TERROR OF THE 7 CRYPTS by ETIENE AUBIN , pseudonym for British author James Moffat

You can read more about the author and other reviews here: LIBRARY of DOOM

THE FESTERING BY GUY N SMITH

Oh wow. This is classic Guy N Smith. Published in 1989 by Arrow Books in the UK.

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ASSASSINS BY SHAUN HUTSON

Assassins is a great book, don’t get me wrong, but apart from spectacular gang-orientated violence, there isn’t as much “ monster” horror as I was expecting.

This is a well-written, fast novel. Don’t get me wrong. It’s an excellent example of splatter punk writing at its best. He pulls out all the stops and fires all the bullets.

I’ve never known a book describes so many different ways a head can explode when blown apart by a shotgun. Honest, I think he must have had a thesaurus to see how many times you can describe grey matter differently.

It’s a book that ramps up the pace from the first couple of pages. The story starts with a wallop as our main guy, Carter, brother is murdered hail of bullets. He is a bodyguard for a gang boss, Frank Harrison, who is having various members of his team and establishments killed off by some unknown rival. What erupts is gang warfare, involving bent coppers, hired killers, car chases, and exploding buildings. The hired hitman, Mitchell, is a great character. I would have happily read a book all about him. There is also a side story about a bunch of cult-style lunatics who are going around killing rich people in various horrific ways because they “deserve it” This sort of ties two parts of the story together, as they go after Frank Harrison and his wife, which culminates in a finale shoot out, knife fight between them and the gang leaders hoods. There is also a tale of Carter, the main protagonist, having a secret affair with the gang boss Harrisons’ wife, Tina.

When the “supernatural “ horror elements briefly rear their ugly heads, they are gruesome and stomach-churning as only Hutson can do. Elements of Ed Gein flesh peeling are thrown in here! There is an example of Hutson at his nastiest best with the male prostitute and the zombie. Truly harrowing and revolting.

My only real problem with this book is the “ supernatural” horror element seems to be the least important. It feels like an add-on because he’s known for that. It’s more like Hutson wanted to write his version of The Long Good Friday but fill it full of Peckinpah Scorsese-styled violence and a mild coating Argento. He does this, really, well. It starts with a mad old priest being taken away from his church about to be demolished and a zombie hand thrusting through the rubble.

That’s it, by the end of the book, the supernatural element is never explored further. I was hoping for some kind of explanation ( spoiler) of why and, more importantly, how these characters had returned from the dead. Unless I missed something. I’ll admit I found myself speed-reading through some of the chapters as I was losing interest in the characters. Apart from the hired assassin David Mitchell . I would read a series of books about him! Check out his website .

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APACHE BOOK 2 KNIFE IN THE NIGHT BY WILLIAM M JAMES

I was fortunate to pick up a large collection of the Apache books at one of my many bookshops and market visits. Apache is one of the many gritty and brutal Adult Western series, 27 in all, that came out in the 1970s-1980s from the infamous Piccadilly Cowboy Authors. The Piccadilly Cowboys were a group of British writers who gathered in a pub in Piccadilly in London and wrote a series of violent, brutal Western paperbacks in the 1970s and 80s.

These are far removed from the Louis Lamour style westerns popular in the 50s and 60s. They do not take any reference from the Hollywood John Wayne movies but lean into Sam Peckinpah’s Wild Bunch territory. The style and tone are more Spaghetti Western, but with the brutal violence and gore dialled up to 200 %! Each bullet wound could take at least a whole page with its description of the damage inflicted on the human body. The authors were having a great time trying to outdo each other with these!

Although they claim to be written by William James, this was a house publisher’s name and could have been written by either Terry Harknett, John Harvey, or Laurence James. The Apache story is as cliched as the rest of the genre titles, so I pretty much knew the story basics of all these Westerns ( revenge!), I read volume 2 as I have yet to get hold of the first one at a decent price. Currently £45.00 on eBay. You get the basic catch-up of the story so far in the first few pages, so I didn’t miss out on much. I’ll probably download an eBook version. In this one, Cuchillo has recovered from his injuries in a brief couple of weeks ( this guy is tough!) and is out for revenge on the nasty bastard that is this series’ nemesis, the ruthless and sadistic Captain Pinner. the man who killed his wife and child and chopped his fingers off !!! He is going to kill him with the dagger he was accused of originally stealing from Pinner. Pinner originally tortures Chuchillo with said knife ( the finger removal!)

No surprises, this is a brutal, gory, and violent book. It’s a literary equivalent of a Quentin Tarantino/ Sam Peckinpah/Italian Giallo movie, and maybe a touch of Saw-style horror! When the hero takes down a Mexican raiding party, the bloodshed is worthy of any horror movie! The author does not hold back on the red stuff. From scalping’s to eyeball slicing and brain-exploding bullet exit wounds!

