What do you think?
Rate this book
Obelisk
Trapped in the hot, fetid darkness of an ancient Egyptian tomb, Steve Harrison was suddenly assaulted by bizarre and horrific images of a past he had never known. Even when he returned to New York, he found himself driven by strange cravings and erotic desires he couldn't explain; his girl friend suddenly feared for her life and that of her unborn child. Steve Harrison only had one chance to restore his deteriorating body and cleanse his diseased mind -- a final confrontation with the incredible forces of evil, this time in Central Park, this time in the shadow of the forbidding. . .
Obelisk.
Obelisk.
- GenresHorrorContemporary
392 pages, Mass Market Paperback
First published July 1, 1988
2 people are currently reading
154 people want to read
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews
September 8, 2024
When Steve Harrison enters a new found Egyptian tomb he takes much more with him than a simple grave robbing. Here you'll read the story of Menket, a powerful Egyptian priest. Will he rise through Steve? Things get murderous when Steve is flying back from Cairo to New York. He has a stop in London. Can the police stop his murder spree? What about Sara, his pregnant girlfriend. Will she ever find her true Steve again? Everything is set for the showdown at the Obelisk in Central Park. Really, a very entertaining horror story from the golden age of horror pulps and a quick read. Interesting background with the motifs from the Book of the Dead, reincarnation and some very sinister scenes. The cover is one of the best ever. The whole books reads like a Cannon movie from the 80s. Ehly is a talented author and does a marvelous job here. It took me quite a while to find this book. Will definitely read her other three novels. Highly recommended.
December 31, 2022
Obelisk is more splatstick than outright horror and makes for a quick, fun read. This starts off in Egypt, where one of the main characters, Steve Harrison, works on a dig with his old professor. Steve has some serious debts to a loan shark, who even managed to put the squeeze on him from NYC. Thankfully, the shark has a yen for Egyptian artifacts and hence Steve can pay off his debts with something from a new grave site they are about to start work on. Well, as you can probably imagine, poor Steve gets something like a curse from the tomb but only worse-- the spirit of a long dead Egyptian black magician-- and boy is the spirit hungry!
Although it starts in Cairo, most of the story takes place in NYC, when troubled Steve went back for a brief vacation, and to see his fiancé Sara, leaving a trail of dead a mutilated dogs and people. Things go from bad to worse (of course) as Steve struggles with the spirit while his body starts to decompose...
Ehly does a fine job with ancient Egyptian mythos here, albeit in a rather light hearted way. The foo in NYC is detailed and livid and a bit OTT to be sure. Ehly also drops in some Easter eggs here from Evil Eye in the form of a Madam and some of her call girls. We also have old Ronald Reagan (although never explicitly named) get his thing on in diapers with one of the aforementioned gals. Definitely worth a read if you can find a copy. This also has great cover art, with a double cover that reveals a rotting Pharaoh or something. 3.5 stars, rounding up!
Although it starts in Cairo, most of the story takes place in NYC, when troubled Steve went back for a brief vacation, and to see his fiancé Sara, leaving a trail of dead a mutilated dogs and people. Things go from bad to worse (of course) as Steve struggles with the spirit while his body starts to decompose...
Ehly does a fine job with ancient Egyptian mythos here, albeit in a rather light hearted way. The foo in NYC is detailed and livid and a bit OTT to be sure. Ehly also drops in some Easter eggs here from Evil Eye in the form of a Madam and some of her call girls. We also have old Ronald Reagan (although never explicitly named) get his thing on in diapers with one of the aforementioned gals. Definitely worth a read if you can find a copy. This also has great cover art, with a double cover that reveals a rotting Pharaoh or something. 3.5 stars, rounding up!
February 1, 2013
An ancient Egyptian priest lurks in Central Park in Obelisk (1988), "a novel of blinding terror" by Ehren M. Ehly. Published by Leisure Books, Obelisk is a pulp horror novel of the eighties, nasty, fast and pleasantly cheesy.
The story starts in Egypt, where a young American plots to rob a newly discovered tomb. Little does he know that the tomb belongs to Menket, a powerful magician. Menket's spirit possesses the American and takes his body on a ride across continents, dining on dogs and men on the way. After raping the American's girlfriend, Menket hides in Central Park. It's at the (actual) Egyptian obelisk in the park that the story finally plays out.
