Keeper of the Children

by William H. Hallahan

In a child's bedroom in a suburban Philadelphia home, Edward Benson is listening for footsteps on the stairs.

The footfall Edward is waiting for will not be human. It could be someone's pet cat, or a stuffed teddy bear, or a smiling marionette doll.

But whatever it is that comes creeping up the stairs will have two qualities: it will be animated by a terrifying, diabolical force, and it will have only one intention -- murder.

If Edward Benson wants his daughter back, he will have to fight a battle no human has ever fought before. And he must win, for only the victor will return with his life -- and his soul.

Genres: Horror, Fiction, Thriller, Novels

189 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published January 1, 1978

About the author

William Henry Hallahan was an American writer, best known for his two occult novels, The Search for Joseph Tully and The Keeper of the Children.

Mr. Hallahan started in the advertising business and stayed in the business for most of his adult life, but in 1971 with the publication of his first novel, The Dead of Winter, he began a second career as a writer. Over the next seventeen years he would write eight novels. In the 1990's he switched from fiction to non-fiction.


Mr. Hallahan served in the United States Navy as a radio operator during World War II He is survived by his daughter and a brother. He passed away at the age of 92.

Reviews

[Grady Hendrix · Rating 2 out of 5]

A book that begins with a scarecrow murdering a dude, and then a dog kills itself rather than face the gibbering insanity of homicidal puppets, should be a lot more interesting than this. Read my full review.

[Peter · Rating 2 out of 5]

Rennie Benson and her friend Pammy are under the spell of a sect led by a mysterious man named Kheim. Will their parents be able to free their children from the influence of that evil man? Only magic and some spells seem to provide help. Will they succeed in the end? The novel had some intriguing moments with a scarecrow coming to life and the fight between toy bear and a clown but even though the novel was short it dragged. Didn't like the characters involved. It was a bit sterile and narrated in a quite distant way. The cover is gorgeous but the story was average and exchangeable. Overall it was okay.

[Vicki Herbert - Vacation until Jan 2 · Rating 4 out of 5]

Kung Fool...

KEEPER OF THE CHILDREN
by William H. Hallahan

No spoilers: 3 1/2 stars. In this bizarre tale, which was hard to swallow...

Eddie Benson, film producer, returns home from his latest location to find that his daughter has run away from home...

...to join a religious cult led by a Tibetan monk, Tran Cao Kheim, who uses mind control to restrain the cult children from leaving...

Kheim is a powerful master in astral travel. He can use his knowledge to enter inanimate objects and make them come to life...

And kill...

To save his daughter, Benson must quickly learn the Tibetan art of astral travel, and his soul must do out-of-body battle with the powerful soul of Kheim...

Benson's soul must bypass the keepers of the door (creatures guarding the tunnel) go through the tunnel to a place of great terror called Stundevil Fen...

But...

Once he crosses over, he may not be able to return to his body...

Although Kheim is the more powerful of the two men, Benson has an ace up his sleeve...

The element of surprise...

Kheim doesn't know that Benson has quickly learned how to leave his body and travel to the astral plane...

By the light of the gibbous moon...

Benson plans to leave his body behind, locate Kheim's soul while Kheim is out-of-body...

...and disconnect the silver cord connecting Kheim's soul to his body so that his soul can not return to his body...

I tried this novel because after reading Hallahan's excellent, THE SEARCH FOR JOSEPH TULLY, I wanted more of his storytelling. Unfortunately, this story was very dated in many ways.

The improbable scenario of Benson learning astral travel in just a few weeks when it takes Tibetan monks many years to learn the art was just a bridge too far for me and the way it was written put me in mind of an old 70s TV series, KUNG FU, starring David Carradine, hence my headline: Kung Fool.

And so, grasshoppers, unless you're into really retro stories that show their age, I don't recommend this book.

[Dan · Rating 3 out of 5]

When photographer Eddie Benson returns home from an assignment, he finds that his daughter Renni is a beggar, part of a cult run by an ex-monk. When the police won't do anything, Eddie takes matters in his own hands, ready to fight fire with fire...

After seeing this in Paperbacks from Hell: The Twisted History of '70s and '80s Horror Fiction, I showed the cover to my wife. Weeks later, it showed up in our mailbox. The moral of the story is it pays to show your wife pictures of awesome paperbacks from the 70s.

