My First Months of Leisure October

I wanted to give you a peek at the books I've gotten through the Leisure Horror Book Club. Today we'll cover October 2007.

The next two books I got from the Leisure Horror Book Club were Halloweenland by Al Sarrantonio and House Infernal by Edward Lee.


Halloweenland

Halloweenland (The Orangefield Cycle #3)
Author: Sarrantonio, Al
Format: Mass Market Paperback
Type: Novel
Page Count: 307pp.
Pub. Date: October 2, 2007
Publisher: Leisure/Dorchester Publishing
Original Pub: October 2006 (Hardcover -- Cemetery Dance)
Original Title: The Baby
Extra: The First Chapter
Links: The Official Website of Al Sarrantonio

In Orangefield, Halloween is never normal -- and this year is no exception. For Orangefield is now the home of Halloweenland, a bizarre carnival run by the mysterious Mr. Dickens. No one who sees the carnival doubts that it's a very strange place, but its real secrets can hardly be imagined. Orangefield is also the home of Detective Bill Grant, who thinks he's seen it all. He's on the trail of an odd little girl, a girl who could hold the end of the universe in her hand. The trail leads Grant to Ireland, the ancient home of the Lord of the Dead, then back to Orangefield, where, on what may be the last Halloween, the ultimate battle between Life and Death takes place.



House Infernal

House Infernal (The City Infernal Saga #3)
Author: Lee, Edward
Format: Mass Market Paperback
Page Count: 369pp
Pub. Date: October 2, 2007
Publisher: Leisure/Dorchester
Also Pub: February 2008 (Hardcover -- Cemetery Dance)
Extra: Author's Essay
Links: The domain of Edward Lee

A city, built with blood and bones . . .

Three things are about to join a crypt in Hell with a house on Earth . . . Nuns molested and drained of blood. A virginal student seduced by the perverse and taunted by things worse than ghosts. And six Angels, imprisoned in Hell and made pregnant by God knows what . . .

A house, built for the church, but designed by Satan . . .

When Venetia Barlow begins work at St. John's Prior House, she expects a quiet summer of drudgery and boredom. But soon she's haunted by lurid desires and visions of a city full of monsters . . . and the monsters know her name. Is the house really a place of meditation and worship, or is it a temple of abomination and the most evil secrets? Venetia will only find out, when the voice of a long-dead priest comes into her head and gives her a an unspeakable message from the howling, blood-drenched streets of Hell . . .

Horror master Edward Lee dares you to take another tour through the City of the Abyss, and to walk with him though a house of horror, a house of graves . . .

A House Infernal

Evaluation of October's Selection

Halloweenland belongs to a cycle of stories which I've found called variously The Orangefield Cycle and The Halloween Cycle. I've chosen to go with The Orangefield Cycle until and unless I find out that the official title is different.

Part One of Halloweenland is a reworking of Cemetery Dance's The Baby. Included in Halloweenland is a brief essay on the origin of the novella The Baby and how it also gave rise to the full novel Halloweenland. Writers especially will enjoy reading both to see how the story changes because due to the dictates of the length.

I have to confess, I've been collecting The City Infernal Saga and the Leisure published editions of The Orangefield Cycle so these were two books I would have sought out even without the book club. However, it was nice to have them come to me.


(Originally posted in . . . With Intent to Commit Horror)