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Summary
Summary
Once upon a time there was a man who loved children. He loved them so much he tried to save them from their imperfect parents. Unfortunately, Hector Woollie didn't work for Child Protective Services . . . and the children he rescued, he murdered.
Once upon a time, Leslie had a happy marriage, a happy son, and a happy life. Now divorced, she is trapped in ongoing battles with her ex-husband, Roger, especially over their newly-adolescent son, Ian.
When Ian and his young stepsister disappear, Roger insists the boy kidnapped the girl, while Leslie thinks Ian might have run away. She prays that her son is near and will come home soon.
Ian is near-right next door, just on the other side of a shared wall. Ian can hear his parents fighting and his mother's desperate weeping, but he can't call for help. Hector Woollie has him and his stepsister, and if either child makes a peep, the madman will slit both their throats.
Author Notes
John Ramsey Campbell was born January 4, 1946 in Liverpool, England. He is a horror fiction author and editor. At the age of 11 he wrote a collection called Ghostly Tales which was published as a special issue of Crypt of Cthulhu magazine titled- Ghostly Tales- Crypt of Cthulhu 6. He continued to write and later published his collection called The Inhabitant of the Lake and Less Welcome Tenants.
At the suggestion of August Derleth, he rewrote many of his earliest stories, which he had originally set in the Massachusetts locales of Arkham, Dunwich and Innsmouth, and relocated them to English settings in and around the fictional Gloucestershire city of Brichester. The invented locale of Brichester was deeply influenced by Campbell's native Liverpool, and much of his later work is set in the real locales of Liverpool. In particular, his 2005 novel Secret Stories both exemplifies and satirizes Liverpoolian speech, characters and humor.
John Campbell's titles include The Doll Who Ate His Mother, The One Safe Place , The Seven Days of Cain and The Last Revelation of Gla'aki.
(Bowker Author Biography)
Reviews (3)
Publisher's Weekly Review
Over the past 30 years, Campbell (The Last Voice They Hear) has perfected a story style distinctive for its stifling atmosphere of dread and oblique approach to horror. Applying it here to the shocking theme of a serial child-killer, he has crafted a nail-biting psychological thriller, his best in nearly a decade. The tale begins on a high note of menace when Leslie Ames and her adolescent son, Ian, move back to the house they had vacated upon the discovery that builder Hector Woollie had stashed the corpse of a young girl beneath its floor. The sense of impending terror only intensifies. Distrusted by the locals and hounded by the tabloids, Leslie and Ian nevertheless let a room to American horror-writer Jack Lamb. Jack quickly befriends Ian and beds Leslie, but says nothing of his secret, shameful tie to WoollieDwho has not died by misadventure as reported, but is on the loose and intent on returning to the scene of his crime. Campbell establishes his characters in sharp, precise slashes of chapters, which alternate the viewpoints of the oblivious Ames family, self-tortured Jack and Woollie, a grotesque travesty of a human being, whose sentiments toward children are presented as hideously warped feelings of affection. The climax they build to is a tour-de-force of suspense, in which Woollie's abduction of Ian is abetted by miscommunication, duplicitous motives and a freakish but plausible succession of near discoveries and cliffhanger escapes, all expertly set up in the early chapters. Ingeniously imbedded reflections of family ties, personal responsibility and even the esthetics of horror fiction give the narrative substance without ever slowing its relentless, cinematic pace. (July) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Kirkus Review
Campbell's umpteenth dip into darkness (The Last Voice They Hear, 1998, etc.) displays his usual warm hand for British domestic details that help pinch rosy life into the cheeks of his ghouls. Chief ghoul this time out is Hector Woollie, a contractor in Jericho Close who has a taste for bringing peace to young children he feels have been abused by their parents. A pillow over the face is just fine, though a knife across the throat of a noisy kid may be called for, while Hector soothes them by singing a lullaby as their lives snuff out. Hector disposes of the bodies by burying them in the basements of various houses. When young Terrence sees little Harmony Duke's wormy finger in the concrete, however, Hector decides to fake his own death by drowning, then return incognito. (His disguise requires that he pull out all his teeth with pliers, a nice touch.) Divorced Leslie, who runs a record shop, now owns the building where Hector buried Harmony--a place that's become known throughout Jericho Close as the House of Horror. So Leslie can't sell, and she and her 13-year-old son, Ian, can't move. Then Ian and his young stepsister, Charlotte, disappear . . . . Campbell can leave his house, take a walk by swings in a schoolyard, and come back with a novel that writes itself in his sleep--or so it seems. Copyright ©Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Booklist Review
British novelist Campbell's latest thriller is, on the surface, a fairly typical story: years ago, a deranged man killed several children and then died himself; now a young boy and girl have disappeared, and their parents desperately try to find out what has happened to them and whether it's possible that the dead maniac isn't dead after all. An all-too-familiar premise, but if you look under the surface, you'll find fresh characters (including the boy's mother), better-than-average prose, and a few good plot twists. Campbell has written more than 20 thrillers, many straddling the crime and horror genres; not all of them are successful, but he hits far more often than he misses, and he's still finding new things to do with both genres. Unlike many of his competitors, Campbell gets along without graphic violence, relying instead on clever storytelling. It's a good idea, and in the right hands, it works. --David Pitt