The Haunting of Sam Cabot

Mark Edward Hill’s THE HAUNTING OF SAM CABOT is the first title I’ve read from the small California publisher Damnation Books, and you know what? It’s pretty good. What’s better news is that Damnation just started up last September with 25 titles and intends to publish 12 new ones every three months. If it can maintain this level of quality and readability, we’re in for one helluva ride.

Sam Cabot and his wife and young son are strangely attracted to the Farnham House —as the ad says, “A Great Fixer-Upper.” You know that dilapidated old place that exists in your town, or maybe at the edges of your mind? The one everybody says is haunted? That’s the Farnham House.

But the Cabots are looking for a place to begin a new life, and this part of Maine seems just right. They recognize the house’s problems, but want to buy it. And yet, they draw away until the current owner/caretaker, known as Carlisle, takes them into the basement and son Sam sees the huge boiler, which he calls “Hulk.” Carlisle makes them an offer that raises questions just as it cements their desire for the place: He tells them that he will repair the monstrous boiler himself or pay for a new one.

So the Cabots move in and Carlisle rides to the house on his bicycle every day to work in the basement. Even in foul weather, he refuses to allow the family to drive him home, and someone tells Sam that the old man is actually still living there. Sam sees something at the bottom of the old, disused well, and when he drops a bucket down to water level, whatever is down there grabs and yanks on the rope. There are reminders of a possible AMITYVILLE/DeFeo disaster.

Hall is a nice hand at building suspense with remarkable subtlety. He’s good at dropping hints that something is wrong — more wrong than either Sam or we know — even when little is going on that would normally spook anyone. Here he echoes H.P. Lovecraft, one of the masters:

“There are things that live at the very fringes of the universe, terrible yet true things that mortal man must never delve too deeply into, lest he risk lunacy.”

THE HAUNTING OF SAM CABOT is a novella of, I’d approximate, around 40,000 words, but it more than makes up in creepiness what it lacks in word count. The characters are likable, but deeply troubled, and the story’s reveal surprised me right down to my socks. And then, Hall topped it.

I hope everyone responsible can keep it up. We could all use a little more damnation in our lives. —Doug Bentin

Buy it at Amazon.

Related posts:

1. The Little Stranger