Beneath the striking cover is a bizarre tale of ex-Buddhist monks, astral projection, telekinesis, and mind control. I had no idea the story would take the turn it did, turning Eddie Benson into some kind of Doctor Strange in preparation for his battle with Kheim, the monk.

With the scarecrow murder scene and the cover, I should have surmised what direction the book would take but I was still surprised. Benson's training reminded me of Doctor Strange so much I had to interrupt my wife's reading to tell her about it. She was probably curious about why I was muttering "That's so fucked up" anyway.

I was a little surprised Benson didn't run into Dormammu or the Mindless Ones while he was learning about astral travel. The ending was a mix of gore and bizarro action. It was extremely satisfying.

It wasn't a fantastic book but I liked it and there were aspects I never through I'd see in a horror novel. Hell, I'd read another book about Eddie Benson. 3.5 out of 5 stars.

[Tony Vacation · Rating 4 out of 5]

While not as wonderfully insane as The Boxer's Omen, William H. Hallahan's Keeper of the Children is a loopy romp that will delight readers who spotted it in Paperbacks from Hell: The Twisted History of '70s and '80s Horror Fiction. In brief, this novel concerns a sinister Tibetan monk who brainwashes teenagers into being his mindless beggars, and then fends off their parents with murderous marionettes and a pack of lethal Temple cats. The only way to save these these kids is for one father to undergo an intense training regime with a Hindi yogi so that he can battle the monk via astral projection. This novel is short and sweet, and ignores such silly concerns as plausibility (Why aren't the police more concerned about minors living in a warehouse with an elderly immigrant? Where are the police for that matter?) and good taste (This novel is as concerned with racial sensitivity as Sax Rohmer was when he conjured up the inscrutable Fu Manchu), to deliver a beguiling sequence of bizarro set pieces. The story is carried along by Hallahan's breezy prose, finishing with a last chapter that is as offbeat as it is thrilling in its presentation of a pitched battle between good and evil. Is this a great book? No. Am I smitten as a kitten with it? Yes.

[Diana · Rating 4 out of 5]

I remember reading this one as a teenager and it really creeped me out. It centers round the father of a teenage girl who has been lured into a cult of some kind and he wants to win her back. Unfortunately the cult leader has no intention of letting her go and has some serious supernatural powers to thwart the determined father. Including animating scarecrows and marionettes. There are some very well written eerie scenes that I can remember. I haven't read this one for many years and it's been out of print for a long time. I'd love to get hold of this book and read it again, so if anyone has a copy and is willing to part with it, please contact me.

Ok an update. I got hold of a copy of this book from an Amazon seller. It's every bit as good as I remember it. The creep factor is high and the set pieces I recall reading all those years ago still sent a shiver down my spine. I'm so glad I was able to get hold of this book and read it once again!

[James Oxyer · Rating 3 out of 5]

The base of Keeper of the Children's story is built on xenophobia and "won't somebody think of the children" occult paranoia, so needless to say, I was a bit wary as the book began.

The villain here is Kheim, an ominous "Oriental" (who's also an illegal immigrant!) luring children into a sinister cult and forcing them to...parade around Philadelphia and beg passerbys for pocket change? There is no attempt at personifying Kheim in any way, making him a mediocre villain with murky motives. Does he really think he can make his fortune by forcing these children to collect pocket change? It's alluded to that he has sex with some of the girls, but is that really something a powerful Monk is willing to kill for? It all reads like Hallahan had some bad run-ins with Hare Krishnas at the airport and decided to get back at them through a literary smear campaign.

Thankfully, the focus of the story is really more on the protagonist's relentless drive to save his daughter from the cult, and that's where the story gets interesting. The promotion for the book really focuses on inanimate objects wreaking havoc, and there's a good bit of that, but most of the focus is on the protagonist (Eddie Benson) learning astral projection and psychokinesis to fight Kheim. That's right - it's no longer killer toys fighting humans; it's killer toys fighting killer toys.

The lengths Benson goes to for his daughter add some emotional weight to the story, and even his daughter's reasoning for joining the cult is heartbreaking on its own. There are ingredients for an amazing story here, but the book is too short to flesh them out for a truly compelling read.

It's a quick read, which is a plus, but where the book falters is how it decides to spend its time. 33 pages are eaten up by Benson training his mind to do battle with Kheim...by staring at a wall. 7 pages towards the end are eaten up by descriptions of wharf cats hunting rats. If the book was longer (and I wish it was - it needed a lot more killer toy action for my tastes), these wouldn't feel as sluggish as they do, but at a lean 189 pages, there were better ways to spend that time.

