Customer Reviews

The Hour of the Oxrun Dead

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It has been almost a year and a half since Natalie Windsor's husband was brutally murdered while answering a prowler call at a deserted house (then who placed that call reporting the prowler?) and her life is just about returned to normal. Then another dead body is found, mutilated just has her late husband's body had been.

Charles L. Grant is an acknowledged master of character based, gothic atmosphere drenched 'quiet horror' (the kind that relies on misdirection, mystery, and mood). But The Hour of the Oxrun Dead, despite having a listed copyright of 1987 on the information page of the Tor paperback edition I have, is one of the earliest Oxrun novels from the late seventies (I clearly remember seeing a copy of the book sometime around 1979 or 80). One that was obviously written well before Grant had a really firm grip on his gothic mood based style of writing. Nonetheless Grant's fans will find any visit to the haunted town of Oxrun well work making, and this one certainly is. Recommended.

Charles L. Grant was the best writer of horror in modern times. Not Stephen King, not Clive Barker. Grant's prose was literary and emotionally compelling, his story lines were clear and terrifying, and he had a subtlety that no one else since Lovecraft has had. The spewing entrails, vomiting peasoup and heads lopped off were kept to a minimum, so that the reader actually had to think to get the most of his writing. His Oxrun Station stories were the best he did, so this is the best of the best. If you love good horror that is plot and character driven rather than a gorefest, please read Charles Grant.