by Andy Cox
This book is obviously a labour of love on the part of editor Mains, and what comes through strongly is his desire to see justice done, to ensure that Burke gets the recognition he deserved, even if it does come posthumously (John Burke passed away in 2011). As far as that goes, it’s most definitely mission accomplished, and for the reader there’s an interesting story to be had and a compelling look at how things got done in the budget film industry way back when, the players and the played, and of course the pleasure of knowing the good guy can come out on top, and that the truth will out.
DARKFUSE NOVELLAS
Jeffrey Thomas returns to his Punktown universe and series character Jeremy Stake, private investigator and shape shifting mutant, for RED CELLS (DarkFuse eBook, 81pp, $3.49). Undercover, sort of, Stake is to serve a prison sentence in the Trans-Paxton Penitentiary, a facility in an artificially created pocket universe, and complications arise when he is unmasked. That’s the least of Stake’s problems though, as inmates are being killed in a particularly horrendous manner, their bodies disintegrated and only blood left behind, and Stake appears to be on the monster’s to do list, while certain other parties would like him to solve the crimes, with failure not an option.
The plot here isn’t especially elaborate but Thomas manages to pack a lot in, bringing the character of Stake and the many layered universe he inhabits, with its mutants and aliens, to vivid life on the page, and with such skill that readers who haven’t encountered this milieu before won’t feel excluded. Onto the stem narrative, which is basically a prison story with science fiction trimmings, he grafts all the variations you’d expect, with our hero threatened by other inmates and corrupt officials, having to deal with double crosses and the burden of being an honourable man in a system that simply doesn’t have much truck with such virtues, all of which is just window dressing for the main plot thrust. At heart this is a first contact story, with men and aliens interacting in ways that, albeit unintentionally so, do not contribute to each other’s well-being and at the climax of the story Thomas gives us an open ending, with a codicil that shows a new player strutting out on the Punktown stage. It’s good solid storytelling, fast paced and at times rather basic, but never less than entertaining.
There’s a similar science fictional back drop and setting to MARROW’S PIT (DarkFuse eBook, 43pp, $3.49) by Keith Deininger. The remnants of humanity live on inside the Machine, while outside the Maelstrom still rages. They have no purpose in life except to serve the Machine and obey the tenets of their religion. Ballard’s dream of life with his beloved Laura has turned into a nightmare, as she constantly belittles and abuses him, all while seeing a lover. When things turn sour he is forced to leave the Machine and travel to a place his father showed him when he was a child called Marrow’s Pit.
Just as with previous work by Keith Deininger that I’ve read, I had some trouble getting my head round some aspects of this. He writes well, and the picture of henpecked Ballard (the name may be significant) who had dreams of so much more for himself, is powerfully evoked on the page. Similarly the pointlessness of life within the Machine is perfectly conveyed, with echoes of the dystopian environments found in films such as Logan’s Run and The Island, added to which the crazy fundamentalism that holds sway within the Machine, placing emphasis on overcoming the Snake, is a well done picture of religious totalitarianism and the perils of mob rule. Where it went pear shaped for me was with the ending, which seemed to imply Ballard wasn’t human at all, so much as a thinking component in the Machine, with his escape bringing about a realisation of the true nature of reality. Or perhaps it was meant to be seen as a metaphor encapsulating the futility of the character’s existence. I’m really not sure, but either way from dystopian fable to something akin to surrealism was a shift that didn’t work for me, bringing up questions about the point of it all and the suspicion that, having come up with this intriguing scenario, the writer didn’t really know what to do with the material.
DECEIVER (DarkFuse eBook, 49pp, $3.49) by Kelli Owen is told from the viewpoint of the bereaved Matt, whose wife was murdered in a hotel room while away on a business trip. Going through her returned luggage, he finds a notebook and upon reading it discovers a whole new side to his beloved Tania. At first it appears that she sleeps around, taking men’s ties as souvenirs, but then an even darker vision intrudes courtesy of the detective investigating Tania’s murder, with the possibility that Matt’s wife might have been a serial killer.
