Here’s what a lot of horror novelists do, even the good ones: They start off with a unique variation on a standard theme and then, in an effort to stretch the material to novel length, they pile on so much extra spookshow cliché hoo-hah that a terrific short story or decent novella becomes a downright silly book. Even Bentley Little, one of the best of the post-Stephen King generation writers, can fall into the trap.

But what makes Little so different from his colleagues — and one of the top four or five horror novelists working today — is the fact that just about the time you start to think that his story is sliding off the rails, he tosses in something spookier than what has gone before and it ain’t so silly anymore. That goes for THE VANISHING.

In it, millionaire businessmen types start losing it. They run amok and murder their families — and sometimes strangers — before offing themselves. They all have physical deformities no one outside their immediate families knew about: lizard skin in private places, tails, tufts of beast-like fur. Children are uncovered with similar afflictions, including faces like those of animals and non-human vocal chords.

A reporter for The Los Angeles Times starts investigating a murder spree in California, only to discover that it matches one in New York and that scrawls have been left behind at the murder scenes — markings that appear to be similar to each other but that match no human language. His own father, who vanished 20 years ago, may be involved in whatever the hell is going on.

That’s one of the book’s four major plot threads. We also flashback to a man who traveled west in the 1840s, arriving in California just in time to meet John Sutter, he of the big gold strike that began the run of 1849. Only this John Sutter is no run-of-the-mill gold miner. His tastes are, uh, odd. He hunts and captures humanoid things in the woods — things the Native Americans call demons — and what he does to them is, well, if sanity is the attic and the house gets crazier the further down you go from there, this guy is locked in the basement.

I like the way Little is creating a creepy alternative to standard American history. Maybe you’ve read his short story “The Washingtonians” in THE COLLECTION about a cannibalistic George Washington. This version of John Sutter lives in the same world.

We also follow a San Francisco social worker who, on her first date with a rich guy who has taken a sudden interest in her, discovers something in the barn on his property that Little milks for every ounce of black humor and shock he can.

Here’s my favorite moment from the novel’s fourth thread, all of which come together by the end. It concerns a family of four on vacation in gold country. While hiking in the woods, they pass a dead cat just off the path. Cute kitty: white paws, red collar, blood-covered fur.

Later, the father sees the cat sitting in a parking lot, mewing at him. Unable to sleep that night, he hears it again, right outside the cabin door. He goes to look and there it is, along with other dead critters: birds, rabbits, mice, even a bobcat. When he opens the door, they all begin to drag themselves toward him. He grabs a hoe and whacks them all to pieces, then collects the dry body parts and hides them behind a tree. Here’s Little:

“He got back into bed, his body wet with sweat, his muscles jumpy from both exertion and fear. He had no idea what time it was, but it had to have been getting close to morning, and he tried to think up legitimate reasons to explain his physical condition should Robin wake up before the perspiration dried from his skin and the tension eased from his muscles.

“He had almost succeeded in nodding off when he heard a low, familiar noise.

“’Meow.’”

I don’t know how that reads to you now, but try reading it late at night with a pet in the room that just sits there staring at you.

THE VANISHING is, in the style of many contemporary horror novels, a thick book at nearly 400 pages, which is a dangerous length. Keeping the tension up for so many pages can be tough, and no one is perfect. Little comes as close as anyone to maintaining the suspense, and the book is at its scariest when it’s at its quietest. There’s sufficient gore and sex, but that’s the icing. The cake is made from more terrifying ingredients, including a dead cat.

THE VANISHING is a very good read. –Doug Bentin

Buy it at Amazon.

OTHER BOOKGASM REVIEWS OF THIS AUTHOR:
• THE BURNING by Bentley Little
• FOUR DARK NIGHTS by Bentley Little, Douglas Clegg, Christopher Golden and Tom Piccirilli