Jack Ketchum (nom de plume of Dallas Mayr) is known for choosing disturbing topics, as in the subversive, even shocking, novel Off Season and the violently nasty  The Girl Next Door. His penchant for in-your-face horror is tempered, though, by the underlying moral tone in his fiction.  The Exit at Toledo Blade Boulevard contains 12 short stories (six original to this volume) and a personal essay about the author's encounter with  Henry Miller. "The Rifle," the best in the bunch, is a heartbreaking, provocative fable about a gun in the hands of a kid gone bad. It would serve well as a reading assignment for a group discussing the problem of shootings by school children. The other stories include one reminiscent of "The Lottery" by Shirley Jackson, one about random violence on a freeway, three tales in which a villain gets his or her comeuppance, a story about snake phobia, a fantasy fable set in the wintry north, and others that use paranoia, cynicism, and humor in different combinations. (Some readers may find the humor a bit lame.) Also included is a well-crafted Romero-zombie story that was apparently intended for a Skipp-and-Spector Book of the Dead anthology that never materialized.  The essay, "Henry Miller and the Push," is a brilliant finale. In the early 1980s Ketchum (Dallas Mayr) found himself in the position of representing  Henry Miller for a New York literary agency. His description of the poignant encounter between the young and aspiring writer and the 85-year-old Miller is a real treat. This edition includes several black-and-white illustrations and two beautiful color illustrations on the front and back of the dust jacket by horror artist  Alan M. Clark. The introduction is by Richard Laymon and all the stories have short blurbs by Ketchum. --Fiona Webster

The Exit at Toledo Blade Boulevard

Literature & Fiction

Johnson, Matt

Ketchum, Jack.

Clark, Alan.

Contemporary

Obsidian Books

Dancing With Demons

Taylor, Lucy

Clark, Alan M.

Oberschlake, Jamie

From Publishers Weekly 
Braunbeck's debut as a dark fantasy novelist shows the same passion and originality as his short fiction collection, Things Left Behind (1997)--and the same fearless sidesteps into obscurity. The grim realism of the first chapter belies the unpredictability of what follows: Ohio television news anchor Robert Londregan watches helplessly as his wife, Denise, stricken with catastrophic mysterious symptoms, and their unborn child die in a hospital emergency room. Then things get very weird. Robert is assaulted in the morgue by a man with a hideously deformed face, the fetal corpse disappears and the deformed assailant, who calls himself Rael, informs Robert that Denise, like Rael himself, is one of the Hallover, the guardian angel offspring of humans and repentant fallen angels who are "able to move freely between the Earth of men and the Kingdom of God." The fate of Rael and his kind depend on Denise's return, and Robert is charged with retrieving her in one of the many incarnations she has assumed. Much of this strange mythology is related in preachy parables, since there is no way Robert (or the reader) could possibly parse it from the chaotically orchestrated events. But though Braunbeck puzzles with his plotting, he has a knack for summing up in concise images the abstruse concepts he kicks around--for example, the recurring symbol of Denise's matryoshka, or nesting dolls, which eloquently expresses how a part of her invests every person whom Robert has ever loved. The novel bursts with moving insights about grief turning one's world upside down and about the restorative power of love, and Braunbeck can't be taken to task too severely for expressing them with more feeling than sense. (May)\nCopyright 2000 Cahners Business Information, Inc. 
 From Library Journal 
When his wife dies giving birth to a stillborn child, Robert Londrigan's grief quickly turns to horror with the theft of his dead daughter's body. As his hold on reality fades, he encounters a mysterious man named Rael who rules over an underground haven filled with children who may or may not be dead. Though not for the squeamish, Braunbeck's first solo novel nevertheless presents a compelling and disturbingly graphic exploration of grief and redemption that should appeal to fans of dark fantasy and psychological horror. An optional purchase for large libraries. 
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.

The Indifference of Heaven

Braunbeck, Gary A.

Gore Score 2001: The Splatter Years

Humor & Entertainment

Balun, Charles

Movies

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