At only 189 pages, it's hard not to recommend Keeper of the Children. Foreigner paranoia aside, it's a quick, weird, and mostly fun time that's perfect for beach reading. And it's got a teddy bear demolishing a bedroom with a fireax as it pursues a stuffed mouse. That alone is worth anyone's time.

[Benjamin · Rating 4 out of 5]

In the 1960s and 1970s numbers of middle-class kids, mostly teens, ran away into various cults. Some parents tried kidnapping and deprogramming. It's not clear how much of that actually worked. Eddie Benson's daughter Renni is caught up in a cult run by a Tibetan monk. The monk is ready to kill to keep his "children." When Eddie enters the battle to regain his daughter, he doesn't realize that it is a battle that is to be carried out on the spiritual plane. This story ranks right up there with Rosemary's Baby. Excellent for those who like intelligent horror.

[Stephanie Sanders-Jacob · Rating 3 out of 5]

Keeper of the Children by William H. Hallahan is a wild ride. At no point was I able to predict what would come next. There’s astral projection, evil puppets and teddy bears and scarecrows, suicidal dogs, rival cat gangs, etc. There’s also some weird racial insensitivity… I guess that’s the one thing I could count on throughout this book.

This is the story of a father fighting to save his teenage daughter from a cult run by a mind controlling, panhandling monk. He teams up with the families of the other abducted children, but they’re dying one by one and soon only Eddie Benson remains to confront the monk.

I feel like I wasn’t supposed to like this book, but I really did. It’s pulpy, it’s fun, the writing is solid, the cover is amazing. I enjoyed it.

[Joshua Hair · Rating 5 out of 5]

At times confusing, this quirky, obscure little gem of a horror ended up winning me over in the end. I gave it four and a half stars for being incredibly entertaining, highly original, and not afraid to drop the reader right into the action. That last part means that some people will invariably be turned off by the lack of backstory and the chaos that ensues right in the first few pages, but those that can handle the hectic pace will find a nifty story chock full of evil dolls, mind control, and astral projection, and epic battles outside of the physical realm.

[J. P. Wiske · Rating 4 out of 5]

Finally! After having read two utterly engrossing and inventive novels by Hallahan that all but blow it on the very last page (The Search for Joseph Tully and The Dead of Winter), I find one that delivers the goods from start to finish, as a father tries to rescue his daughter from an evil, brainwashing Tibetan monk.

As with his aformentioned novels, Hallahan excels at creating intricate challenges and confrontations. His set-ups and resolutions are so detailed and naturalistically incremental that they become implicitly believable and compelling.  Before you know it, you're faced with astral projection and totemic possession... and you're swallowing it hook, line, and sinker. And begging for more.

In many ways, Hallahan's narrative thoroughness reminds me of David Morrell, who constructs carefully layered supernatural and non-supernatural thrillers that are propulsive and imaginative. The comparison is now particularly apt in light of Hallahan's finally delivering a wholly satisfying conclusion.

[Lee Dunning · Rating 3 out of 5]

I read this book about 30 years ago and it stuck with me all this time. I decided to reread it. It's written in the 70's and it shows. All Asians get kinda lumped into one group and some of the descriptions of people are bordering on offensive. The rationale for the villain seems a bit thin as well. The ending is perhaps one of the most abrupt I've ever run into. I did still enjoy the section where the hero delves into mysticism and learns to use the power of his mind. This is a big part of the story and is why, despite its many faults, to still give the book three stars.

[Mikepottz · Rating 3 out of 5]

Children are being taken from parents by a Tibetan monk and made to beg for money on the streets. Parents trying to take back their children are killed by the astral projection that the monk can do that enters into objects like a killer scarecrow. An axe wielding teddy bear loses his head to a clown that knocks it off with a baseball bat. This is crazy batshit stuff.

[Debra]

Stephen King recommended book. Noted as "important to the genre we have been discussing" from Danse Macabre, published in 1981.

[Tina · Rating 4 out of 5]

I didnt have high hopes for this wee book but i loved it. It was a bit slow to start but once it got going 😯. Very good book.

