SNOW MAN

by Norman Bogner

"He staggered back. Something took hold of him and he shrieked.
It began squeezing him. He stared at the gleaming eyes; then he was inside the jaws. The teeth locked around his ribs. As he lost consciousness, he heard himself cry; then he began to choke in his own blood. He was being eaten."

The Snowman was back. On the icy slopes of a ski resort high in the Sierra Mountains of California they found the hideously mutilated body of a young woman. Only one man recognised the unique hallmark of death. A man who had witnessed the monster's terrible savagery at first hand and survived to tell the tale; the world had branded him a liar and a coward.
Now his chance had come to avenge the deaths of his friends, to prove his innocence ­and to face once again his old adversary . . the Snowman.

Genres: Horror

Mass Market Paperback

Published January 1, 1978

Reviews

[Mark · Rating 3 out of 5]

The Snowman was back. On the icy slopes of a ski resort high in the Sierra Mountains of California they found the hideously mutilated body of a young woman. Only one man recognised the unique hallmark of her death. A man who had witnessed the monster’s terrible savagery at first hand and survived to tell the tale; the world had branded him a liar and a coward. Now his chance had come to avenge the deaths of his friends, to prove his innocence and to face once again his old adversary – the Snowman.
First published in 1977 (I read the 1979 NEL edition), this starts promisingly enough and reads like a TV movie of the era - a snow resort, with cocky ski instructors, a plucky female lead, shady shenanigans with the top brass and a beauty queen, not to mention a twenty-foot (twenty-foot!!!) monster with rock-like skin and generating enough internal heat that he burns his victims. I was all in. The characters were broadbrush but intriguing, the resort was well described and the first couple of attacks were gruesome and bloody. Then, the second third details a climber - Dan Bradford, the man in the blurb - who survived a previous attack and is now out for revenge, putting together a team of mercenaries to help him. This is fun in the spirit of an adventure novel/film of the time. The final third is the showdown and, for all the build up, it goes by very rapidly - almost as if Mr Bogner knew he was getting to his word limit. It’s so brisk, in fact, that with at least one death, I had to re-read the paragraph to check the character had died. So, all in all, a book of thirds - the first is great fun, the second is slightly less enthralling and the third could have been excellent but, sadly, is written far too quickly. A slight disappointment, then, but if you get a chance, the first third is really worth a read!

[Vincent Darkhelm · Rating 1 out of 5]

Feels longer than it is. Very dull.