Blackbird

by Dorothy McMillan

Genres: Horror

351 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published January 7, 1986

About the author

Dorothy McMillan (1943 - 2021) was an Honorary Research Fellow in English Literature at the University of Glasgow. She published widely on women's writing. She was Secretary, then President and Honorary Fellow of the Association for Scottish Literary Studies.

Reviews

[Phil · Rating 3 out of 5]

Really ⭐⭐1/2 but I will round up for the killer cover art. Decent premise for an 80s horror novel-- a young woman (Pearl) bioengineers a deadly bacteria and via her 'experiments' seeks to right all the wrongs life has tossed her way. The opening chapter is killer; Pearl crashes a wedding of her ex-fiancé and spikes the food with her bacteria and then hangs outside the chapel as the wedding guests puke their lives away on the front lawn. Unfortunately, the rest of the novel drags to its no-surprise denouement.

Blackbird features Pearl as the antagonist and Elliot, a police inspector for California, and reads largely as a police procedural. At first, no one knows what caused the wedding massacre and it seems more like an issue for public health authorities, but eventually Elliot's boss begins to suspect a criminal intent; when another of Pearl's experiments occurs, there is no longer any doubts...

I did like Pearl and she made a killer antagonist; raised to be perfect in every way, she takes any slight very seriously indeed! Her mother, suffering from several strokes and unable to talk, becomes Pearl's confessor and she gleefully relates her escapades to her, knowing that she cannot tell anyone or do anything about it. Elliot fits squarely into the jaded cop trope; coming off a serious injury via a shotgun, he starts the novel still on medical leave and contemplating retirement, but gets dragged into the case. McMillan spends quite some time in the heads of her main characters and with Pearl, it leave an icky feeling! Overall, a decent read if you can find it, but not a hidden gem of the 80s horror boom (except for the killer cover art).

[Aaron · Rating 5 out of 5]

While it does get repetitive and there are unnecessary character story lines, the sheer gut twisting terror McMillan creates is a wonder. Just the first chapter alone is the greatest opening scene of any horror novel I have read and the fear ramps up from there.