Horror Fiction Help XIV

Okay everybody, you know how it goes, who can help some TMHF readers track down these lost and forgotten horror novels?

1. It's no older than 1993, and I believe it was a paperback. The cover had a very deep blue tint, a haunted looking house in the distance with a log in the foreground, perhaps a felled tree, and above the house was a giant skull with its hands around the house.

2. A large image of a skull filling up the cover with type above it.  A very straight-on and brightly/flatly-lit (not shadowy) shot of a skull, but I think perhaps a skull-headed figure (perhaps from the top of the shoulders on up) wearing clothes (and a hat?) - but with a straight-up skull head, and done in a fairly "realistic" style I think.  After looking online at countless 1970s (not '60s or earlier) paperback covers I'm sure, based on my basic memory of the cover layout + illustration, that it would have been ten years old or less at that time.  Found! It's: 

3.  I think I read it in the late '70s.  It most likely would have been in the horror genre section of the library, since that was my big interest back then. The main character was a young teenage girl, whose mother was dead (possibly had recently died). Her father was devastated by grief, and didn't pay much attention to the girl. As she matured, she bound her breasts down with tape...I assume to try to stay a little girl, and keep from growing up. At the end of the book, she unbound her breasts, let her hair down, dressed as an adult, and went to her father, pretending to be, or possibly believing she was, his dead wife (her own mother). Found! It's:

4.  A fairly well-to-do couple move from the city to a place in the woods (I even think they're renovating the place they buy). The wife is doing research in the area about the mountain folk who have been inbreeding and eventually comes to respect them... but of course there's some sort of menace in the woods. I remember she throws a fit at a high society party, a handsome but shady local laborer, and that she finds safety with the inbreds. Found! It's:

Horror Fiction Help XIII

Before I leave for a week's vacation, I'd like to present another installment of Horror Fiction Help. I've gotten some nice inquiries from folks eager to get their claws upon these vintage paperback horrors... any help much appreciated!

1. Paperback with a pink and black cover, and I think the title had the word "House" in it. There was possibly a devil's tail in the design as well. This was likely in the late 70's, possibly early 80's. Found! It's:

2. A Frankenstein book with a silver cover, first chapter starts off with Frankenstein trying to get a boat ride from the North Pole. Found! This one is:

3. On the cover, I think, was a picture of a scantily glad vaguely trailer trashy woman running and there might have been a trailer in the background. I am pretty sure that most of the books main setting occurred in either a trailer park or some other working class type abode in the present day (1980s/1990s).  One character had a sword. He would go out in his shed/barn and light candles and practice using his sword to put out the candles by swinging at the flames. I think the guy with the sword was supposed to be kind of a down and out loser type. There might have also been someone who had their hand amputated during the course of the story, possibly the dude with the sword?

4. Cover was a dark old gothic-looking house with dark hills and background. Short stories, I think American, horror and suspense, and I seem to remember some story about Amityville but not the haunted house. Stories about dark hills and disappearances too.

5. Early '70s, title something like True Vampire Stories and its cover art featured a vampire with an impossibly elongated head, blood dripping from his tiny mouth, and short, spiky hair with yellow or maybe green skin.  The book purported to feature stories or legends of "real vampires" as accounted by folklore.  I remember one story in particular featured the tale of "The Vurdalak." Found! It's:

6.  Someone was sneaking into people's homes, living in closets, and being so quiet that no one knew he was sneaking around their home. It turns out that there are two "sneakers", who were missing boys, but one was violent and the other was special-needs and non-violent.

7. A fairly slim paperback collection of ghost stories, maybe 10 stories in all. I believe all the stories took place in England or the U.K. There were illustrations in it that were crudely drawn but effective. I think the book was probably older, published in the 60's or early 70's, maybe even as far back as the late 50's. The story I remember best, because it and the accompanying illustration frightened me the most, was about a  female ghost (quite heavyset?) in the basement of a house or a flat, who was doing laundry at a washtub. Her back was turned when the current owner/renter came upon the ghost, and when the ghost turned around, she was a rotting corpse, (pieces of her actually falling off, IIRC). I think, although am not positive, that the ghost had been killed by her husband while in the basement doing laundry. Scared the hell out of me when she turned around and was decomposing, to say the least.