Alas, but it's an uneven story. The first half of the story is great; it's mostly told from the American's viewpoint as he gradually succumbs to Menket's spirit. After blacking out for hours, he wakes up with a taste of blood in his mouth and the ear of a dog in his pocket. What a hangover! Menket, it seems, requires bone marrow to sustain himself, which also happily provides the novel with some nice visceral moments.
Menket's rampage through Egypt, London and New York reaches its' high point in the middle of the novel, as he kills a rich collector of Egyptian artifacts. It's a fierce scene that gives a nice jolt to an otherwise pleasurable storytelling. Then the viewpoint shifts away from Menket, and the novel falls apart.
The second half concentrates on secondary characters, mostly Menket's victims. There's far too much detail and backstory for each, and as a result the story loses momentum. Some characters seem completely pointless, like a little kid who stumbles upon Menket in the park and doesn't even die, or an Egyptian diplomat who seems to have an inkling of what Menket actually is. Neither story seems to go anywhere. The finale is unsatisfying, almost an afterthought.
Obelisk could've been great. It has all the right ingredients of a pulp horror novel, especially the exotic Egyptian parts of the story are in the best pulp tradition. The American is not a very likeable main character, but his possession by Menket makes him sympathetic. However, Menket never seems to have any actual objectives, other than survival. His deeds are enjoyably nasty, but there's only so much you can do with decapitations or crushing and sucking of bones. The ending meanders out, the ideas of the novel long since spent. Ehly's writing works well throughout, and it's a pity that the plot doesn't hold up.
A special mention goes to the embossed two-part cover that opens up to reveal a skeletal mummy. Now that's something you don't see much anymore these days.
Read all my reviews at mikareadshorrorfiction.wordpress.com
The story starts in Egypt, where a young American plots to rob a newly discovered tomb. Little does he know that the tomb belongs to Menket, a powerful magician. Menket's spirit possesses the American and takes his body on a ride across continents, dining on dogs and men on the way. After raping the American's girlfriend, Menket hides in Central Park. It's at the (actual) Egyptian obelisk in the park that the story finally plays out.
Alas, but it's an uneven story. The first half of the story is great; it's mostly told from the American's viewpoint as he gradually succumbs to Menket's spirit. After blacking out for hours, he wakes up with a taste of blood in his mouth and the ear of a dog in his pocket. What a hangover! Menket, it seems, requires bone marrow to sustain himself, which also happily provides the novel with some nice visceral moments.
Menket's rampage through Egypt, London and New York reaches its' high point in the middle of the novel, as he kills a rich collector of Egyptian artifacts. It's a fierce scene that gives a nice jolt to an otherwise pleasurable storytelling. Then the viewpoint shifts away from Menket, and the novel falls apart.
The second half concentrates on secondary characters, mostly Menket's victims. There's far too much detail and backstory for each, and as a result the story loses momentum. Some characters seem completely pointless, like a little kid who stumbles upon Menket in the park and doesn't even die, or an Egyptian diplomat who seems to have an inkling of what Menket actually is. Neither story seems to go anywhere. The finale is unsatisfying, almost an afterthought.
Obelisk could've been great. It has all the right ingredients of a pulp horror novel, especially the exotic Egyptian parts of the story are in the best pulp tradition. The American is not a very likeable main character, but his possession by Menket makes him sympathetic. However, Menket never seems to have any actual objectives, other than survival. His deeds are enjoyably nasty, but there's only so much you can do with decapitations or crushing and sucking of bones. The ending meanders out, the ideas of the novel long since spent. Ehly's writing works well throughout, and it's a pity that the plot doesn't hold up.
A special mention goes to the embossed two-part cover that opens up to reveal a skeletal mummy. Now that's something you don't see much anymore these days.
Read all my reviews at mikareadshorrorfiction.wordpress.com
January 29, 2014
An American steals a bracelet from an Egyptian tomb and is possessed by the spirit of an Egyptian priest. The first half reads like a werewolf story - the thief blacks out and is only vaguely aware of the horrors that his body has committed.
