some effectively creepy moments, and one particularly scary bit around half way (Chapter 20). But mostly there is massive frustration and annoyance, especially for the reader.

I found it hard to empathise with Conrad, the sexually frustated male main character. He's meant to be trying to make amends with his wife, but ends up boffing the vulnerable pregnant girl next door. He has a bizarre obsession with some sexual experiences in his past, and when related, these are more embarassingly cringe-worthy than erotic.

His credulity is all over the place. One moment he's jumping straight to the conclusion that oh my god oh my god it's the house, the house that's doing it, it wants more... thus robbing the story of a well paced build-up; the next he's doubting what he's experienced.
The plot and pacing is a goddamn mess.

It's not very often that I take notice of ratings on Amazon, they seemed to be "gamed" so often, but in this case they're deserved. It currently stands at two stars, and that seems about right. It's a pity, because there's some potential here.

2.5 out of 5 scalpels



The Black Train by Edward Lee
(Leisure Books, 2009, 340 pages)

As mentioned above, Lee is no stranger to sexual elements, and this book has it in spades. It's amazing to think that Gast, the book that this is a mass-market version of, actually has more pornographic and gross-out content.

Lee's sexually frustrated male protagonist, Justin Collier, is a much more convincing character than the main protagonist of The Birthing House, despite this book's lack of literary pretensions. The star of his own Food Network show, he's a minor celebrity that starts off a little unlikeable, but by book's end I found I had warmed to him.

Interspersed with his ghostly erotic experiences in the town of Gast are sections about Harwood Gast, a Civil War railway mogul and the town's namesake. These are the parts where the book really shines (if that's the right word). Harwood Gast is a truly evil man, and the details of his exploits make for compelling, if disgusting, reading. They could easily have been extracted and expanded upon in their own novel-length tale.

If there is one major flaw in this book (other than one piece of very clumsy foreshadowing near the end) it is that the climax is very much a fizzer. There's some really good build-up, the scene is set up for an almighty sex-infused bloodbath, and... nothing much happens. Still, the journey was a disturbing, compellingly freaky one up to that point.

Definitely worth reading if you don't mind indulging in something a little more low brow every once in a while.

3.5 out of 5 scalpels

(*this mini-review title brought to you by "Jando")

Win William Meikle's "Crustaceans"

No, not here... over there.

Scott Nicholson is hosting an article by William Meikle over at his blog. He's also hosting a competition:

William is also giving away a free PDF of Crustaceans to the best horror joke posted in the comments. His choice, winner picked in seven days.

So, think of something funny, go here and post it, and you never know, you might be in Crab-horror-heaven in a week's time.

Here's a blurb and cover picture to wet your appetite:

It begins with a dead whale on a Boston shoreline...not an unusual occurrence. But the things that claw their way out of the blubber are unusual. A cast of giant crabs, evolved over centuries, make their way to the city using the sewer system. Soon they are swarming around Manhattan, hunted by a SWAT team tasked with ridding the city of the menace... before the menace rids itself of the city.

Horror news... Gonzalez, Meikle and Masterton

A few things that should be on your horror radar:

Horror author J F Gonzalez (Clickers, Shaperhifter, The Beloved, etc etc), gives his view on the Dorchester debacle, as well as a bit of history about the Leisure imprint. It's a good read. Read it here.

David T Wilbanks (co-author of the Dead Earth series) has re-published the interview he had with Graham Masterton back in 2009. I've been reading Masterton for more than 25 years and own around 40 of his novels, and despite some misgivings about his occasional lack of restraint I consider myself a fan. Consequently, I find anything on him of interest. Read it here.

And while you're there, read the interview he has up with pulp maestro William Meikle. It's the first part of two, of which the second is here. You might want to bookmark David's blog, y'know?

Speaking of William Meikle, apparently his science fiction novel, The Invasion, is going gangbusters on the Kindle charts. Now I don't own a Kindle, and why people would want to lock themselves into something so proprietary is beyond me, but you can get the book in many other formats from Smashwords, here.