[Jason · Rating 4 out of 5]

Quite often, horror writers are sensitive to the currents of anxiety that flow throughout a society. And for good reason: in order to write something unnerving they have to be aware of what makes people anxious. William H. Hallahan’s Keeper Of the Children addresses two concerns that American society had in the late 1970s. One was the cult scare that arose after the 1960s when new religious movements, some being authoritarian in nature and often accused of brainwashing,, swept through American society. Groups like the Moonies, the Hare Krishnas, and the Peoples Temple of Jim Jones were thriving and often cast a menacing shadow on those outside the groups. Another fear at the time was the breakdown of the American nuclear family. Divorce rates were increasing and children were distancing themselves more and more from their families, often seeking surrogate or alternative families in other places, some of which were maladaptive. Conservatives blamed the social changes of the 1960s for this, but in reality the rising cost of living contributed more to this than the counter-cultural impulses of the youth since career minded parents had to spend more time at work and less time at home. So the bases of Hallahan’s now overlooked novel were firmly rooted in the fears of his time.

The story starts when teenager Renni Benson does not come from school. Her mother Susan and little brother Top begin looking for her, eventually to learn that she and her friend Pammy, who comes from an abusive family, have gotten roped into a religious cult led by a Tibetan monk named Kheim. This monk is said to be an expert in brainwashing, mind control, and occultism so of course, Susan is scared for her daughter’s safety.

That’s when the absentee father, Eddie Benson, enters the picture. Eddie works for a film production company which requires him to spend long stretches of time abroad. On this particular trip, after working for a while in Europe, he returns home to find his daughter missing. When he learns why she is not home, he realizes his duty as a father is to rescue her even though his absence might be a contributing factor to her running away. Eddie also worries throughout the story that his wife is losing interest in him, something he again attributes to his absence. When his company demands that he leave for another lucrative filming job in Africa with a flirtatious and attractive camera woman by his side, he knows he must sacrifice his career in order to save his family from disintegrating.

Eddie gets together with a group of parents whose teenagers have also been led away into the cult; their plan is to find a way to get their children back. But then, one by one, the members of the group get killed in unusual circumstances. The first one to die is murdered by a walking scarecrow that comes to life, descends from his perch in the moonlight, and enters the man’s house to snuff him. The cult leader Kheim is a master of astral projection, so he can leave his body, enter into inanimate objects, and commit acts of violence and homicide in this way.

From there on, we learn about the lives of the other parents in the group and why Pammy so desperately wanted to join the cult as a refuge from her abusive parents. As these others get picked off in a series of bizarre murders, Eddie realizes conventional means of fighting Kheim will not work, so he joins an ashram run by an Indian yogi and learns astral projection himself. Having learned this occult technique, he engages in fights with Kheim in some unusual ways.

The unreal aspects of the story are the most interesting part of the book. Fights and murders happen while Eddie and Kheim are using their astral bodies to animate marionettes, a giant ax-wielding teddy bear, and a feral cat. You might be tempted to read some kind of symbolism into these hand-to-hand battles, but there probably isn’t any there. These fights are done, mostly in the guise of toys to ornament the violence, making it more of an entertaining novelty than a metaphor. Since the story is pedestrian, a father-hero goes to the rescue of his captive maiden daughter, and some elements are given too much description while others don’t get enough, Eddie’s course in the ashram drags on for too long and the activities of the cult are barely even touched on, there has to be something to prop up the story and keep it interesting. That is why these toy and cat fights are given so much attention. They really are the best passages in the book and the main reason it might be worth reading once.

As for the meaning of the story, there isn’t much here. The social themes of family breakdown and the menace of sleazy religious movements are issues addressed, but as for commentary on these topics, Hallahan doesn’t have much to say beyond the idea that families are important, even more important than career advancement, and cults are bad. This is unfortunate because the author has enough talent to inject some meaningful commentary into the narrative, taking it to another level. Instead he declines to use this novel as a pulpit and makes it an almost entirely commercial form of entertainment. There is a catch here though; while Hallahan could be accused of racism or xenophobia by portraying Kheim, the evil Asian occultist, as the adversary of the story, he counters this by portraying the Chinese father of a cult member in a sympathetic light and also turning to an Indian yogi for guidance on how to defeat Kheim. Thus he provides a clear indication that his opposition is to cults of coercive indoctrination and not to Asian people or immigrants.

