A silly title belies the maturity and power of Gary A. Braunbeck’s latest horror novel. Instantly, the MR. HANDS moniker brings to mind the five-fingered nemesis of Mr. Bill from those old, darkly comic SATURDAY NIGHT LIVE shorts. There’s nothing comic about this novel – but, boy, is it dark.
After a too-long prologue in which the framing story is set up – a mysterious guy in a bar tells the tale we read to the town sheriff and reverend – we’re introduced to Ronald James Williamson, aka never-captured serial killer Uncle Ronnie. Branded a “retard” by his unloving father, Ronnie discovered at a young age that he had a most peculiar gift: sensing and taking away the pain of children, simply by touching them. Of course, that touch can kill.
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Since this is column number 66 and the chances of me getting to column number 666 is slim, I figured I’d make this a horror column. There are plenty of other sites out there that will do a better job than I – namely The Groovy Age of Horror, which we are all fans of here at BOOKGASM. So indulge me as we go into the world of evil statues, ghosts and Ronnie James Dio lyrics.
INFERNAL IDOL by Henry Seymour – Here’s something you don’t see with a book this type: a relevant cover. Yes, that African statue is a huge part of this 1967 novel. It opens with a old English gentleman named Alastair Newton dying from some bizarre ailment. No one can figure out how his heart just stopped.
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Our monthly depressing look at the search terms that bring pervs to BOOKGASM!
Whether you’re already forehead-deep into the graphic storytelling world or an uninformed newbie looking for an entry point, critic Douglas Wolk makes a great case for comics in READING COMICS: HOW GRAPHIC NOVELS WORK AND WHAT THEY MEAN.
Although lots of single-issues series are discussed, a majority of the works Wolk discusses and dissects are of the graphic novel format (or at least paperbound collections of previously published singles). From all the evidence he’s seen, he proclaims that the true “golden age” of comics isn’t its days of infancy, but right now.
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Detroit P.I. Amos Walker returns in his 19th full-length case in Loren D. Estleman’s AMERICAN DETECTIVE.
It begins on a simple note: Darius Fuller, retired Major League Baseball pitcher, has an adult daughter who will be gaining control of a trust fund in two months. She’s been dating a man her father thinks is a heel and dollar-chaser, and he wants Walker to talk the guy into accepting $50,000 to get out of the young woman’s life. Fuller is on the edge of financial ruin – that pesky IRS – but he has squirreled away some undeclared cash for emergencies.
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