It’s a brief read, and all the volumes follow the same theme, but a roller coaster of gritty violet action novels, well written, well-paced, and knows its audience, giving them ( me?) exactly what it wants.

I recommend any of the Piccadilly Western titles, the full, list of series titles can be found on the website, and they are still putting stuff out, albeit digitally now. There is also a great article on the Six Gun Justice website

You can read more about the author and other reviews here: LIBRARY of DOOM

DEATHWORLD BY HARRY HARRISON

DeathWorld by Harry Harrison

I love science fiction movies and TV series from the highest quality to the lowest b Movie exploitation ones with terrible special effects. However, Science Fiction Literature is something I have never really got into. Apart from Novelisations, I have read very few. I respect writers like Asimov, Clarke, and Aldiss, but I could never really get any joy out of them. Sometimes I thought I must be missing out on something as I just didn’t get the appeal. During my time as a Bookseller at Waterstones running the sci fi section, I challenged myself to read some more modern ones. Becky Chambers The Long way to a small angry planet  was one of the standouts for sure. Gestapo Mars by Victor Gischler and Behind The Throne by K B Wagers were others I enjoyed very much. However, apart from some classic sci-fi like Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury and short stories from the likes of Harlan Ellison,  it certainly was not a genre I gravitated to. 

I had read some of  Harry Harrison’s Stainless Steel Rat thanks to the adaptation in 2000ad.

I enjoyed it. Several years later I came across a couple of volumes. I enjoyed them and loved the humor. However, they did not leave me wanting any more so never pursued the rest of the series. Harrison also wrote the classic sci-fi novel Make Room! Make Room! Which was adapted into the movie Soylent Green

I didn’t know anything about Deathworld when I came across them in a second-hand bookshop. Of course, I had to buy them because of the title. They had been sitting on my shelves for a while before I took the plunge. I’d decided to try a couple more modern sci-fi novels and gave up, to be honest. These had me intrigued by the title and synopsis so took the plunge, and boy am I glad I did! 

Deathworld was originally serialized in astounding science fiction, then in analog magazine in the sixties. The collected story was Harrisins first published novel.  The plot is based around its central character, Jason dinAlt a professional gambler with psi abilities, who is hired to run a stake up into the billions by some colonists of the Planet Pyrrus.  After success, he opts to return to the planet with the colonists, fascinated by what they have told him about it.  However, Pyrrus is the most hostile world in the universe, with every life form bent on the extermination of the colonists, even the plant life. The colonists have almost superhuman strength due to the planet’s hostile environment. 

What unfolds is a tale of all-out action, alien horror, nature attacks, betrayal, and conspiracies. What a rip-roaring ride it was! A brilliant, old-school pulp sci-fi adventure with some great humor. Considering when it was written, it does not feel as dated as some of these early sci-fi tales can be. It’s also a bit of a clunky anti-war novel.  The main protagonist Jason Dinalt is a really likable rogue and has a great cast of characters around him. It’s almost an origin team story as well, as the books continue up to volume 7, the last few written in conjunction with the Russian authors Ant Skalandis and Mikhail Akhmanov but, strangely, never published in English. I have the three first volumes and will certainly be reading the continuing adventures.

Another great thing about this book, it’s a short punchy read. If you want inward-looking sci-fi about the meaning of the universe, this is not for you. It’s a quick, entertaining sci-fi romp, punching to the end. 

You can find the novels pretty cheaply, but not available on the Kindle. However, there is a really good audio version free on Libravox.  

THE OGRE BY MARK RONSON

Photographer Richard Finlay escapes a failing marriage by inheriting his uncle’s old farm, Calgarth House. A reporter, Patricia Derbyshire, arrives to investigate the house’s mysterious tower and the surrounding legends. As their relationship develops, a serial killer dubbed the Leopard Man terrorizes the village, with suspicion falling on Richard.

After the killer’s capture, the deaths continue. Clegg, a villager with a grudge against the Calgarths, attacks Richard’s home in a Straw Dogs-style assault. Following this, a local vicar reveals the village church’s sinister history and the tower’s connection to the recent deaths.

The novel then shifts into high gear, blending folk horror, sci-fi, and disaster movie elements. The titular ogre, far from a monstrous beast, proves a life-sucking blob, terrorizing the village with gruesome attacks. The story delivers intense action, including claustrophobic tunnel chases, aerial bombings, and a flamethrower assault against the creature. The climax, a gory showdown in the village pub and church, ends with a surprising twist.

While the start feels slow, the action-packed horror that follows makes it a thrilling read. The author effectively creates a cast of stereotypical yet well-developed characters. As a classic British horror novel, it delivers on gore, thrills, and pulp excitement without unnecessary buildup.

The book’s cover, reminiscent of low-budget horror films, perfectly complements the story. It’s a rare instance where a photograph trumps a painting.

