Breeder [Mass Market Paperback]

Douglas Clegg (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: July 1, 1990

From Douglas Clegg, award-winning author of The Priest of Blood and Afterlife, comes a nightmarish vision of Washington, D.C.-where shadows and mystery linger in the alleys, and where the haunts of the past come to life. This House has a Name . . . Rachel Adair thought Draper House in Washington, D.C, would be the perfect place for her and her husband, Hugh, to try and start a family. But as soon they moved into the century-old townhouse, the nightmares began: horrific images of the child Rachel lost; the unforgivable sins of Hugh's father; scenes of blood-curdling rituals . . . and the scraping sounds of an even greater terror that lives within the walls . . .

--This text refers to the Paperback edition.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

From its beginning with a gruesome backstreet abortion, the tension seldom flags as this tale builds to a grisly, suspense-filled climax. Hugh and Rachel Adair's new townhouse is a 19th-century building with eccentric architecture and an equally eccentric tenant, Penelope Deerfield, a retired nanny who "looks like Mary Poppins gone to seed." More forbidding is the mad bag lady who takes an unsettling interest in the young couple, warning them to flee the "screamin' house." Reading about the area's background, Hugh and Rachel discover that their home's dark history includes murder and possibly even devil worship. Meanwhile, Rachel begins to come under the sinister influence of whatever is haunting the house: she hears a baby crying where there is none and encounters a vision of a hideous, unearthly man. Eventually both Rachel and Hugh learn of the horror embedded in the house. As in Goat Dance , his first book, Clegg pulls out the stops of terror: cannibalism, the devil, good magic turned to evil, grave-robbing and the undead all make this a chilling story.
Copyright 1990 Reed Business Information, Inc.

About the Author

Douglas Clegg is the Bram Stoker and International Horror Guild Award winning author of more than a dozen novels, including the Internet's first publisher-sponsored e-serial novel, Naomi.

Under a pseudonym, Clegg wrote the bestseller Bad Karma, which will be out in 2001 as a movie starring the British actress Patsy Kensit.

His ebook, Purity, has reached over 100,000 readers on the Internet.

His current print fiction includes You Come When I Call You, Mischief, and The Infinite. You Come When I Call You is also available in Rocket eBook format.

Doug's upcoming print fiction includes Nightmare House, The Hour Before Dark, and The Machinery of Night.

Doug was born in Virginia, but currently resides near New York City. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Product Details

• Mass Market Paperback
• Publisher: Pocket Books (July 1, 1990)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0671672770
• ISBN-13: 978-0671672775
• Product Dimensions: 6.6 x 4.2 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 4.8 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,515,561 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

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I'm a novelist living on the New England coast. My first novel, Goat Dance, came out in 1989, and since then, more than 20 of my novels have been published.

I'd recommend: Neverland, Isis, Afterlife, The Words, Purity, or The Priest of Blood (and the entire vampire trilogy, The Vampyricon) if you're new to my fiction.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A truly freaky horror novel, March 30, 2000

By 

Laura Hodge - See all my reviews

This review is from: Breeder (Mass Market Paperback)

This is the first novel by Douglas Clegg that I have read, and it's, well, great. It's about a young couple fresh out of law school who move into an old townhouse in the D.C. suburbs. They slowly discover that the house has an evil past, and that their downstairs tenant is not who she seems to be. Lots of gore, like most good horror novels, after all, what could be more horrifying than a man driven so far into madness that he bashes himself to death with a hammer? But it also has a lot of really non-gory scares, too, for instance, the children in the park. Read it if you're a horror novel buff. It's much better than I expected.

6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Clegg's best....I'm sad to say!, July 22, 2002

By 

G. Van Der Bent "Gerb" (Katwijk, The Netherlands) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Breeder (Mass Market Paperback)

BREEDER was the first Douglas Clegg novel I ever picked up and after reading some of his other (more recent) books I thought I'd drop in a few lines.
I must say however that, after BREEDER, mister Clegg seems to have gone a little downhill. His later novels like YOU COME WHEN I CALL YOU and HALLOWE'EN MAN were interesting, but a little bit to intellectual and literary for my tastes. That's why I think his second book BREEDER is (still) his best.

BREEDER is about this young couple who move into their new Washington home and, with a baby on the way, start looking towards a happy future. There is none however when all kinds of 'skeletons' start popping up, and with frightening results.
There's this really frightening baglady cowering through the neighbourhood, their landlady isn't all she says to be and soon the couple are involved with the resurrection of a powerful, and evil voodoo priest (but then again, aren't all voodoo priests evil?).
Without giving too much of the plot away I can say there's chills and twists aplenty here and I must warn the weak of stomach since there are some pretty disturbing scenes involving foetusses and childmurder.

I remember reading FANGORIA in the early nineties and at the time they were making Clegg out to be a big promise for the future. Giving his popularity he certainly has made good on that, I just think it's a pity he strayed away from the writing style that made books like BREEDER such winners.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Creepy story not for the faint of heart, May 14, 2003

By 

nusandman "nusandman" (Lincoln, Ne USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Breeder (Mass Market Paperback)

Breeder is the first book by Douglas Clegg that I have read and Clegg certainly lived up to his status as one of the best horror authors out there. The story reminds you a bit of Rosemary's Baby meets It's Alive but the character development is strong and the work stands on it's own merit. It took a while for this story to get really scary but once it does, it doesn't slow down until the end. There are some descriptions of violence in this book that are really disturbing and graphic but that's all part of the "horror" in my book. Just be prepared when the hammer comes into play. Overall, a good, quick, read. I'll continue to check out other works by Mr. Clegg