Number 79 - The Crone - Bill Garnett

 

Yet another 80s horror with a tacky cover. I have no idea where or when this crawled onto my shelves.

I've never heard of Bill Garnett and Google doesn't give many clues... although this edition is currently on Amazon for a bargain £95. 

In my review of the Jack Ketchum I finished recently, I talked about how you need to give the reader characters that they care about before you start killing them off. This book breaks that rule completely. 

The central character, Peter Stone, is an entirely selfish and self-obsessed man. He lucked into a rich marriage when he got a tycoon's daughter pregnant and managed to start his own business with her family's money. He sleeps around and has no interest in his wife further than not losing his grasp on her cash.

The most sympathetic character in the book is actually the crone of the title. Magda lives in a dank attic room in a boarding house, in desperate hope that her daughter, Peter's new secretary, will call. Her daughter is too busy having an affair with her new manager. For the first hundred pages we hear a lot about Magda's background on the violent streets of post WWII Europe, including the less than romantic night that led to her fleeing to England with a new life inside her.

When the affair ends and the daughter takes drastic action that backfires badly, Magda draws on her knowledge of the occult to set in motion a ghastly revenge.

Despite breaking the rules about making us care for the characters, this is actually a damned good book.  It's no masterpiece, certainly, but I was hooked. Bill Garnett, if that is his real name, knows how to pull the reader into the story. Chapters are told from the viewpoints of random people who intersect with Peter's and Magda's lives. These characters never reappear, but their contributions give nice alternate viewpoints on the events.

The final two chapters were a touch underwhelming, as what looked like a possibly redemptive arc for Stone turned out not to be, but it was satisfyingly nasty. The monster that Magda creates is genuinely creepy and you wonder if it's possible to stop it, ot if you really want it to stop.

This looks like it should be a guilty pleasure but I refuse to feel guilty about this one.  It's well written with interesting if not likeable central characters, and a vicious streak a mile wide.