Overall, this is a fantastic piece of British horror pulp. Don’t miss out on this gruesome, entertaining read.

Snakes by Guy N Smith 

Whoever made the infamous Snakes on a Plane movie must have read this. I’m convinced. Except this is Snakes in a Village 

The quality of Guy N Smith’s books can be hit and miss. He certainly churned out the volumes for cash. I’m a big fan. They are not for everyone and he never won any of the big awards. He was writing novels to entertain, read quickly and move on to the next one, using whatever writing hook he could use  ( gore, action, sex!!). The literary equivalent of a TikTok video!  Although not one of his best, Snakes is another fabulous, over-the-top nature gone bad novel from the master. This is a classic B movie Packed into a 176-page treat. 

His story revolves around a zoo being shut down. While transporting the snakes, the lorry is involved in a motorway pile-up, resulting in the rag-tag bunch of snakes hightailing it to the nearest village, feeling very angry. Not before a boa constrictor crushes a policeman to death, of course, in wonderful gory detail. What ensues is a parochial and quiet British village under lockdown, locals disobeying the rules, people getting poisoned or crushed, the army searching the surrounding countryside during the hottest summer on record and our chief protagonist snake expert trying to find a way to defeat the snakes with revenge in his blood after his aunt dies. And boy does he save the day.

Now although this is full of the classic Mr Smith tropes, there are only a few mentions of sex but no full-blown accounts of couples getting the love on!  There is, though, a plethora of snake violence as they slither into bedrooms, sneak up on people in cornfields, crawl into a pram ( a particularly disturbing scene), and various insights into characters that you know are going to die horribly.  Plus a bizarre series of chapters another of our heroes is stuck in a boiling hot car with his girlfriend as a snake patiently waits for them to die in the heat. 

Smith even manages to tell the tale from the snake’s point of view, when they hide themselves in a secret lair (which a policeman falls into this by accident and meets a grisly demise). He creates a strange conversation between the different species of snakes and why they make the  Boa Constrictor King of the Snakes. 

Strangely for a Smith novel, the hero does not meet the woman of his dreams at any point during the story and is pretty young. They are usually always hitting their forties while married /dating/having an affair with someone 15 years younger. Also, although he is a main character, it does not focus on him. Just the various villagers and how this sudden invasion is affecting them. Generally, not in a good way!!  He creates these wonderful, short vignettes of characters, that are all destined to die. 

My biggest criticism would be the deaths, although great when described, are pretty limited. Apart from being crushed or poisoned, there isn’t any other way to meet the end. So it’s not quite as packed with visceral details as Night of the Crabs, Alligator, or The Festering. 

However, this rips through the tale at speed to the quick and sudden ending. It does read like he ran out of steam towards the end, similar to Night of the Crabs and he was not sure how to end this. However, this is classic Smith, like putting on a big warm jumper on a cold night and a cup of tea to hand. Always reliable! If you can find a copy, which is getting rarer and rarer these days, grab one for yourself. The perfect read for a red hot day having a picnic. Keep your eyes out for snakes though. 

BRAK THE BARBARIAN BY JOHN JAKES

I’m not a massive fantasy fan. I have dipped my toes in occasionally. When I worked at Waterstones book shop I realized there was so much of it!!! I like Sword and Sorcery movies, some of the Conan stuff, and I enjoyed John Carpenter from Mars ( film and books Sword and Planet I believe these are called! Joe Abercrombie’s grimdark stuff and didn’t like Game of Thrones ( yes, we exist). So,I found some of these Brak novels very cheap and thought, why not? The covers are always pretty good and I’m a sucker for that.

So What is Brak the Barbarian about? Well. It is not a novel, but more of a collection of adventures.  With his broadsword long braid of blonde hair and only dressed in a loincloth, He’s setting out to (???) as he has been thrown out of his tribe. No real explanation. He ends up in a town and gets harassed by some fellows who end up being these great, weird creatures with knives for hands who follow the spectacular H P Lovecraft-sounding Yog Shoggoth, bringer of dark.  That’s where it all kicks off.  He manages to escape and then goes on to another similar tale. He’s a prisoner, a doppelganger for a dead prince, a bodyguard, and an assassin in various tales. Honestly, this just flies all over the place. But we enter a world of weird lovecraftian horrors, evil wizards, and some amazing monsters ( fangfish !!!) The Women who seem to only wear variations on transparent silk gowns and violence. A lot of gory, gruesome violence that surprised me. Some of the writing is typical old-world Conan-style fantasy ( it was written in 1967) but the fight scenes are more brutal than any Conan novel and worth grinding through some of the meandering content in between them. 

About a quarter of the way through I was ready to give in, but as the action ramped up and the story got weirder, I did enjoy it. It’s a quick fantasy romp of pure pulp pleasure. Certainly no Robert Howard that’s for sure, but a hoot non the less!!! I recommend you give it a go!!