The Chosen Child [Paperback]

Graham Masterton (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 7, 2002

American businesswoman Sarah Leonard is supervising the construction of a major new international hotel in post-Cold War Warsaw. If the job doesn't come in on time and under budget, Sarah will be out of a job.

Shockingly, a headless body is discovered in a sewer tunnel at the construction site. Polish authorities pressure the Warsaw police to solve the case quickly, even if they have to invent a murderer, lest the hotel chain withdraw its investment dollars.

Unluckily for the authorities, the case is assigned to Komisarz Stefan Rej. Rej wants a real investigation and real justice, particularly once his investigation turns up evidence that more than one person has disappeared or been slaughtered near the hotel site. The location is linked to the ancient legend of the Tunnel Child, a murderous creature with the face of an angel. Rumors insist that the Nazis attempted to create such a being with their warped science.
Who, or what, are Sarah and Rej chasing?

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

No sooner does Warsaw slip the shackles of communism and open its arms to capitalism's promise than along slides a remnant of its darkest past (yesterday, the 1940s, or the 1600s, depending), heaving spanners into the works. And headless spanners, at that.

Six decapitated corpses with nothing in common aside from death have lately littered Warsaw. That's all the much-suffering, chain-smoking Komisarz Stefan Rej has to go on until the seventh corpse, a radio commentator and outspoken critic of the U.S.-based Senate International Hotels, shows up in the excavated hole that will soon house the multimillion dollar Warsaw Senate Hotel.

For Sarah Leonard, the Senate International Hotel's beautiful and bullheaded VP in charge of construction, time is money, and the chain's losing both in spades because workers have refused to enter the site until "the Executioner," as the media has dubbed him, or "the demon," as the workers call him, is apprehended.

"I don't believe this! These are grown men and this is the middle of the most modern city in eastern Europe. And they're afraid of a devil?"

Brzezicki said, "You don't think it's strange that they believe in God, do you? Why should you think it's strange that they believe in devils?"

"Oh, spare me," said Sarah.

Desperate for resolution, Sarah imports Clayton Marsh, a retired, brilliant Chicago police inspector, and a gang of German replacement workers, three of whom are quickly frappéd to a fare-thee-well at Sarah's well-shod feet. After several more murders, two séances, a number of sewer chases, some Nazi-era flashbacks, a botched exorcism, and a dash of East-meets-West hootchy- kootchy, the unlikely trio (Sarah, Rej, and Marsh) bring Graham Masterton's 28th novel to a more-or-less satisfying, if not wholly definitive, close.

Fun? Yes. Grisly? Absolutely. Engaging? Mostly. A masterpiece of plot and pacing? Hardly, but most entertainment isn't, and despite its shortcomings, The Chosen Child is roundly entertaining. --Michael Hudson --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Publishers Weekly

Masterton (Prey; The Manitou) serves up a lethal combination of skillfully written detective story and intense horror, as the citizens of contemporary Warsaw begin finding headless bodies all over town. Is the perpetrator a deranged serial killer or a legendary monster living in the city's sewers? Komisarz Stefan Rej is stumped. When the seventh victim, a radio reporter critical of the Senate Hotels chain, is found in the sewer under the construction site of the chain's newest project, Rej thinks he finally has a motive for the gory events. He meets his testy match in a vice-president of the Senate chain, Sarah Leonard, an American of Polish descent who has a rapport with the Polish workers. They say that the reporter was killed by a demon that lives in the sewersAa Warsaw legend since the 17th centuryAand they refuse to work until it is eradicated. Frantic when German replacement workers are butchered, Sarah asks her Chicago cop dad for help. He sends retired police inspector Clayton Marsh, who proposes a s?ance with a Warsaw medium and hears frightening revelations. Sarah's life is further complicated by an apparent connection between her boss (and ex-lover) and the Polish mafia. Using flashbacks, Masterton weaves the horrors of Nazi occupation (real-life SS General Erich von Bach Zelewski has a surprising role) and use of the sewers by the Home Army in the Warsaw Uprising into a highly atmospheric tale. Fans of horror, mystery buffs and aficionados of WWII stories will all enjoy this dandy thriller, whose clever protagonists find enlightenment and a little romance through their pursuit of the monster. (Dec.)
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 416 pages
• Publisher: Tor Books; 1st edition (January 7, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0812545338
• ISBN-13: 978-0812545333
• Product Dimensions: 6.6 x 4.1 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 5.6 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (9 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,297,555 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

18 of 18 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Sleep No More, February 22, 2001

By 

Kitten With a Whip "kittenwithawhip" (The Hellmouth) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Chosen Child (Hardcover)

This is one of the few books I've actually stayed up all night reading, which I haven't done in a while. I started in the late afternoon and the prologue got me hooked. I read until I normally fall asleep, but things just kept getting more and more interesting. By the scene about 3/4 of the way through where two major characters go into the depths of the sewer, getting lost, and start having to crawl through a pipe so tight that they have to push their way through it, I forgot about what time it was and just kept figuring 'one more chapter..." until I realized what the heck, I might as well just stay up till 5am and finish the whole thing. I knew I'd be a zombie at work the next day, but it was so suspenseful I didn't care.