While Keeper Of the Children does touch on some social issues of the 1970s, it ultimately is a work of entertainment. In that regard, Hallahan mostly succeeds, at least when writing about homicidal marionettes and cat battles. Hallahan could have gone deeper, but he didn’t. As such, it’s a fun read even if it is a bit predictable and basic in its methods. It’s amusing in the way a carnival fun house is. Just don’t expect much if you try to look beneath the surface.

[Amanda · Rating 3 out of 5]

I'm not entirely sure what to say about this one. I really enjoyed Hallahan's "The Search for Joseph Tully," probably because of the ongoing mystery and the genealogy bits that other people found tedious. Having read two of his books now, I think I can safely state that a Hallahan novel will be

a: ended extremely abruptly, with little to no falling action
b: weird as can be

The copy I was reading had a more subdued cover, but really this cover and the brief synopsis pretty much describes the plot. There isn't a whole lot of mystery to this one. The protagonist's daughter falls into Cult Life, panhandling for a monk who has mysterious mind powers and can inhabit inanimate objects. Like teddy bears. The cult leader dispatches those who stand in his way, and it's up to the protagonist to somehow learn how to beat the monk at his own supernatural game.

This is pretty much the book.

I don't think we're ever really told why the monk wants the children. Presumably it's just to have them bring him an income, but I kept thinking there was a more insidious reason. Maybe he wanted to inhabit the bodies of the young so he could live forever? Nope. Maybe he just wanted a bevy of teenage girls to play with? Well not as such. While there's a baby in the group, it's not clear if the monk is actually abusing or seducing the girls, but that doesn't seem to be his motivation. In a way, this book feels like the first half of a much larger and more complicated work, but it's not, so ...

If you consider the date this was written, when cultists were very much in the news (remember Jonestown?) this might have been a more frightening book in the era before we saw toys come to life in movies. Reading it now it plays out more like a weird kind of "Itchy and Scratchy Show" where the frenzied final battle is played out in a child's bedroom.

I originally gave it an "okay" rating because it was a quick read and enjoyable, but it wasn't complicated enough to chew on for a few days like "Tully" but I gave it an extra star for being so darn batshit bizarre.

[Jordan Anderson · Rating 1 out of 5]

A crazy kidnapping monk. A desperate father willing to do anything to get his daughter back. Astral projection and possession of inanimate objects. Throw in a killer scarecrow and that pretty awesome cover and Keeper of the Children sounds like a super crazy novel from the era of great horror fiction.

Except it’s not.

If anything, Keeper is a slow burn of a novel that feels far longer than its measly 189 pages. There’s nothing scary or even remotely terrifying enough to really make this “horror”. Well, the reanimated marionettes could be slightly creepy, but Hallahan does little make them feel menacing or dangerous.

If anything, Keeper of the Children feels more like a crappy parallel universe version of Dr. Strange where instead of facing Doramamu, Stephen Strange must learn eastern mysticism to save his daughter from the clutches of another wannabe sourcer supreme.

Like a lot of these books I’m finally getting a chance to read, Keeper of the Children is really only good for the fact of saying you read it. It’s got no other redeeming qualities.

[Phrique · Rating 3 out of 5]

🐈‍⬛🐈‍⬛🐈‍⬛/5

We haven’t heard a good drunk uncle story in a while. Then I heard “Keeper of the Children” offered killer marionettes and teddy bears. I said let me have it Uncle Hallahan!

So uncle starts out strong. A family is worried sick about their daughter who decided to join a cult. This cult whose members offer up all their world possessions to their leader, that is rumored to be able to attack his opposers telekinetically. Cue victims and their kneecaps being attacked by a witch and a clown marionette. Whoa. Then we flip to scene in front of a temple on the Serengeti with “terrifying temple cats”…that kinda just seem like slightly larger house-cats?

Alright Uncle, let’s get back on track here. Oh shit, a scarecrow comes to life and turns someone into people tartare? That’s intense. So then the girls’s father decides to go to a monk to learn how to astral project by staring at a wall for 2 weeks? Like they offer a speed course on it? Oh Uncle Hallahan, this is going off the rails a bit. How will this end? Dueling ax-wielding teddy bear picnics? Snipping puppet strings? Oh…street cat…fights…from the astral plane…but they’re kinda standing like a couple of Rory Calhouns… (Simpsons reference)

*sigh* Alright Uncle Hallahan, that was quite the story. It was fun but also…very…bizarre and a little hard to follow. I still enjoyed my time. Now take your 3 stars and let’s get you to bed. Onto the next!