Simply leave any guesses/suggestions/whatevers in the comments, and I'll go through them upon my return late next week. See y'all!

Horror Fiction Help XII

More emails from frustrated folks looking for forgotten horror fictions. Any help would be most appreciated!

1. The main character was a young woman traveling with her husband or boyfriend.  They, somehow, come under the power the an older couple who have twisted religious/ sexual issues.  The older woman takes the heroine and tries to brainwash or dominate her into act like a prepubescent girl.  I seem to remember the main character having to dress in little girls clothes, shave her pubic hair, and hide menstruation, because the older woman thought that was when girls become"dirty".  The older man would sexually abuse the woman, but it took on a creepier tone of " daddys special little girl" involving having to sit on his knee and   be fondled leading up to the inevitable rape. This has to be hidden from the older woman bcause she would blame the "girls" for again being dirty and wicked. The boyfriend meets a bad end.  For "dirtying" the main character, he is murdered, and it is his murder scene that is the most vivid in my memory.  I remember him waking him and having a noose around his neck.  He is standing on a chair, and under his feet in a hotplate.  The woman turns the hotplate on and his feet start to burn.  I remember the horror of reading it because his dilemma is to either step of the plate to save his feet, thereby hanging himself. Or, wait until his feet burn enough that he slowly strangles or involuntarily steps off in extreme pain.  It seems to me that the woman wants some kind of confession from the man, and says she is willing to let him go if he admits his sins. Found! It's:

2. A young girl (very intelligent, pretty and pure) leaving high school and being excepted to a very old, prestigious and expensive college/university far from home on scholarship. she then gets involved with the popular kids.. one or two of the teachers is involved in the occult and "talks" to the school. it is based in America. The school is basically evil and wants a sacrifice mainly being the young " innocent" girl. I think the school embodies Satan. It's quite dark and sexual.  Found! It's:

  

3. The cover was fully black and “puffy” or 3D with white or silver lettering of the title…it may’ve had red eyes as well. I cannot recall the author or the title. I could have sworn it had the word “beast” in it, like Bloodbeast and seem to remember it was just one word in the title. I’ve tried googling in all sorts of ways but with no luck. In the story, the beast is a wolf-like creature shredding people in the lake/outdoorsy town and the sheriff-type guy was on the hunt of it. The book would primarily use the sheriff’s perspective I believe, then go into italics when telling the story from the perspective of the wolf-monster (who I think was female).       

4. The cover has a red-haired woman with a skeletal hand, holding a bloody knife. In the beginning she kills her step-mother with a scorpion and I think later on in the book she kills someone else with a scorpion.

5. Centered around some sort of scientific or military expedition or research group. Of course there was a creature at some point. Based on what I remember of the book, it was a relatively slim volume (200 pages tops, I'd think), and I vaguely recall a pretty bland cover design (something blue and white?) that leads me to believe the publication had to be no later than the early-mid 1970s

6. I read back it in the late 70s or 80s. It was about a book that the people who ever read this book, what ever they read then happened to them. Found! It's:

7. A pedophile who kidnaps a young boy and keeps him for awhile (note: it wasn’t Billy, by Strieber). I want to say that it had a pretty awesome cover, and for some reason my ancient mind even thinks it was a Fawcett paperback (original?). Found! It's:

8. Cult builds a bigger shell for hermit crab.
 

Horror Fiction Help XI

Once again I'm asking my readers for help in ID-ing some forgotten horror novels. The following are descriptions which I've received in emails from folks eager to lay their hands upon tomes read long ago...

1. A demon that controls people minds in the jungles of Africa and sucks the blood of the victims through the eyes of the person with two tentacles. Leading character is taken to a village to talk to a man who was blinded by the demon but was able to survive because he had a tumor. the demon is transported to the united states before he can be killed. It turns out that the leading character is a distant relative to a hero who fought the demon a long time ago, thus the demon cannot control his mind. This was found out after he was hypnotized.

2. Remember finding this old hardcover book on the library shelf with an possibly embossed sort of melting eye on the cover. It freaked me out so I had to read it but the only memory seems to be about a some students? or a couple? that for some reason enter an old mansion and find some secret passage going deep into the earth. 