Of course it’s not that straightforward, but before we get into all that a warning that plot spoilers lie ahead, as I’m afraid I can’t pin down why this doesn’t work for me without going down that particular route.
Author Kelli Owen tries to sell the reader a dummy, but the plot is too contrived to pass muster. We are asked to believe that the police when investigating a dead body found in a hotel room won’t go through the victim’s luggage and find and read the tell-tale notebook, instead simply returning it to her husband. Owen then has to go through silly plot contortions explaining why Matt doesn’t recognise that the writing in the notebook isn’t his wife’s, and he takes an awfully long time reading through a few journal entries, Owen eking the notebook out to War and Peace length for dramatic effect (okay, I’m exaggerating here, but it really is that preposterous). And though Owen slips a shiver of guilt into the mix to ground Matt’s feelings, his willingness to believe the worst about the woman he claims to love so much and the temper tantrums he throws don’t exactly endear the character to the reader. To me Deceiver reads like an idea somebody had, but which fell apart at the fleshing out stage, only they were too committed to abandon ship and so just sailed on in the hope that everything would come together, but sadly it didn’t.
In Sandy De Luca’s HELL’S DOOR (DarkFuse eBook, 91pp, $2.99) a sadistic killer is preying on the working girls of Providence, beheading his victims and eating their flesh. The prime suspect is pimp Ramsay Wolfe, who owns the S&M club Hell’s Door and has a whole devil worship thing going on, though most believe this is only a ruse to keep her stable of girls in order. Detectives Lacey Powers and John Demmings go undercover at the club, posing as a couple who might be into the sort of games Ramsay likes to play, and the pimp is definitely attracted to Lacey. Meanwhile the murders continue with the killer widening his victim pool and the detectives having personal problems, intercut with all of which are the first person musings of the monstrous Gabriel, as he reflects on and commits his heinous deeds. The stage is set for a shocking denouement.
This reads rather like a condensed version of David Lindsey’s Mercy, with a fast paced and exciting plot, some convincing S&M detail to add verisimilitude, and intriguing characters, not least of them Gabriel, whose head and tormented personality Sandy De Luca does an excellent job of getting inside. It is exploitative in a sense – De Luca has nothing insightful to offer regarding the S&M scene, or any shattering truths to impart about the genesis of serial killers, simply using them as a backdrop to her story, but she does so in a sly way to suggest she could tell us a thing or two if she wished. There are scenes of grue that will linger in the memory and the end twist, if not a complete surprise, was well handled. I had a good time with this and look forward to reading more by the author.
And in this instant, more takes the form of MESSAGES FROM THE DEAD (DarkFuse eBook, 99pp, $2.99), a work I feel is even more effective. Unhappy in her marriage and job, Donna decides to give her talent as an artist room to grow by taking classes at Castell Community College, which was previously a hospital for sick children. Bones and a primitive statue have been found in the walls of the building, with the latter being adopted by the local art community as Mada, a god of creativity. Foremost in this movement is Donna’s teacher Alex, who practises a form of paganism or devil worship and encourages her students to get in touch with their dark side. It isn’t long before people start dying and Donna begins to see and communicate with dead people, but the truth behind what is happening goes far back into the past and
implicates her family.
This is an ambitious work, one that focuses on a young woman’s desire to turn her life around, but then complicates matters with a plethora of supernatural effects. Donna’s dissatisfaction with her husband, who she yet cares for very much, her questions about her sexuality and wish to make something more of herself all come across very well. Added to this, there’s a feeling of unreality about much of what is going down, with the reader confused in a way similar to that of the viewer in Sixth Sense, so that we don’t know if the characters Donna interacts with are flesh and blood, vengeful spirits, or simply figments of her imagination. Castell itself, with its history of tragedy, is beautifully realised on the page, a dark and brooding presence that dominates the story. Equally there is plenty of interesting stuff about art and the things that drive the creative individual. It’s a short book but one with a lot going on, and all of it is good. I thought it was the best of the works I’ve seen by DeLuca. I loved it.
From Castell Community College, with its shadowy corridors and unwanted guests, we neatly segue into reviewing a haunted house story or three.
In SHATTERED (DarkFuse eBook, 95pp, $2.99) by C.S. Kane, Stacey Sheldon and her fiancé Liam move into a flat in an old building on Claremont Street, the only place where they can afford the rent. From the very start she senses that something is wrong. Claremont Street has a reputation for housing sex offenders and junior arsonists, there’s fungus clinging to the walls in the bathroom and the central heating doesn’t work. Things escalate, with Stacey having nightmares and hallucinating, all of which causes problems with an at first sympathetic Liam, and those problems will continue until, with the help of a convenient infodump from an elderly neighbour, Stacey can get to the bottom of what went on in the flat many years before.
So far, so ordinary. This has all the usual trappings of the ghost story form, bringing nothing new to the table. It’s done well, with the best part being how author C.S. Kane brings Stacey and Liam, along with the other characters, to life on the page. Their relationship, with its ups and downs, has the feel of something genuine about it, as do Stacey’s interactions with other people, particularly at the local shop where she finds employment. As far as the supernatural aspects of the tale go, it really doesn’t cut the mustard, with a barrage of familiar effects and jump moments of the sort you can find in any low budget horror movie and a clichéd prime mover courtesy of Nasty Spooks R Us. I enjoyed it in a pass the time sort of way, but didn’t feel that my time couldn’t have been better spent. The author has talent, but needs better material.
I was similarly underwhelmed by Lisa von Biela’s ASH AND BONE (DarkFuse eBook, 64pp, $3.49), in which career criminal Eileen Maroni purchases the rundown Harbor Hotel in the town of Cromwell Bay and sets about becoming an honest woman, but there’s something odd about the place, especially room #8 which creeps out even her dog Beau and guests report that the room is “wrong”. Eileen discovers that the hotel has been built on the site of a sawmill that burnt down with considerable loss of life. Then second rate reporter Frank Foster spends a night in #8 and has vivid dreams of the fire, ones that seem so real he feels compelled to get to the bottom of what is going on.
You can probably guess the rest.
Once again this is pretty much your bog standard haunted house story, with all the familiar tropes brought into play; the kind of thing that might pass muster as a filler episode of Poltergeist: The Legacy or something similar. It all feels slightly contrived and has about it a going through the motions quality. Author Lisa von Biela has little to offer in the way of originality and, while there’s nothing here to give a reader pause, there’s nothing that will cause clammy hands or heart palpitations either (exaggeration for dramatic effect). It’s a simple story, simply told, and that’s all there is to it I’m afraid. If you want something special in the spectral stakes, then you need to look elsewhere.
Third time lucky perhaps, with ELDERWOOD MANOR (DarkFuse eBook, 46pp, $2.99) by the writing team of Christopher Fulbright and Angeline Hawkes. Down on his luck, Bruce returns with son Cody to the family home to visit one last time with his dying mother, at her behest. But his mother has already passed on and there are hints it was not a natural death. Father and son are trapped by the snow in isolated Elderwood Manor, of which Bruce has unhappy memories and always found a little strange. The building is as off kilter and minatory as ever. Built by the founder of a fertility cult, the ground soaked with the blood of women and their children, Elderwood is now home to a vegetable entity that wants to feast on Cody’s lifeblood, something Bruce must prevent at all cost.
This is an example of that estimable subgenre of a subgenre, the haunted (stately) house story, with all the usual tropes you’d expect – a vast, rundown house with a chequered history, a child in peril, snow as a means to cut the characters off from civilisation, grace notes at the end which doff their cap in the direction of Jackson’s The Haunting of Hill House. At times it feels as if the authors had a shopping list of the usual ingredients with which to prepare their feast, but despite all this Hawkes and Fulbright just about manage to pull it off, thanks in the main to some striking touches of originality, such as the tree entity and the ceremony in the sub-sub-basement, and the imagery of dead women is put to effective use. It engendered a shudder or two, and I enjoyed it rather more than not, even while noting the formulaic elements.
We’re still stuck out in the wild for DEAD FIVE’S PASS (DarkFuse eBook, 106pp, $3.99) by Colin F. Barnes. The trouble begins with a badly injured girl who is talking gibberish in a sick room and scrawling arcane symbols on the wall in shit and blood. Her boyfriend is missing up the side of a mountain, and a gang of four other teenagers are about to get in a whole mess of trouble as they search for a newly discovered cave. It sounds like a job for mountain rescue, but Carise and Marcel have a history and issues that need addressing (her alcoholism; his relationship with another woman; the dead person in their shared past), and it takes the intrusion of Cthulhu’s little brother to bring them together again.
This is a pretty straightforward action piece that owes more to the monster mayhem end of the horror spectrum than the creepy side, potential sfx extravaganzas served up in lieu of atmosphere. It’s entertaining enough with well-drawn characters and an intriguing scenario. Initially a bit like Michael McBride’s 2012 DarkFuse novella Snowblind with the plight of the four climbers, it segues off into something far more ambitious, with the revelation of a cult at work and its attempts to summon an Old One through blood sacrifice. And from that point on, it’s a matter of destroying the monster by any means possible and preventing the people who conjured it up from doing any more harm, but you’ll have to read the book yourself to find out if and how Marcel and Carise take care of business. There’s a fair bit of variety in the nature of the menace, with plenty of scenes of schlock horror, suggesting the book was written with one eye on cinema options, and yes, I think it would make a good film, or perhaps even a TV series along the lines of Supernatural in light of hints that Barnes may wish to develop the scenario some more.
I haven’t read as much of his work as I’d like, but from what I have seen I think of Brian Hodge as a writer who produces stories that involve hard choices, both for his characters and for the reader by inference. That’s certainly true of his brilliant novella WHOM THE GODS WOULD DESTROY (DarkFuse eBook, 76pp, $2.99), which has deservedly been shortlisted for the Shirley Jackson Award.
The aptly named Damien has horrific memories of events in his childhood, things so terrible that he isn’t entirely sure they actually took place. Then his brother Cameron turns up with news that their abusive mother is dead of pancreatic cancer, and asks him to go with him to visit a warehouse where he is keeping a secret, but Damien finds something terrible waiting for him. He sets out to learn what he can of the past, his mother’s time as a nun, her involvement with the Fifth Way and The Starry Road, and comes to an understanding of what she was trying to accomplish through her actions, a
discovery that has serious implications for both Damien himself and the entire human race.
Lovecraftian in emphasis, but with an X-Files impetus in the idea of crossing human and alien DNA, this is a story that teases our sense of wonder and yet has more than enough wet work to satisfy the most jaded horror fan. It is a truly dazzling feat of invention, with Hodge cleverly segueing from atrocity show to a feeling of cosmic awe. Damien’s work as a scientist and his affair with exotic dancer Ashleigh make him an engaging and genuinely likable character, while the horror story of his life plays out on the page in the most shocking manner, with one revelation coming hard on the heels of another as he pieces together the back story of his mother. The sublime collides here with the overtly horrific, and each is reinforced by the other to the betterment of the work as a whole. Hodge is a writer who uses horror to a greater end, and this is a striking example of his craft.
Nicole Cushing’s I AM THE NEW GOD (DarkFuse eBook, 92pp, $3.49) deals with similar themes of godhood and identity, but in an entirely different manner. Greg Bryce is a student who suddenly starts to receive letters from a man who calls himself the hierophant telling him that he is the new god, his destiny to recreate the world after completing the steps of the sevenfold path. The hierophant is a defrocked priest who takes instruction from the severed head of John the Baptist, which he first encountered on a pole in a field. Greg has spent time at a place called Restful Meadows and is off his medication, so the idea of being a god definitely appeals to him. There follow various exploits, beginning with the creation of Hop-Frog and a difference of opinion with his Japanese roommate, resulting in the need to vacate the premises. And that’s just the start of Greg’s problems, because being a god isn’t the cushy job you’d expect it to be. There are all sorts of sacrifices that have to be made.