Latest Horror Paperbacks

Personal choice:

Science-fiction writers such as Brian Aldiss and Ray Bradbury have been topping best-seller lists with a brand of thriller writing which combines horror with science for some years. All the more exciting then to review a horror book in the old-fashioned sense of the word by American Gerald Kersh.

Nightshade And Damnations is certainly “horrible” and all the more so because mixed in with the thrills are shades of reality which might have really happened. For instance one of many short stories in the volume is The Brighton Monster, an incredible account of a green slimy thing like a man which emerged dripping from the sea off the Sussex coast of England and then months later ran back screaming, A wild tale in the best horror style. but the answer is reasonable even if unproven, The Queen Of Pig Island is a beautiful story of a trio of circus freaks lost on a deserted island and could have been written as a newspaper account so vivid is the idea. Whatever Happened To Corporal Cuckoo is a story which will make you wake up in the middle of the night screaming for the light to be turned on. It concerns a man who wakes up on the battlefield in 1537 with half his head cut off by a sword blow. But it mends . . . and mends . . . and mends.

Kersh, originally born in England, has a notable heritage of horror style writers to draw from. But his style is a unique one. By writing in a factual Hemingway-style he gives one a vital horror feeling, that it actually could happen. (Coronet 80 cents Aust.).

“¥>ELOW the jutting chin, the -tJ gaping wound showed wet and ugly. A bedraggled crow squatted on the dead man’s chest, talons hooked into the skin and dipped daintily into the exposed carrion of the throat ”

Lovely juicy, horror material. But Evil Intent by John Wainwright deals more in black magic than old fashioned horror.

Take the hoary old black magic cult complete with black mass and fertility ritual, give it a modern twist and you end up with a novel

about witch hunting which makes easy reading. When it comes to mystery there’s nothing like good, healthy witch-hunting round the English countryside in the 20th century—and the finish is not what you would expect either. (Fontana 60 cents).

THIS review of paperbacks seems to have more than its quota of horror and mystery. Old reliables, Edgar Wallace and Leslie Charteris both offer fine fare with The Yellow Snake and The Saint In Miami.

Edgar Wallace features hero Clifford Lynne hunting down a nasty oriental called Fing-Su, dreaded member of the Joyful Hands.

Under Fing Su’s satanic leadership the Hands plan to take over China and then the world. But Mr. Lynne is more than enough match to scotch his chances. The Saint will need no introduction to Simon Templar fans; in this edition he gets caught up in the bright Florida sun with a gang of toughs crazy enought to have come from Alice In Wonderland.

The Yellow Snake (Hodder 60 cents), The Saint (Hodder 60 cents).

A COMPLETE change of pace features a look at 26 of the best war stories of all time, intro duced by war veteran himself, Ernest Hemingway. Men At War offers ac counts of action in the front line by Faulkner, Lawrence, Churchill, Tolstoy, Kipling and Forester to name but a few. A must for all amateur war historians (Fontana 90 cents).

SUSANNE HART’S book The Tame And The Wild tells of the adventures of a woman vet in Africa, or how a lady treats a giant bull for warts An entertaining book both for those interested in medicine or just the wonders of Africa. (Fon

tana 80 cents).-

John Eccles.