3. A child who was hanged for witchcraft in the 1700's and consequently, sells her soul before she dies so she can avenge herself upon the descendents of the ones who hanged her. She is reincarnated as a child in modern times and draws pictures of gallows poles while she is in school. Throughout the book, she lives with her religious driven father who doesn't allow her to watch tv while she carries out acts of vengeance against those around her who are the bloodline of her accusers. The book ends with her being adopted out by a family who is the sole remaining descendent she intends to kill. 

4. Some kids who go into an old house in the middle of nowhere and they know the old story about the owner of the property being a witch.  The old lady is some kind of witch and spells the souls of children into the bodies of all the old dolls she has in and around her property.  I think the setting for this story maybe the Bayou, but I can’t remember much more.

5. A guy who falls in love/gets married to a woman who has some sort of dark secret.
I think her family home is a big mansion in the woods... maybe not. Eventually it turns out, if I'm remembering correctly, that the woman is promised to the devil. So when she reaches a certain age he will come for her. There are sinister hints about her father (who is dead or missing I think) and a mysterious trunk that is eventually opened to reveal photos documenting their incestuous relationship and devil worship. It's all kind of subtle and I don't remember a lot of 'action'... not a lot of murders or gruesome scenes... just a building apprehension. 

6. The cover was a light yellow, I believe. Nothing too fancy except I think a creepy kid on the cover. Kid scared the bejesus out of me. White glowing eyes. The story had something to do with a kid conceived by insects. Insect kid. That's all I have. I think the mom gets raped by insects out in the forest, but that could just be me. I can't recall if the boy on the cover has antennae or not. 

Any help is much appreciated. I'm halfway through two different horror novels this holiday season, so should have some good new reviews up soon!

Horror Fiction Help X

Yes, once again: a handful of email queries I've gotten from desperate TMHF readers recently, folks looking for forgotten horror novels and stories of years past. These are ones I unfortunately don't know myself; I'm sure some of you horror sleuths out there can get on the case - don't leave your fellow horror fiction fans hanging!

1. It was a picture of a house and I believe the house was twisted and looked like some kind of demonic face... and from what I can remember the basis of the story was about a family moving into this house and they had a son who seemed to be the protagonist that had to deal with the monster or ghost.

2. A giant tree, little people climbing it and on up the tree were some kind of monsters, like lizard looking maybe. When I say big tree I mean like the tree was the size of the Empire State Building.

 3. Graphic, intensely shocking story about a pregnant insane woman who stitches herself shut to keep the baby from coming out.

4. A temple-looking place that was lit up golden by torches and there was a statue of some kind of beast holding a bowl that looked like the top part of a bird bath that had a bright red liquid in it, blood possibly. In the distance looking down from the temple or well kept ruins, seemed to be jungle-looking type growth. I want to say the statue holding the cauldron may have had an
ox head or goat head.

5. Mutated fungus or mold that turned the infected into highly light-sensitive zombie-like creatures that would then stalk around after dark looking for new people to infect (by mouth-to-mouth contact, no less!). The plague started with an infected cat, and the main character was a teenage girl (I forget her name, but her best friend was Maxine). Found!

6. From what I remember, a family moves to New England. Wouldn't you know it, the oldest son soon grows distant and more reclusive, eventually moving into the basement. The family is content to leave him down there, listening to his music and being a teenager. Eventually he paints the basement all black, blacks out the windows, etc. At the climax of the novel, a parent (the mother?) goes down there to find that he is just about to open a portal to hell, assisted by a few red-robed supernatural beings doing some kind of supernatural incantation over a supernatural altar. The parent is able to disrupt the ceremony, portal to hell closed, fin.
 

Dennis Etchison Born Today, 1943, and More!

Birthday greetings to horror editor and author extraordinaire Dennis Etchison. Above is the 1984 Scream/Press hardcover of Red Dreams; the paperback edition has been on my want-list for awhile now. Below are Shadowman (Dell/Abyss Feb '93) and California Gothic (Dell '95), which I have not read. But his The Dark Country made my best-of-2011 list, and Cutting Edge is a very good, very eclectic '80s horror anthology.

On to other stuff: how about some horror fiction help? Couple emails I've received in the past month or two here:

Nick writes of a book, about a family moving into this house and they had a son who seemed to be the protagonist that had to deal with the monster or ghost. Cover was a picture of a house and I believe the house was twisted and looked like some kind of demonic face...