Free e-zine Dead Lines - Tales of Terror and Suspense is reportedly coming back after a seven month hiatus (source). Previous line-ups have been very good: John Everson, Jeff Strand, Gord Rollo, Wrath James White... and many others. The coming October issue promises to feature John Everson again, but what ties it into this passel of news items is that it will feature... Graham Masterton! Yes!

Wordsworth Editions are a gold mine of Mystery and the Supernatural

God bless Wordsworth is how I wanted to start this; but perhaps it should be blessed by something else, given the nature of the stories that I extracted from their catalogue in my youth.

Throughout my interest in the horror genre, I've tried to cultivate an appreciation of where the genre came from. Admittedly, when I was very young, I would struggle with what seemed to be archaic writing styles, but I persisted. Frequently this persistence lead me to seek out something from the Wordsworth catalogue.

One of my prized possessions in my late teens was a beautiful Wordsworth hardback - Collected Ghost Stories by M R James, a Christmas present from some family friends.  If I look at my bookshelves there are plenty of other Wordsworth editions of significance in the literature of the macabre: Bram Stoker's Dracula, Shelley's Frankenstein, Henry James' Turn of the Screw (collected with The Aspern Papers), The Picture of Dorian Gray, Le Fanu's In A Glass Darkly, The Collected Tales of Edgar Allen Poe and so on. All from good old Wordsworth.

They've been steadily pumping out affordable volumes all these years, but despite my appreciation I have to admit that I haven't bought a Wordsworth for quite a long time. I had my quota of classics long ago; I don't need any more.

How wrong I am.

What has brought them back to my attention is the recent release of The Dead of Night - The Ghost Stories of Oliver Onions. Though I have many stories by Oliver Onions, due to an excess of ghost story anthologies, it's nowhere near a complete collection, and along with the likes of E F Benson (for example), Oliver Onions was a favourite. So at a measly three pounds sterling (or thereabouts), I ordered it.

It arrived a couple of weeks ago and what a volume it is - 657 pages! For three measly quid!
It features well-known tales such as "The Beckoning Fair One" (cited favourably by Lovecraft and Algernon Blackwood), but it also features stories I am less familiar with. I know I'm going to treasure the process of catching up.

This got me looking at the rest of the catalogue, notably the "Tales of Mystery and the Supernatural" section, and what a gold mine it has become. Have a gander here.

Since the Oliver Onions book arrived I've ordered (and received) a couple more:

The Beast with Five Fingers by W F Harvey (418 pages)

I've only read a few stories from Harvey, but they've stuck in my mind.  "The Beast with Five Fingers" is a story featuring a disembodied hand. At one point it slides down a stair rail, which makes me wonder about the inspiration for Thing in the Addam's family. (Nah, probably not). Many (most? - I've got the best part of a bookful to catch up on yet) of his stories display a wicked sense of humour.







The Temple of Death - The Ghost Stories of A. C. & R. H. Benson (226 pages)

Ah, the Benson brothers: Arthur Christopher Benson (b 1862), Edward Frederic Benson (b 1867), and Robert Hugh Benson (b1871). What a morbid lot.
I'm a fan of the middle brother. The Panther edition of E F Benson's The Horror Horn was one of  my favourite books when I was very young (more on that some other time). I've heard that the stories of the older and younger of the three Benson brothers are often didactic in nature, but that they are still worth reading. This is more of a curiosity buy than anything.

There are plenty of others worth looking at - even some Lovecraft and Howard if you haven't had your fill of them. There are some obvious omissions in the Wordsworth supernatural line-up that I hope get filled one day - for example E F Benson (mentioned above) and H R Wakefield (whose "The Red Lodge", a story of slime covered undead, gave me the willies), but with a bit of luck the catalogue will continue to grow. And to educate!