Featuring the least impressive of cover art of
Russell Martin's books from
Playboy Press,
The Desecration of Susan Browning is a decently agreeable paperback original horror/erotic thriller. With liberal dashes of titillation, a stale if well-handled and mild "satanic" cult angle, painfully dated gender stereotypes, it's written pretty good with a bit of a knowing wink. Nothing too special is going on - it's certainly
not "scary as hell!" - but Martin keeps the storyline hopping with the promise of illicit sex and sacrificial death; me, I liked the sleazy detective playing both sides just so he can get a little girly action. By the time poor hapless Susan Browning finds herself lying on a cot in a freezing room, shaved bare from the neck down, awaiting the unthinkable at the hands of a powerful and mesmerizing occult leader, you'll swear you can't wait to read Martin's other books. Or you'll at least add them to your ever-growing "must-read" list. If you want more
Desecration, check out this in-depth review at
William Malmborg's blog.
A fun little read; much better than I thought it would be when first opening it. I really liked the sleazy detective as well. That character made the book in my opinion. Many thanks for linking to my review.
ReplyDeleteI tried "The Obsession of Sally Wing" but couldn't finish it. There was some death-by-sex early on (OK), an abused-wife scenario that was kind of unsettling, and I checked out when Ms. Wing started torturing a child. It wasn't a sexual scene, but I think some kind of soul theft based on fear. Anyway, my bar is set very low, and this one still left me queasy.
ReplyDeleteReminds me a bit of Richard Laymon, although Laymon was a better writer. Maybe I'll try this title, though.
Speaking of torturing a child- have you read : GRIM MEMORIALS by Patrick Gates? DANG! Concerned an evil modern day witch that tortured and ate children a la Hansel & Gretel. But waaay to graphic for my tastes. One of the only horrors I had to put aside for being actually too horrible! I just didn't see any reason for it's existence. And I can go pretty low too! I mean-I've read Ketchum's, The Girl Next Door! Of course Ketchum is a compelling writer with a unique voice. This Gates person-uh, is not.
ReplyDeleteGrates wrote - or rather "wrote" - one of the worst books I've read & reviewed on TMHF, a truly dumb tome called FEAR (oooh! such a title!).
ReplyDeletehttp://toomuchhorrorfiction.blogspot.com/2011/03/fear-by-r-patrick-gates-1988-this-books.html