Celestial Dogs by Jay Russell (St. Martin's Press) is the first novel by a writer who has published a couple of nasty zombie stories as J.S. Russell. Although the prologue was unnecessary (they usually are), the rest of the novel is notable for the author's sharp, colorful use of language. A former child star turned seedy private eye searches for a pimp's girlfriend, who has disappeared. The PI becomes involved in forces for good and evil from ancient Japan. Good details of everyday life and the author has a good eye, sharply focused on all the dirt of Hollywood. Highly readable popcorn with some terrific writing.The World on Blood by Jonathan Nasaw (E.P.Dutton) initially caught my attention because I liked the protagonist. In this vampire novel, the drinking of blood creates a "high" similar to other addictive drugs, and detox is the same, too. So a group of vampires have started a Vampires Anonymous 12-step program! But one of the vampires resents the "intervention" and vows to destroy the group. The rest of the novel follows his efforts. Who can blame him for being so annoyed? Judging from the numerous orgies in this volume, vampires just have more fun. Unfortunately, while reading about one orgy is sexy, after the second one you think, "Hmmm." By the third you're yawning. Some nice touches but most of the characters are ciphers. I wanted to like this novel more than I did.
On the other hand, Todd Grimson's Stainless (HarperPrism), another vampire novel, is more successful. Genuinely moving as well as suspenseful, it's about Justine, a female vampire, and her evolving relationship with Keith, a former musician whose hands have been crippled. Keith is her human amanuensis. She cannot live without him or someone like him to take care of things for her in the daytime. For once, most of the characters are likable, and the book is a very satisfying read. The present tense might put the reader off initially but stick with it, it works. Highly recommended.
The Skin Palace by Jack O'Connell (Mysterious Press) is a very strange book. This third novel (I enthusiastically recommend Box 9 and Wireless) takes place in the city of Quinsigimond and starts out with a seemingly straightforward story about the film-obsessed teenage son of an eastern European gangster emigre to the United States and an aimless young woman with a yen for taking photographs--and their connection to the "skin palace," a huge, ornate picture palace now showing pornography. But....about halfway through, slowly and subtly, the landscape alters and we're in Jonathan Carroll territory, complete with a cult honoring a mysterious photographer and a "suppressed version" of Judy Garland's Wizard of Oz--here, the Scarecrow and Dorothy dance far more erotically than in the version widely released. Highly recommended for the adventurous.
The Web by Jonathan Kellerman (Bantam) is an entertaining psychological thriller tinged with horror. It is the tenth book in a series about psychologist/detective Alex Delaware. Delaware is offered a temporary job on the Pacific paradise Aruk by one Dr. Moreland, who requests help organizing twenty years' worth of files on his work.. The potent mix of government conspiracy, cannibalism, an insect zoo, and native superstitions help turn what should be a relaxing little assignment into a mysterious and macabre horror show.
The Green Mile by Stephen King (Signet) is a six-part serial novel. King brilliantly sets the time and place from the get-go: the scene is the green mile (death row) in Cold Mountain Prison in the South during the Depression. John Coffey, a convicted rapist/murderer of two little girls, is brought in. The entire series--a look back at the strange circumstances of Coffey's stay on death row--presents characters who come alive and renders a superb sense of time and place as the story shifts between the 1930s and the 1990s. King proves again that he is one of America's major writers. Despite his fame and success, he continues to experiment with style and content and continues to provide entertainment. Highly recommended.
Dark Ride by Kent Harrington (St. Martin's Press) is a nasty piece of work--Jim Thompson with some S&M thrown in. The protagonist is the typical hapless jerk who gets involved with the wrong woman and loses his soul. The reader keeps rooting for him (at least this one did) no matter how badly things go wrong. But unfortunately, he completely wimps out in the end. Promising and entertaining first novel.
Becker's Ring by Steven Martin Cohen (Crown) is a macabre police procedural/serial killer novel. An ex-convict is dumped from a car with his hands amputated, his arms surgically joined in front of him to form a loop, and his mouth sewn shut. He is just the first victim of what appears to be a vigilante who knows an awful lot about surgical techniques. As the police use computers and old-fashioned legwork to discover the perpetrator, some of the victims are persuaded to cash in on their fifteen minutes of fame doing the talk show circuit. Despite some slow spots, the book is grotesque, funny, and suspenseful.
First Love :A Gothic Tale by Joyce Carol Oates (Ecco) is a short novel, beautifully illustrated by Barry Moser, about Josie, an eleven-year-old girl who, with her mother, moves to upstate NewYork to stay with family. There she encounters her cousin, Jared, Jr., on leave from a Presbyterian seminary, and over the summer she is drawn to him. A film of unease veils the story from the start as their unhealthy relationship unfolds. This novel is filled with sexual obsession, psychological manipulation, masochism, religious fanaticism, adolescent fantasy, and child abuse.
The Prestige by Christopher Priest (St. Martin's Press) is an elegant work of dark fantasy by an author completely in control of his difficult material. The novel is about magic and illusion and the lifelong rivalry between two stage magicians. Highly recommended. A 1996 World Fantasy Award nominee.
The Debt to Pleasure by John Lanchester (Henry Holt) is a first novel that is a joy to read; it is elegant, insidious, and a compulsive page-turner. The unreliable narrator is obsessed with food, its history, its preparation, and its consumption. This is a dark mystery with recipes to die for. Highly recommended.
Lunatics by Bradley Denton (St. Martin's Press) is a complete change of pace from the author's serial killer novel, Blackburn. Jack, a sad widower, falls in love with Lily, a beautiful winged woman he believes is a moon goddess. He meets her monthly, and must wait for her outside naked, in the light of the full moon, or it's difficult for her to find him. Their relationship and the way it affects his small group of friends makes for a gentle, satirical story about the ways of men and women. Highly recommended.
The End of Alice (Scribner) is a fascinating novel by A.M. Homes about the epistolary relationship initiated by a nineteen year old college student with a convicted pederast and murderer. The convict lives out his obsessions through the young woman's relayed tales of her own forbidden acts, creating an uneasy complicity between them. Because the story is told in the voice and filtered through the mind of the narrator/prisoner, there is an eroticism and explicitness that is especially disturbing. The "Alice" of the title cannot help but bring up echoes of Lewis Carroll's Alice, particularly because Homes uses a quote from Carroll as an epigram.
Exquisite Corpse, (Simon & Schuster), Poppy Z. Brite's third novel, also focuses on sexual predators and the darker side of human sexuality. A vicious serial murderer (based on the infamous Dennis Nilsen case) escapes from prison in England and flees to New Orleans where he encounters his American soulmate. This is a love story, a book full of anger about AIDS, and a remarkably graceful depiction of really bad behavior. Brite's writing is beautiful and her prose never falters--she has complete control over her material. I was surprised by how much I liked the novel because the two story excerpts I had read previously were unrelievedly grisly and repulsive vignettes. In hindsight, those out-of-context excisions did not do Brite's work justice. Highly recommended but beware the grisly bits.
Kink (Henry Holt) continues author Kathe Koja's exploration of relationships--their boundaries, obsessions, and transformations. Horror readers with an open mind should enjoy the novel because although much of it reads like mainstream there is an undercurrent of anxiety that by the final third of the book blossoms into a very dark vision. A happy, goofy couple innocently open to new experiences brings a wild card into their lives--shifting the landscape in a way they don't expect.The kink of the title has a meaning other than the obvious, which does manifest itelf also in a type of voyeurism. But the male narrator intends for it to mean the something special in a relationship that keeps it fresh, growing, and just different from other relationships. And there is a nonsupernatural, nonserial killer monster in this story--a Kali/destroyer of relationships.
