Morningstar [Hardcover]

Peter Atkins (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 1, 2000

Summer in San Francisco.

A killer is on the loose. Twelve victims so far. Men, women, children. All ritually disfigured. Scrawled in each victim's blood, a single word: Morningstar.

The citizenry is terrified. The police are powerless. And two innocent people suddenly find their lives swept up in a maelstrom of madness and murder. Shelley Masterton -- her dreams invaded by a dead friend, one of the killer's victims -- becomes an unwitting recruit in a plan for revenge from beyond the grave. And Donovon Moon, freelance journalist, receives a phone call offering the scoop of a lifetime -- Morningstar is on the line and wants to talk.

Inexorably drawn into a nightmare of death, destiny and unholy power -- the roots of which go far deeper than the recent string of killings -- Donovan and Shelley must find the truth amidst a whirlwind of terror, mayhem, and dark desire.

Before it finds them...

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Atkins's background as a writer of artistic splatter moviesAhe worked on the first Wishmaster film and three Hellraiser filmsAis obvious in this fast-paced but disjointed horror-suspense novel, first published in the U.K. in 1992 and now receiving its U.S. debut as the launch title for Stealth Press. A serial killer who signs the word Morningstar in the blood of his decapitated victims is stalking the streets of San Francisco. Donovan Moon, a flat-broke freelance journalist, gets a tip from a friend that Morningstar's crimes are marked by one other notable detail: his victims are all staked through the heart, killed as legend says vampires must be slain. A fortuitous phone call takes Moon to the penthouse apartment of Jonathan Frost, highly respected real estate developerAwho also claims to be Morningstar, aka Matador (the Spanish for "slayer"). Frost dreams of a hunter on his trail, and fears he will not survive their meeting. He offers Moon $50,000 to write his life story if he dies. Overall, the text reads more like a film outline than a novel, but Atkins knows how to tell a story and keeps this one thrumming with tension. Devotees of dark suspense will find it to their liking, and it's a good bet for the big screen. (Nov.) FYI: Stealth Press, which launched on November 1, offers high-quality bound books sold direct from publisher to reader on the Web. Other November 2000 Stealth releases include reprints of Peter Straub's Under Venus, Robert Vaughan's The Valkyrie Mandate and Robert H. Fowler's Jim Mundy.
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Review

Atkins knows how to sell a story and keeps this one thrumming with tension. -- Publishers Weekly, Nov 6, 2000

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 245 pages
• Publisher: Stealth Pr (September 1, 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1588810003
• ISBN-13: 978-1588810007
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 6 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #5,612,403 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Horror/Dark Fantasty at it's best!, November 21, 2000

By 

Donna Rockey (New Cumberland, PA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Morningstar (Paperback)

Peter Atkins, the author of such favorite popular horror features as Hellraiser II, III, and The Wishmaster, demonstrates here why he was chosen to co-write with undisputed modern horror master Clive Barker. A serial killer is loose in San Francisco. Ritually dismembering men, women, and children alike, the public is terrified and the police have no leads. The murders are all linked by bizzare mutilations and one word written in blood at the scene of all of the killings- Morningstar. Peter Atkins skillfully weaves a tale of grisly facination and edge of your seat suspense. This novel is brilliantly written, breaking conventional horror stereotypes with ease as it lures the reader further into the tale. Each page becomes a tangle of understanding, shifting the idea of who the victim actually is, and eventually leaving it all to the reader to decide. This novel has been out of print for a number of years, and has only recently been brought back to us through the efforts of Stealth Press. (www.stealthpress.com) This beautiful hardcover came highly recommended and left me dazzled with the brilliance of it's writing and the twists of plot that I couldn't put down. In a genre that's easy to get bored with as the stories begin to look vaguely the same, this novel will remind you why you started reading these stories in the first place.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Serial Killer vs Vampires, December 2, 2003

By 

Joshua Koppel (Chicago, IL United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Morningstar (Paperback)

A serial killer is stalking the city and leaving viciously mutilated bodies. One desperate reporter is dragged into the story and reports what he is told.

The killer has struck far more than the dozen times currently believed. Far more. But these recent killings are a warning and that is why he signed them with the name Morningstar.

Something is going to happen soon and the killer does not know what. All he knows is that he has been hunting vampires (the real ones and not those of legend) for many years and something wants to stop him.

The reporter is enlisted to report on the events after they happen so that the world will know that vampires are real and need to be dealt with.

But is the killer right? Are there really vampires? If so, were his victims really vampires? Does any of it really matter?

A very nicely told tale. Certainly not what I was expecting from the blurb on the back. I was expecting cheap escapism and found an intelligently written story that examined reality and our perceptions. Far better than the packaging would lead one to believe.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Top Notch, August 31, 2002

By 

mellion108 (Michigan, USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: Morningstar (Hardcover)

Atkins originally wrote a novella called Vampires of Summer that later became Morningstar. Atkins may have given us those Hellraiser sequels, but Morningstar introduced me to his fiction writing. I now know why this author is so well respected. Morningstar combines the best elements of horror, dark fantasy, sci fi, and drama with the creepiness of a great vampire/sociopath/ghost story. Get the picture? It is, indeed, a bit more complicated than the description on the dust jacket.

Donovan Moon, freelance journalist, can't resist a fantastic scoop when he is called on by Morningstar to write the vicious killer's story. Morningstar has been a busy vampire slayer, but is he the only one who "sees" that his victims are vampires? He chooses to slaughter these vamps in the most unsavory of ways, and we learn more about him as he dictates his story to Moon. Shelley Masterton (is this name a coincedence? I think not) is the young woman whose friend is slaughtered during a Morningstar spree, and she finds herself at the center of a mythological, universal, and downright bizarre fight for life and justice.

It's quite difficult to pin this novel into one neat category. Atkins crosses genre lines here, but it all works. I was [drawn] into the story almost immediately, and I kept turning those pages until I was finished. The story has tons of gore, wonderful characters, and almost magical writing. This one is definitely worth the read. Pass up the paperback version because the trade hardcover from Stealth Press is beautiful.