[Jason Fetters · Rating 3 out of 5]

Edward Benson loves his family, especially his daughter Renni. Benson, a successful film producing, is returning home for some family time only to discover Renni is missing. She has been abducted into a cult that sends children out in the streets with bowls to beg for money. Renni is under the spell of a powerful monk who has enslaved many children.

Edward is determined to break the monk's spell and free the children. This will be no easy task as the monk has deadly powers that can cause marionettes to spring to life and attack, such as, a giant teddy bear who swings an axe.

This is a great idea for a horror story and I found myself enjoying it up until the muddled finale. When Edward and the monk fight it feels very anti climatic and all the great details of the town, the teddy bear coming to life, and all the mental preparations for the fight are a let down due to a sloppy climax that did not work for me. I am tempted to write my own ending.

[Mouse · Rating 3 out of 5]

I don't know how to describe my feelings about this book. I mean, it's bad. The plot is weak. The characters are unlikeable. The racism is palpable. And yet, Hallahan is good at writing prose. I enjoyed his writing style enough to stick with him for 189 pages of wacky nonsense, the best parts of which were about stray cats with little to do with the overall story. Ultimately, this was a fun, somewhat frustrating read. If I ever happen to find any other Hallahan books for fifty cents, I'll be glad to take another wild ride with him.

[Andrea · Rating 3 out of 5]

The cover of this book is iconic to my childhood. My mom had this, but I guess that she thought I was too young to read such a disturbing story. I finally caught up with it forty years later, and the story doesn't live up to the awesome cover art.

It's about a father trying to rescue his daughter from a cult, but the cult leader has powers that make this difficult, so the father has to find a person to teach him these powers.

The writing is good, and it's a good book. It just wasn't as awesome as the cover art.

[Michael (Horror Gardener) · Rating 3 out of 5]

Spoilers: The ending of the book started and was getting awesome, possessed bear axing up the house, but then it just stopped and the finale began AGAIN with a cats vs rats battle and then another fight between a super cat. It had potential for greatness and then fell flat in my opinion.

It did cover some interesting themes, I love the idea of Astral projection and battling in the spirit world.

The cover of this book is 5 stars, but sadly the story did not keep up.

[Syre aka Lisa · Rating 5 out of 5]

I had to give this 5 stars. This is a book I first read in high school back in the 80’s. It has always stuck with me, but I had forgotten the name. I always remembered certain parts of the story and that awesome teddy bear cover. Took me years to find the name and author, and when I reread it, I got that same enjoyment I did back in school. Kinda like finding an old friend!

[Manda · Rating 1 out of 5]

Dare I say reading this was like staring at a wall? 😄

I wanted to like the book. But man, it was so dumb and it draaaagged. Thankfully it was short, and I suppose was entertaining in an implausible, B movie sort of way; yet I’m not entirely certain I didn’t just waste several hours of my life.

The cover however, is fantastic.

[Alexa · Rating 3 out of 5]

2.5/5 Half of this novel was great and then the 2nd half got weird (not in a good way). I also felt like the reasoning for the children being essentially held against their will was never quite clear. Money? That is too simple for a man who is supposedly as powerful as Kheim. Just seemed the story and background had some gaps.

[Jon Jon Jon · Rating 3 out of 5]

The writing felt pretty flat and all of the coolest parts of the book were breezy, set against longwinded sections of talking about the weird monk and his hold on the little Hare Krishna kids. Needed more puppets and stuffed animals.The final fight was fine, though I think it could have been cooler if they weren't just fighting using cats. Abrupt ending, and kind of pointless last chapter.

[Bob · Rating 4 out of 5]

When Eddie Benson's daughter, Renni becomes enthralled by an Oriental mystic's cult, he will go to any lengths to rescue her, even if he has to fight an out of body battle of the mind. Thought provoking and suspenseful. Recommended.

[✮💋adison💋✮ · Rating 5 out of 5]

such an amazing read!! i know it usually takes me a bit to read books, even ones i really enjoy, but this was one that i didn’t want to put down.
it was very fast paced and felt fast paced too, it was nice to be able to follow along without worrying about filler.

[Bob Box]

Read in 1981. New York times said a mixture of horror and occultism told with driving force. I kept coming back to Hallahan.