Richard Laymon Same Vein

RATING:

Publisher: Leisure Books

Review Source:

THE INFINITE by Douglas Clegg

If you're a fan of horror fiction and haven't yet discovered Bram Stoker Award winner Douglas Clegg, you've got some enjoyable reading ahead of you. Clegg's latest, The Infinite, is probably his best novel to date, and is a good place to start.

A kind of riff on Shirley Jackson's classic The Haunting of Hill House, The Infinite tells the story of three psychically-gifted individuals invited by the leader of a psychic research foundation to spend a few days in a haunted mansion in the Hudson River Valley of New York state. The haunted mansion in question, Harrow, has figured in two of Clegg's earlier works, Mischief and Nightmare House. Although The Infinite picks up on story elements and characters common to those two books, it's not necessary to have read them first.

What makes The Infinite such a great read is the richness of its characterization. Clegg takes his time setting up the three principles before bringing them together. Cali Nytbird, a young woman who uses her psychic abilities to help the police catch killers, Chet Dillinger, a young man who experiences his ability more as a curse than a blessing, and Frost Crane, a strange man with unhealthy compulsions who has used his ability to achieve some degree of fame all come together at Harrow like tasty ingredients in an exotic dish.

Also in the mix are Jack Fleetwood, the leader of the psychic research foundation, his tempestuous sixteen-year-old daughter Miranda, and Ivy Martin, the mysterious woman funding the whole endeavor for her own personal reasons.

All of the characters are well developed and fun to read. Clegg does a great job putting you inside the hearts and minds of each character, making you feel his or her pangs and desires. One of the greatest pleasures of reading is getting to experience the world from a new vantage point--if you're a man, knowing what it's like to be a woman in love, or vise versa. The Infinite really succeeds in this and also happens to be quite a scary haunted house book. If you're looking for an intelligent, character-driven horror novel, Douglas Clegg is your man, and The Infinite is the book.

This is the first release from Leisure's hardback range, and it has to be said they've done horror proud (again)! It's a terrific hardback, solid and sturdy, and the dustjacket needs to be seen to be believed. No scan of the cover will look as good as laying your own eyes on it. If this is the quality and style we can expect from all Leisure's hardbacks, then rest assured Horror is alive and well! Well done, guys!

Please support RLK! by searching and ordering
your online books through the links below. Thanks!