John writes, A family moves to New England. Wouldn't you know it, the oldest son soon grows distant and more reclusive, eventually moving into the basement. The family is content to leave him down there, listening to his music and being a teenager. Eventually he paints the basement all black, blacks out the windows, etc. At the climax of the novel, a parent (the mother?) goes down there to find that he is just about to open a portal to hell, assisted by a few red-robed supernatural beings doing some kind of supernatural incantation over a supernatural altar. The parent is able to disrupt the ceremony, portal to hell closed, fin.

The book would have been published in paperback sometime between 1994-1996. As I recall, the cover was purple with the outline of a house in the foreground.

Also: yesterday I spent three hours at the Wake County Public Libraries Booksale - and oh my god, what vintage horror paperback treasures I found! I wasn't in the horror section but oh, five seconds before I'd found several of my most sought-after titles. Many were in mint condition, as if they been vacuum-sealed for decades. You fellow obsessive book-buyers will know the feeling of disbelief and excitement that accompanied my visit. Tables and tables of paperback horror amidst tables and tables and tables of books in an enormous warehouse. Gobsmacking. You'll have to wait, though, to find out what I bought - all for $2 each! Right now I'm in the middle of a Dell Abyss paperback as well as reading stories in another great anthology. Hope to have some reviews up by next week!

Horror Fiction Help Vols. VIII and IX: Vampire Edition

Okay, everybody have a great holiday? Of course we did! I'm exhausted, frankly. How about we get back to "work" and see if we can't help with two emails I received this past month:

Dylan writes:

I read it either in the late eighties or early nineties, but I don't know when it was originally published. At one point in the novel there was "at night the line between reality and dream was blurred" or something like that. Something with vampires who could mentally induce orgasms... I think one of the characters did so at a dance club.

And David writes:
I am tracing a novel bought (and published?) c. 1989. Set in England, it featured an antique mirror bought in Ireland which served as a 'gateway' to an eternal vampire and her aides. Needing blood to survive, she uses the mirror as a conduit by influencing its evil nature resulting in it committing a number of murders. The story merges modern English detectives with the supernatural, set in an antique dealer's premises.

At one point, the vampire sends one of her aides through to the other side, a murderous oaf who uses astral projection to influence those she needs to control, including the antique dealer. The aide might have been called Silas or Solomon.

The first one sounds a bit like Whitley Strieber's The Hunger to me, but I've never read it, only saw the movie, and that was years ago. As always, any and all help is appreciated guys!

Horror Fiction Help VII: The Sinister Chauffeur

Okay guys, I've got another horror novel for us to find. Reader Tim sent me a note earlier today:
In 1980 or 1981 I read a paperback which I bought at a supermarket or drugstore. I think the book was published by Zebra or Leisure or another that I would have thought of as a cheapo publisher. What I remember about the book is that it was about a kid who was made to live in a creepy boarding school/orphanage. I also seem to remember a ride in a limousine with a sinister chauffeur. Other than that, all I remember is how spooky the book's atmosphere and setting were.
This reminds me of a couple books I haven't read in decades: Robert Marasco's Burnt Offerings and Peter Straub's Shadowland. However I really don't think they're quite it. So - thoughts anybody?
Update 5/14: Found!

Horror Fiction Help VI

An email I received this week about a book that I am unfamiliar with. Any ideas? Simmie writes:

I stumbled across your site last night while trying to find the title/author of a horror novel I read in junior high. All I recall from the book is that citizens of the town start turning evil once they have been exposed to a strange rainfall. I think there was also a scene where a girl is raped in a bathtub by a guy who has just come in from the rain.

Thanks again everybody! Hope we can find this one too.

UPDATE: I just got an email from a reader with the correct book, and it's Richard Laymon's 1991 novel One Rainy Night. This was the fastest I've ever gotten an answer! Thanks to Abraham Phillips of Show Me Your Books.

Horror Fiction Help V: Another Short Story to Find...

Okay, for the fifth time, a reader seeks our help in horror! Reader Rayo writes:

It's a short story I read 10 years ago. It was in a horror anthology from the mid-90s though the story could be older. The story (or perhaps part of a story) is a menu/recipe for preparing an exquisite cannibal feast. It breaks down the "meal" course by course in the language of fine dining, detailing how to prepare every disgusting dish as all of the body is used. It's the only story that ever made me gag. Any ideas?

