A few days ago I put together a write-up on some books I have in my library, but haven't read yet. It was fun, nobody commented--not even @blewitt who seems determined to wreck every post I make here with the gutteral New Jersey grunts that pass for language in his neck of the woods--and all was well.

Today I treated myself to a little thrift store shopping, and came across some more goodies to add to the shelves already straining in agony. Booktober continues in earnest! Let's take a look at the haul, shall we?

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First up here is Revenant by Melanie Tem, wife of Steve Rasnic Tem who is a horror writer in his own right. This book is part of the Dell Abyss imprint, which was one of the last hurrahs of horror fiction prior to its collapse in the mid-90's, and was published in 1994. Despite being highly praised by Stephen King, Abyss didn't last long, only publishing books between 1991 and 1994, but the imprint still managed to push out an impressive 45 titles in that time.

The Dell Abyss story is worthy of a post in and of itself, but suffice it to say that while not all of those books were gold-plated hits, the line did introduce to the world a number of exceptional new stories and writers. Chief among them was Poppy Z. Brite, who had his final novel dropped from publication after the imprint folded due to lack of editorial confidence and oversight.

With that out of the way, here's Revenant's back cover blurb:

The living make their pilgrimage. They don't know what drives them on, only that they are grieving and full of regrets, and that the pain of the losses will not go away....

A father who has lost his son. A mother who longs for her two dead children. A wife whose husband's mind has been taken by disease.... Plagued by memories of happier days, contemplating how things might have been, they do not know where they are until they are there: over the mountains, hidden in a valley, a ghost town called Revenant....a town hungry for human grief.

Now they will get their second chance. They will find their long lost ones and touch them once again. And in a jolting, unforgettable climax, the living and the dead will each face the most harrowing task of all: to let go of all their longings, and love death as much as life itself....

One thing I love about the Abyss line is that it insisted on out-of-the-ordinary plots. You won't find your run-of-the-mill vampires, werewolves, or serial killers in Abyss titles, so for many readers these are a treasure trove of fresh air pumped into a genre that was becoming increasingly stale. For 99 cents, I couldn't pass this one by.

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Next up, we have Nightwing by Martin Cruz Smith, published in 1977 by Harcourt Brace Jovanovich's Jove imprint.

This one had me doing a double-take when I pulled it off the shelf. Martin Cruz Smith, after all, is far better known for his Russian-themed Arkady Renko political thrillers like Gorky Park, Polar Star, and Stalin's Ghost. Mysteries and intrigue are his bread and butter, but apparently even a writer like Smith needed to keep the pot boiling from time to time, and Nightwing was the result.

I wonder if DC had to pay money for the rights to the name?

In any case, this appears to be a flat-out scare-fest from Smith, set in the United States' desert southwest region, and involving a "when animals attack" scenario based around everybody's favorite flying nocturnal mammal, vampire bats. Readers of my review of The Nest earlier this week, or a similar review for Bats by William W. Johnstone know I'm a sucker for the creature-feature part of horror. I'm especially intrigued to see how Smith handles this. Let's read the back cover blurb and see what I'm in for:

Vampire bats. Gray. Evil. Clever. Deadly. Driven by blood-hunger across the American landscape, they bred and multiplied, unseen and unsuspected.

Thousands.

Each one an object of grisly horror. Each one a thirsty messenger of death.

No warm-blooded creature is safe.

And, as the darkness gathers, the sky is filled with the frantic motion, the maddening murmur of . . .

Nightwing

Apparently they turned this into a movie, but I'm unfamiliar with it. Something else to add to the 'to be watched' queue, I suspect. But not before I read the book. Smith's an effective enough writer that I can't imagine this will be anything less than what is promised. This may dethrone Johnstone's novel as my favorite 'bats going on the rampage' novel of all time, and I'm stupid excited to dive into it. What do you think?

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Man, if there's one thing I truly dig about 80's horror novels, it's the really cool die-cut covers that you can open to reveal a second piece of 'stepback' artwork. I've been fascinated by it ever since I was a little kid, haunting the Walden Books at the local mall. Every time we passed, I had to run inside and creep myself with the stepback artwork on the V.C. Andrews books until mom caught up with me and dragged me away to the children's section where I could look at more age-appropriate fare.

So when I saw the first book in Ken Eulo's "Stone" trilogy (The Brownstone, published in 1980 by Pocket Books), the memories came rushing back. Not from previous reading experience, for I have none where Eulo is concerned, but rather from my own childhood. I remember this cover quite well, with the stepback artwork of the creepy old woman, holding a knife, and looking out the window right at me. This cover gave me legit night terrors as a little guy. What can I say, I've always had an over-active imagination. I'd forgotten this until I laid eyes on it in the thrift store, and I knew it was time for it to come home with me so I could experience the horrors anew as an adult. Let's read the back cover together:

The old sisters were so kind, so generous, so anxious to have them live in what seemed like the perfect house.

They even offered Justin and Chandal the apartment rent-free for the first six months. It seemed like a miracle just when they needed it most. So they moved in, eager to make the Brownstone their home.

Soon Chandal was hearing voices, seeing shadows, wondering about the sisters who seemed so . . . strange. Even Justin seemed to be drifting away into a new passion, photography, which took him down to a world of darkness in the basement.

But it wasn't until Chandal saw Justin's photographs that she began to make sense of it all . . . that the dark mosaic of inexplicable events took on a terrifying shape . . . that she could understand the sinister reason the sisters made them feel so welcome in . . .

THE BROWNSTONE

Yeah, tell me you aren't intrigued. Go right ahead, the comments section is right down there.

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So that's the latest piece of Zorker's horror book pick-ups this Booktober. See any you like? Any you've read before? Any you want to see me tackle? Leave your opinion and let's see what happens.