Masterton has been one of my favorite authors since the early 80's. I've read them all, even the mainstream fiction ones (I've skipped the sex manuals though...the way he writes about horror, I don't think I want to go there). One of trademarks seems to be very unique plots, with something very shocking or engrossing happening in the opening pages. His other is that in each of his books, without fail, half a dozen or so really, really hideous, grotesque, murders or revolting scenes happen that are so uniquely gruesome and original that I can't believe he even thought them up, let alone wrote them down. At least one of those scenes *never* gets out of my head. I'll usually see one of his titles when I'm browsing and I'll remember some horrible image from the novel to connect it with (even if I last read it years ago) like, "Oh yeah, that's the one where the guy is possessed and takes a pair of shears and..." I can't even come up with one I could describe and still get this review posted. If you've read Masterton, you know exactly what I'm talking about.

The "Chosen Child" is not Masterton's best, or even in the top 5, but it is one of his better ones. I put off reading it a little longer than usual because the cover gave me the impression the plot concerned an evil child. It *sort* of does, in a really twisted way, but there's much more to it than that. The cover is fairly misleading. The plot concerns a series of unusually nasty murders that are taking place on the site of a large hotel being built in Germany. The victims are disappearing in the sewer system, most of them lured down by what sounds like a child or small animal in pain. The construction workers flat out refuse to work anymore as they are convinced that the devil is responsible for the killings, and they are so terrified that even the threat of being fired doesn't make them budge. The executive in charge of supervising the project brings in an American detective to investigate, and there's a sub-plot about corruption and the German mob. It gets weirder and scarier and more interesting from there...

Part of what kept me hooked was that the things that happened got so bizarre that I knew Masterton would tie it all together with a great explanation. While the real story is never entirely revealed, you get enough information that you are satisfied as a reader and also, given a serious case of the creeps. There were characters I cared about that I really didn't want to be killed (especially since another of Masterton's specialties is getting the point across in such excruciating, graphic, painfully long detail that being killed really, REALLY hurts more than you could ever imagine). There's other characters you really hate and want them to get some pay-back, so that kept me reading, too. Also, if you've read Masterton before, you know that some of his books do NOT have a happy ending. Some of them do, but you know the whole time you're reading the book that there's a fair chance things could end up in the worst possible way (a few of his novels have such downbeat endings that not only do the heroes die, but the world actually literally comes to an end). That's another element that kept me reading this book until it started getting light out. I didn't know what was going to happen next, and when I guessed, I was usually wrong.

Masterton fans, this is worth picking up in hardcover. I still don't regret the hours of sleep I lost...though I admit that the little sleep I did get wasn't especially peaceful.

12 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Fairly good horror, December 6, 2000

By 

Konrad Kern (OFallon, MO United States) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Chosen Child (Hardcover)

I started reading this thinking it would be a typical sewer monster story. It was a little more than that. An unknown creature is roaming the sewers of Warsaw, Poland. It's beheading all its victims in a brutal fashion. Sarah Leonard is in charge of getting a luxury hotel built in the city. When a few workers are killed, the other workers refuse to go back work until the murderer is caught (or the Devil as they call it). Detective Rej is in charge of the homicides and can't seem to find any connection between all the killings around the city. When a connection comes to light, it's to late, because he's been dropped from the case. Sarah decides to hire a detective from the states who's supposed to have great success in criminal investigations. Clayton Marsh is his name. It turns out that all the murders seem to be related to an event in the past.

Overall a captivating read. I found the character of Clayton Marsh, who supposedly had a brilliant mind, to be quite stupid. To search the sewers, knowing you'll meet the killer, without a weapon? Hello?

Fastpaced, with a little romance and a little money laundering, brought this gruesome and some time graphic novel together.

Recommended for older teens and lovers of horror.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Underrated Master of Chills......., October 20, 2002

By 

J. Bilby "littlebibs" (Kingston, New Hampshire United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: The Chosen Child (Paperback)

Another excellent, in a long line of unusal, engrossing
horror pieces with a great setting (Warsaw) and top notch writing. This story
has to be read. It took a long time for me to find a writer
like Masterton that has such a long line of masterpieces.
Very few writers I could mention have been able to
continue to put out the goods like Graham. Just read the
first chapter of this one and see if it doesn't give you
a good scare. This guy is one of a kind and I believe will
finally get his recognition as a great writer. Scary and
gruesome at times WOW.