Any ideas indeed! Well, it doesn't sound familiar to me, but surely one of you guys knows...

Update: Looks like we've already found it! It's "The Secret Shi Tan" by none other than Graham Masterton, first published in The Hot Blood Series: Fear the Fever (1996, Pocket Books). I myself have only read the first two anthologies in that series. So thanks, Lazlo!

Horror Fiction Help IV: Do You Know This Book?

This week I received another email from a reader asking me about a long-forgotten horror novel, and once again I need all my readers' help! Here's the description I was sent:

Can't remember the title/author of a pulp horror book I read back in the day. Main character is a guide up in Canada or Alaska. Takes group of hunters on air tour of wilderness. They fly over a pack of wolves. Hunters open up on the wolves and kill all but one which is wounded. Antagonist is master hunter who is on the flight. Main character (MC) finds wolf and nurses it back to health while living in wilderness with it. Trains it to kill men. Takes it back to the states in search of hunters and unleashes it on them one by one. Meets runaway girl. Girl and wolf develop bond. After climax scene with antagonist (think MC dies) the wolf goes off with the girl.

What the eff?! Shit sounds crazy. So c'mon guys, some of you know this stuff better than I do! We're three for three in helping people track down their beloved horror fiction memories... let's keep going. Just leave a comment if you have an idea. Thanks all!

Update 9/6/11:
The novel is Predators by Eric Sauter (Pocket Books 1987). Thanks, reader, uh, 72df79fe-d8e8-11e0-a609-000bcdcb8a73.

Horror Fiction Help III: Do You Know This Story?

It's that time again! A reader emailed me describing a short story he once read but can no longer recall the title of, so I enlist you folks for assistance:

I’m trying to find a short story I read in a horror anthology from the library a decade ago. It included a race of creatures that could control snakes, and I think the story was set in a museum that artifacts had been shipped to and one of the creatures reanimates a snake skeleton to attack the protagonist. As much pulp adventure as horror.

Sound good? Sure does! We're two for two here in helping horror fans find forgotten works, so let's go for three. Thanks everybody!

Update 7/8/11:
The 1979 story is "Extension 201" by Cyril Simsa, found in The Best Horror from Fantasy Tales. Thanks to Anonymous!

Horror Fiction Help 2: Do You Know This Book?

Recently I received another missive from a reader asking me to help identify a work of vintage horror fiction. I must admit the description doesn't sound familiar, so I post it here in hopes some of my other readers can help Bryan N:

Set in Britain, mid to late 1980s, a hassled fat kid sneaks a snack from the cafeteria that turns out to be tainted and causes violent madness to spread through London, possibly, maybe the riots stick to the school... reminds one of James Herbert but it was more low rent. There was a detective involved with a teacher I think... I could swear there was a tacky joke about his manhood not being intended for use on a civilian. Sad that my brain held that!

Leave any suggestions in your comments! We appreciate your help.

And the book is Childmare by Nick Sharman (1980). Thanks Anonymous.

Horror Fiction Help! Do You Know This Book?

I received an email the other day from someone who'd discovered Too Much Horror Fiction while trying to find a horror novel they'd read years ago, but could not recall the title of at all. In the email they described the book to see if I knew it, but I must confess, the description leaves me at a loss! So I offered to put up the description here to see if any of you horror fiction fans can help. Does any of this sound familiar?

It's about a husband and wife who murder a little girl in order to get inheritance money. The little girl is a sister of either the husband or wife, but I can't remember which. The couple bury the girl after they murder her, but she comes back and haunts them as revenge.

The little girl (maybe around age 8-12) is really evil when she comes back, and she makes the couple do crazy and disturbing things. For example, the husband (I think his name was Jeff) is found ripping apart the family dog and eating it.

I think the cover of the book has a picture of a creepy little girl covered in dirt (since she was buried after she was murdered).

They date the book to about 20 or 25 years ago, so it's from the classic horror paperback era. And I have to say it does sound pretty cool, but one thing I've learned while writing this blog is how much horror I have not read. Any ideas, readers? Thanks!

Update 8/14/10:
The book is Nightmare Child by Daniel Ransom (St Martin's Press 1990). Thanks to reader Garry!