The second half gets bogged down in elaborate back stories of minor characters. The home lives of both the mayor of New York and an Egyptian ambassador are explored with no particular reason. A call girl is killed (off page, mind you), and we're treated to the back story of her madam and her madam's assistant.
A little of this is good writing, but most of the book goes on like this, with most of the killings occurring completely off page. And it's not as if the book was going for a G rating. When there is an on page killing, it's all head crushing, genital ripping, and marrow slurping.
There's a bare skeleton of plot to support the murders and tepid backdrop: a Scotland Yard detective is tracking down the killer via his pregnant girlfriend, who had been brutally attacked and raped. Off page? You bet.
We get the eating habits and home life of half the police force of New York, but the limey gets in an ounce of action when he helps the girlfriend ditch her police protection to confront her possessed boyfriend.
Why does a detective make a pregnant women run through the streets of New York to face a violent serial killer, who has attacked her once already? So she can get over him and the detective can make his move. Yes, the detective (who's near retirement age) wants to hit it with a rape victim in a case he's working on and endangers her life. Classy.
More reviews at Trash Menace.
The second half gets bogged down in elaborate back stories of minor characters. The home lives of both the mayor of New York and an Egyptian ambassador are explored with no particular reason. A call girl is killed (off page, mind you), and we're treated to the back story of her madam and her madam's assistant.
A little of this is good writing, but most of the book goes on like this, with most of the killings occurring completely off page. And it's not as if the book was going for a G rating. When there is an on page killing, it's all head crushing, genital ripping, and marrow slurping.
There's a bare skeleton of plot to support the murders and tepid backdrop: a Scotland Yard detective is tracking down the killer via his pregnant girlfriend, who had been brutally attacked and raped. Off page? You bet.
We get the eating habits and home life of half the police force of New York, but the limey gets in an ounce of action when he helps the girlfriend ditch her police protection to confront her possessed boyfriend.
Why does a detective make a pregnant women run through the streets of New York to face a violent serial killer, who has attacked her once already? So she can get over him and the detective can make his move. Yes, the detective (who's near retirement age) wants to hit it with a rape victim in a case he's working on and endangers her life. Classy.
More reviews at Trash Menace.
October 13, 2025
The three stars are mainly for the scenario which is intriguing, the obvious research the author has put in, and the police side-characters who were fascinating. All in all, Obelisk is a book with an amazing set-up that does not stick the landing for a few key reasons.
Steve Harrison is our lead, a man stuck in debt who must rob a tomb to get an artifact for his debtor and be free to live with his pregnant partner in bliss. However, we don’t know that about Steve when he is robbing the tomb—in fact, we never really see Steve in the normal, nice guy version of him his partner seems to remember. And so, being told but not shown he’s great, we never really care that he’s got a truly horrific curse. Similarly, his partner Sara is seemingly charming, but her character is that she’s pregnant and sad about Steve being weird to her, which is not enough to hinge a story on.
Thus, we enter a myriad of side characters. Ian Potter is a retired Scotland Yard detective with a bad heart trailing Steve’s possessed destruction. He’s at odds with tough-as-nails Lieutenant O’Reilly in New York trying to stop Steve. Here’s Old Bleeder the foul-mouthed drunk who sees too much. Here’s Dulcie the streetwalker who’s a prissy bitch but may be in over her head when she comes across Steve’s possessed form. Here’s Caldwell the debtor, who has a private mob and is rebuilding the Egyptian tomb of Nefrenofret, the beloved one of the Egyptian dark priest possessing Steve—and Caldwell even has her mummy, dressed up and decked out like a sleeping sex doll. Here’s Menket the dark priest, bringing himself back to life through horrific acts of cannibalism and ritualized Egyptian power.
There are three main problems. One: we do not care about Steve at all, so his tragedy is nonexistent and shallow. We feel for Sara, but only as much as we’d feel for a name in a newspaper. Two: all of the side-characters I mentioned are vignettes without really tying together. I fully expected Caldwell to be a huge force, but he’s dealt with quickly to demonstrate the raw power of Menket—who then just sort of sticks around for a while, going after the transient and the callgirl. The Scotland Yard gent gets to be our secondary leading man, at the price of the New York police who were teaming up with the Egyptian Embassy and the Museum that Steve and Sara worked at which now goes completely nowhere after hundreds of pages of buildup. Three: the end is too abrupt.