Brand New Cherry Flavor by Todd Grimson (HarperPrism) is the author's second published novel in one year--making for a very impressive debut. Brand New Cherry Flavor takes some well-aimed pokes at Hollywood and has voodoo, zombies, sex, and drugs. Lisa Nova, director of a small independent film, is awaiting her big break. Her lover's promise to get her the assistant director's job on a major film falls through and in anger Lisa yearns for--and gets-- revenge. Big time. The book is engrossing but ultimately aggravating. Lisa is passive, unfocused, and has no idea what she's doing. She dreams through her life (literally at times) and when she is given great power, squanders it. Still, it's good, dirty, nasty fun.
Uncertainty by Michael Larsen ( Harcourt Brace) is being bruited about as the new Smilla's Sense of Snow. It's not. The only similarity is that both authors are Danish. The tabloid journalist protagonist is heavy into thorazine, dexedrine, and liquor in an attempt to compensate for the deadness he feels at the violent and mysterious death of his fiancée. A photograph of her in a compromising sexual situation starts him off on an obsessive hunt for the truth behind the photograph and into the world of high-tech photo manipulation, pornography, and a possible government conspiracy. Dark but not horrific.
The 37th Mandala by Marc Laidlaw (St. Martin's Press) is an accomplished Lovecraftian novel by the author of three quirky novels, including the sf satire Dad's Nuke and the horrific The Orchid Eater. Derek Crowe has made his name "reinterpreting" occult material he stole. He doesn't take his career seriously; he's just out to make a buck. His cynical use of the 37 mysterious mandalas allows these beings into our world. Unfortunately, Crowe is utterly despicable and, as he's most often the point-of-view character, it's hard to root for him. A young believer swallows Crowe's line hook and all and when the mandalas find a home in his nonbeliever wife, the couple take to the road to seek out Crowe and his "expertise." The last 40 or so pages really pop--if only the entire book was as fast-paced.
Requiem by Graham Joyce (Tor) has already won the British Fantasy Award for Best Novel of 1995 and it's not difficult to see why. A guilt-ridden British widower quits his job and flees to Jerusalem and the comfort of a woman who has been his friend for many years. Joyce uses the rich porridge of faith and beliefs focused on the city holy to three religions to create a truly multicultural haunting. A suspenseful ghost story that works.
Neverwhere by Neil Gaiman (BBC Books) is a charming dark fairy tale by the writer of the Sandman series of graphic novels. Richard Mayhew, a young man on his way up the ladder of success, does a good deed and his life is altered beyond his wildest dreams--or nightmares. By aiding a girl named Door he becomes involved in a bizarre underground London where people speak to and understand rats, two cutthroats who have plied their trade for centuries continue to torture and murder, and where strange women want to take his life. It's a classic quest novel imbued with Gaiman's wit and poetry. Besides being his first solo novel, it was simultaneously made into a tv series in the UK.
Manhattan Nocturne by Colin Harrison (Crown) is an entertaining noir novel about a successful and happily married tabloid columnist tripped up by his love of a good story and a femme fatale. Porter Wren loves New York City, its dark side as well as its glitter. When the beautiful and mysterious Caroline Crowley tempts him both professionally and personally, he's sunk. The writing captures the rhythms of the city beautifully and there are some nice, convoluted plot moves here, but I'm afraid I can't relate to the supposed attraction of this selfish female creature with no morality or sense of self.
The Intruder by Peter Blauner (Simon & Schuster) is an engrossing thriller. Jake Schiff has made it as a successful lawyer with a wonderful family. Juxtaposed to Jake's life is that of John G, a former New York City transit motorman, who after a personal tragedy hits the skids in a spiral of drug addiction, insanity, and homelessness. The reader senses immediately that the two are bound to meet. I almost stopped reading around page 80--parts of the story were utterly depressing and I was sure I knew where it was going--but before I gave up I admit I started skimming, discovering that the plot had some twists that I hadn't expected. So I went back and read the whole thing. And am glad I did. A nice feel for urban paranoia, good characterizations, and compassion put it levels above the average thriller.
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