An editorial introduction suggests that these memorable doses of fustian are best enjoyed “over an extended period of time,”...
Hercule Poirot meets Fox Mulder in these 19 pulpy tales from 1929-30, the second of five volumes reprinting the complete adventures of occult sleuth Dr. Jules de Grandin.
H.P. Lovecraft, whose contributions to Weird Tales were less frequent and popular than those of Quinn (1889-1969), disdained his rival’s stories, and it’s easy to see why. Unlike Lovecraft’s uncompromisingly baleful fables of the monstrously evil Cthulhu, Quinn’s maintain one foot, sometimes more than one, in the mundane life of Harrisonville, New Jersey, where de Grandin receives an endless series of visits from victims of mysterious thefts or assaults and guests violently bereaved of their beloveds. The unfolding of each mystery is unremittingly formulaic. De Grandin listens sympathetically to the circumstances, often posing an uncanny explanation that’s rejected out of hand, then investigates more closely, finds shocking evidence of witches, werewolves, hierophants, druids, ghouls, curses, or cults, generally menacing comely young women whose strategically scant attire provided grist for the covers of Weird Tales, and vanquishes them in hand-to-hand combat. The formula extends to the dialogue: de Grandin’s incessant combination of fractured English and French tags—“You annoy me, you vex me, you harass me, Friend Trowbridge,” he tells his long-suffering amanuensis during a characteristic fit of pique—sounds like Poirot on steroids, a kinship made abundantly clear in the first volume of this edition (The Horror on the Links, 2017). And Quinn’s setups are almost without exception more gripping than his climaxes, which are often marred by perfunctory or incomplete explanations. Yet several reworkings of this material—“The House Without a Mirror,” “Stealthy Death,” and the title story—are gruesomely effective, and purists who object to detective stories with paranormal elements will find that the moment each story crosses the border to the supernatural raises genuine shivers.
An editorial introduction suggests that these memorable doses of fustian are best enjoyed “over an extended period of time,” say one story a week. That’s excellent advice: binge-reading de Grandin’s battles with diverse monsters can give you the sort of stomachache associated with too much fruitcake.Pub Date: Sept. 5, 2017
ISBN: 978-1-59780-927-6
Page Count: 512
Publisher: Night Shade
Review Posted Online: July 3, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2017
BOOK REVIEW
A tasty, if not always tasteful, tale of supernatural mayhem that fans of King and Crichton alike will enjoy.
Are we not men? We are—well, ask Bigfoot, as Brooks does in this delightful yarn, following on his bestseller World War Z(2006).
A zombie apocalypse is one thing. A volcanic eruption is quite another, for, as the journalist who does a framing voice-over narration for Brooks’ latest puts it, when Mount Rainier popped its cork, “it was the psychological aspect, the hyperbole-fueled hysteria that had ended up killing the most people.” Maybe, but the sasquatches whom the volcano displaced contributed to the statistics, too, if only out of self-defense. Brooks places the epicenter of the Bigfoot war in a high-tech hideaway populated by the kind of people you might find in a Jurassic Park franchise: the schmo who doesn’t know how to do much of anything but tries anyway, the well-intentioned bleeding heart, the know-it-all intellectual who turns out to know the wrong things, the immigrant with a tough backstory and an instinct for survival. Indeed, the novel does double duty as a survival manual, packed full of good advice—for instance, try not to get wounded, for “injury turns you from a giver to a taker. Taking up our resources, our time to care for you.” Brooks presents a case for making room for Bigfoot in the world while peppering his narrative with timely social criticism about bad behavior on the human side of the conflict: The explosion of Rainier might have been better forecast had the president not slashed the budget of the U.S. Geological Survey, leading to “immediate suspension of the National Volcano Early Warning System,” and there’s always someone around looking to monetize the natural disaster and the sasquatch-y onslaught that follows. Brooks is a pro at building suspense even if it plays out in some rather spectacularly yucky episodes, one involving a short spear that takes its name from “the sucking sound of pulling it out of the dead man’s heart and lungs.” Grossness aside, it puts you right there on the scene.
A tasty, if not always tasteful, tale of supernatural mayhem that fans of King and Crichton alike will enjoy.Pub Date: June 16, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-9848-2678-7
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Del Rey/Ballantine
Review Posted Online: Feb. 9, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2020
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK TO SCREEN
An author to watch, Buehlman is now two for two in delivering eerie, offbeat novels with admirable literary skill.
Cormac McCarthy's The Road meets Chaucer's Canterbury Tales in this frightful medieval epic about an orphan girl with visionary powers in plague-devastated France.
The year is 1348. The conflict between France and England is nothing compared to the all-out war building between good angels and fallen ones for control of heaven (though a scene in which soldiers are massacred by a rainbow of arrows is pretty horrific). Among mortals, only the girl, Delphine, knows of the cataclysm to come. Angels speak to her, issuing warnings—and a command to run. A pack of thieves is about to carry her off and rape her when she is saved by a disgraced knight, Thomas, with whom she teams on a march across the parched landscape. Survivors desperate for food have made donkey a delicacy and don't mind eating human flesh. The few healthy people left lock themselves in, not wanting to risk contact with strangers, no matter how dire the strangers' needs. To venture out at night is suicidal: Horrific forces swirl about, ravaging living forms. Lethal black clouds, tentacled water creatures and assorted monsters are comfortable in the daylight hours as well. The knight and a third fellow journeyer, a priest, have difficulty believing Delphine's visions are real, but with oblivion lurking in every shadow, they don't have any choice but to trust her. The question becomes, can she trust herself? Buehlman, who drew upon his love of Fitzgerald and Hemingway in his acclaimed Southern horror novel, Those Across the River (2011), slips effortlessly into a different kind of literary sensibility, one that doesn't scrimp on earthy humor and lyrical writing in the face of unspeakable horrors. The power of suggestion is the author's strong suit, along with first-rate storytelling talent.
An author to watch, Buehlman is now two for two in delivering eerie, offbeat novels with admirable literary skill.Pub Date: Oct. 2, 2012
ISBN: 978-1-937007-86-7
Page Count: 432
Publisher: Ace/Berkley
Review Posted Online: Sept. 1, 2012
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2012
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