I won’t spoil anything, but it all crescendoes to a climactic ritual. The ritual is talked about for almost three hundred and fifty pages. Everyone is supposed to be converging on it. We’ve spent two hundred pages in the location getting ready, with sometimes repetitive vignette kills to build up and up and up and up and the ritual itself after all this doesn’t include half the cast and is about two pages long then the end.
I think the book would be greatly improved by taking out some of the vignette side-characters, putting more time at the start to the question of IS Steve going crazy before revealing that oh god no Menket is real, and taking out a not gratuitous but still completely completely completely unnecessary scene and subplot of sexual assault.
Good concept but not executed in a way I think capitalizes on the potential as best it could.
Steve Harrison is our lead, a man stuck in debt who must rob a tomb to get an artifact for his debtor and be free to live with his pregnant partner in bliss. However, we don’t know that about Steve when he is robbing the tomb—in fact, we never really see Steve in the normal, nice guy version of him his partner seems to remember. And so, being told but not shown he’s great, we never really care that he’s got a truly horrific curse. Similarly, his partner Sara is seemingly charming, but her character is that she’s pregnant and sad about Steve being weird to her, which is not enough to hinge a story on.
Thus, we enter a myriad of side characters. Ian Potter is a retired Scotland Yard detective with a bad heart trailing Steve’s possessed destruction. He’s at odds with tough-as-nails Lieutenant O’Reilly in New York trying to stop Steve. Here’s Old Bleeder the foul-mouthed drunk who sees too much. Here’s Dulcie the streetwalker who’s a prissy bitch but may be in over her head when she comes across Steve’s possessed form. Here’s Caldwell the debtor, who has a private mob and is rebuilding the Egyptian tomb of Nefrenofret, the beloved one of the Egyptian dark priest possessing Steve—and Caldwell even has her mummy, dressed up and decked out like a sleeping sex doll. Here’s Menket the dark priest, bringing himself back to life through horrific acts of cannibalism and ritualized Egyptian power.
There are three main problems. One: we do not care about Steve at all, so his tragedy is nonexistent and shallow. We feel for Sara, but only as much as we’d feel for a name in a newspaper. Two: all of the side-characters I mentioned are vignettes without really tying together. I fully expected Caldwell to be a huge force, but he’s dealt with quickly to demonstrate the raw power of Menket—who then just sort of sticks around for a while, going after the transient and the callgirl. The Scotland Yard gent gets to be our secondary leading man, at the price of the New York police who were teaming up with the Egyptian Embassy and the Museum that Steve and Sara worked at which now goes completely nowhere after hundreds of pages of buildup. Three: the end is too abrupt.
I won’t spoil anything, but it all crescendoes to a climactic ritual. The ritual is talked about for almost three hundred and fifty pages. Everyone is supposed to be converging on it. We’ve spent two hundred pages in the location getting ready, with sometimes repetitive vignette kills to build up and up and up and up and the ritual itself after all this doesn’t include half the cast and is about two pages long then the end.
I think the book would be greatly improved by taking out some of the vignette side-characters, putting more time at the start to the question of IS Steve going crazy before revealing that oh god no Menket is real, and taking out a not gratuitous but still completely completely completely unnecessary scene and subplot of sexual assault.
Good concept but not executed in a way I think capitalizes on the potential as best it could.
January 24, 2021
Probably 3.5 stars. A quick read as the story flows. Some scenes don't really contribute much unless they were meant as red herrings. The end was a tad rushed too. Nevertheless this is a perfect book for a rainy day and a pot of tea.
June 27, 2011
...this is pretty cool book. This crook gets possessed by a mummy, and suddenly he's killing and eating every dog and tard he can get his hands on. He also tears a guy's head off and carries it all over the city, burns down a couple of buildings right in the middle of Manhattan, rapes a chick, vandalizes the museum and the zoo, stabs a cop, chows down on some brains, and, at a slightly lower point in his little rampage, spends several days hiding in a ditch.
Full review here:
http://www.mrsatanism.com/books/obelisk.htm
Full review here:
http://www.mrsatanism.com/books/obelisk.htm
Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews