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The Unholy
In a quiet English village a train derails and a brutally murdered body is discovered.
- GenresHorror
224 pages, Paperback
First published June 1, 1987
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Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews
October 27, 2022
A malevolent spirit seems to spread in the quiet English village of Batforth. Where does it come from and why does Jon Hammond, the protagonist and newspaper man, often hear some strange Nazi songs in his mind? Why did the train from London get off the rails and what is in the mysterious box an occultist desperately tries to find? Intriguing story with some nasty evil, sinister scenes and possession. A real chiller and blast from the past. You won't be disappointed with this horror tale that reads like a movie. Really recommended!
November 11, 2022
This is really a 3.5 star rating, but I could not bring myself to round it up. The Unholy is a solid, over-the-top 80s horror novel and it reminded me of Herbert, at least in his early career. In fact, Anderson refers to the spear that stabbed Jesus here as a relic with power, and Herbert wrote a novel with that as a centerpiece The Spear.
From the cover, which features a skull with Nazi swastikas in the eye holes, you know this will have something to do with Nazis, and, probably something following the well worn path in horror that explores the Nazi's fascination with the occult. I was trying to think of all the ways Nazis feature in horror stories, especially in the 80s, and came up with a long list. The Keep, Herbert's The Spear, McCammon's Nazi sub story, etc., and consider all the movies as well!
Anyway, the main protagonist here is Jon Hammond, the manager/editor etc., of a small newspaper in a small town in England. He has a few assistants, but the paper is almost a one man show. On his way back from France, the train he is on crashes just outside of his destination, and while he is ok, strange things start happening in the town of Batforth. What caused the crash? The trail of macabre murders and such that starts sweeping the town definitely reminded me of Herbert, who seemed to love to introduce characters only to off them in heinous ways. This also has that trashy 80s feel, with lots of sex, blood and outre happenings. Fun novel to be sure, and while more than a little cliché (oh my, that ending!), Anderson paced the story nicely. If you can find it, it is worth a read!
From the cover, which features a skull with Nazi swastikas in the eye holes, you know this will have something to do with Nazis, and, probably something following the well worn path in horror that explores the Nazi's fascination with the occult. I was trying to think of all the ways Nazis feature in horror stories, especially in the 80s, and came up with a long list. The Keep, Herbert's The Spear, McCammon's Nazi sub story, etc., and consider all the movies as well!
Anyway, the main protagonist here is Jon Hammond, the manager/editor etc., of a small newspaper in a small town in England. He has a few assistants, but the paper is almost a one man show. On his way back from France, the train he is on crashes just outside of his destination, and while he is ok, strange things start happening in the town of Batforth. What caused the crash? The trail of macabre murders and such that starts sweeping the town definitely reminded me of Herbert, who seemed to love to introduce characters only to off them in heinous ways. This also has that trashy 80s feel, with lots of sex, blood and outre happenings. Fun novel to be sure, and while more than a little cliché (oh my, that ending!), Anderson paced the story nicely. If you can find it, it is worth a read!
August 11, 2019
This book is what a pulp horror book from the 80's should be like. Unbelievable in every way. Crazy situations. Thin, yet likable characters. An all around good time.
A train wreck in the village of Batforth, England has released an unholy evil on to the people. A newsman is on the train and sees things that are not there. He survives the crash and tries to find out what's going on before everyone in town is dead. He's joined by his girlfriend and a psychic friend from the past. What they find is an unimaginable horror.
This book is a nice quick and fun read. The violence is not over the top, which works with the story better that an out an out gore fest. Things work themselves out without being pushed to a quick ending. I have to say I was pleasantly surprised by this novel. I thought it would be another in a string of generic horror. Very recommended.
A train wreck in the village of Batforth, England has released an unholy evil on to the people. A newsman is on the train and sees things that are not there. He survives the crash and tries to find out what's going on before everyone in town is dead. He's joined by his girlfriend and a psychic friend from the past. What they find is an unimaginable horror.
This book is a nice quick and fun read. The violence is not over the top, which works with the story better that an out an out gore fest. Things work themselves out without being pushed to a quick ending. I have to say I was pleasantly surprised by this novel. I thought it would be another in a string of generic horror. Very recommended.
April 18, 2009
My mom used to advise me that if I had nothing good to say, it’s best not to say anything at all......
......Considering she also used to tell me to watch my filthy fucking mouth, I guess I'll review The Unholy anyway.
This book thoroughly sucked, which is unfortunate, since the cover is totally awesome. "How awesome?" you might wisely ask. Well, for starters, the title is pretty damn cool to being with, and is even more enchanting displayed gloriously in one-inch-tall, red lettering in brilliant contrast with the flat black background. Then there’s Hitler’s Skull!!, replete with a trickle of blood coming from a bullet wound above the vacant left eye socket. Lastly, the name of the author, Michael Falconer Anderson, doesn’t ring a bell at all, some totally unknown schlub whose work was egregiously overlooked by everyone..... except some desperate sap at St. Martin’s Press, hoping to strike paydirt with a dark horse bestseller, lest he be mercilessly sacked and forced back into his unfulfilling career in gay porn. Basically, this had all the cheesy elements usually attributed to one of the Zebra horror books I was so fond of in my teens, and seeing as neither the length of my tallywhacker or my level of maturity has increased much since, I figured for 50 cents I was making a wise investment. Again, I was wrong.
I know that you’re absolutely dying to hear what sort of scintillating saga lurks beneath this appealing cover, especially since it doesn't appear anyone has bothered to review (or even read) this gem yet; you’re probably on the edge of your chair, white-knuckled, breathing heavily and frothing at the mouth like a rabid beast, begging for me to unfurl how my man 'M-Falc' unfurls a yarn about the apparently unholy skull of Hitler. Maybe you’re beginning to sweat a little, in eager anticipation of what may be the best plot ever contrived for a story but foolishly neglected by the masses. You’re in luck today, pal, because that’s exactly what I’m about to do.
Here it is: a flimsy and ridiculous character based on Aleister Crowley comes into possession of Hitler’s skull, recently smuggled from behind the Iron Curtain, which he hopes to use for his own unspeakable ends. Unable to control the powers emanating from the skull, the train he is on derails in a small town called Batforth (in a fictional country called England) and the maleficent energy of the skull is unloosed, running roughshod over the poor inhabitants. This usually entails a disembodied spirit briefly materializing amidst some ‘mist’ and savagely tearing some nincompoop asunder, or merely copping a creepy, inappropriate feel when harassing the women-folk. Luckily for Batforth, the town happens to be the residence of Jon Hammond, a reporter for the local newspaper, and the ultimately competent male. Hammond, who happened to be on the ill-fated train, culls his investigative resources and limitless physical prowess to combat the spreading menace.
And that’s about it. Total trash. Pointless, and with absolutely no social importance. Poorly written (in the Queen’s English, no less) and lamely unimaginative, The Unholy is little more than the poor man’s version of “The Fog”. As if the plot wasn’t pathetic enough, the resolution to the conflict is absolutely asinine and must be read to be believed, there’s no way you’re going to take my mere word for it should I bother describing it. I’m not the type of persuasive speaker or Alpha male that could possibly hope to convince you…but Jon Hammond is. Yes, Jon Hammond is positively the man who could sell you on his master plan to conquer this unchecked reign of terror, at least if you’re a character penned by M-Falc. In Anderson’s silly little world on display here, here’s how it works:
1) Any male character that weighs over 'fourteen stones' and is cut from solid muscle goes around kicking ass
2) Any dude with less physical development and dabbles in spells, invocations, infidelity, or fishing gets their ass handed to them on a platter
3) All women act as little more than reinforcement of Hammond’s masculinity and virility (be it his girlfriend/nurse Tanya, his floozy secretary Jemma, or bartendress/cougar/ex-flame Bunty) or are the unfortunate victims of an unexpected fingering by a phantasm.
Couple all this idiocy with the fact that the profanity is meaninglessly edited (such as ‘what the f… is this garbage I’m reading?’) and you’ve got a certified loser.
I’m still giving this feeble book two stars, despite the complaints listed above. Half a star is being awarded because Anderson had the balls to get something so pedestrian and ridiculous published. The other star and a half are for the cover, which, despite the lacking contents of the books, remains completely badass.
......Considering she also used to tell me to watch my filthy fucking mouth, I guess I'll review The Unholy anyway.
This book thoroughly sucked, which is unfortunate, since the cover is totally awesome. "How awesome?" you might wisely ask. Well, for starters, the title is pretty damn cool to being with, and is even more enchanting displayed gloriously in one-inch-tall, red lettering in brilliant contrast with the flat black background. Then there’s Hitler’s Skull!!, replete with a trickle of blood coming from a bullet wound above the vacant left eye socket. Lastly, the name of the author, Michael Falconer Anderson, doesn’t ring a bell at all, some totally unknown schlub whose work was egregiously overlooked by everyone..... except some desperate sap at St. Martin’s Press, hoping to strike paydirt with a dark horse bestseller, lest he be mercilessly sacked and forced back into his unfulfilling career in gay porn. Basically, this had all the cheesy elements usually attributed to one of the Zebra horror books I was so fond of in my teens, and seeing as neither the length of my tallywhacker or my level of maturity has increased much since, I figured for 50 cents I was making a wise investment. Again, I was wrong.
I know that you’re absolutely dying to hear what sort of scintillating saga lurks beneath this appealing cover, especially since it doesn't appear anyone has bothered to review (or even read) this gem yet; you’re probably on the edge of your chair, white-knuckled, breathing heavily and frothing at the mouth like a rabid beast, begging for me to unfurl how my man 'M-Falc' unfurls a yarn about the apparently unholy skull of Hitler. Maybe you’re beginning to sweat a little, in eager anticipation of what may be the best plot ever contrived for a story but foolishly neglected by the masses. You’re in luck today, pal, because that’s exactly what I’m about to do.
Here it is: a flimsy and ridiculous character based on Aleister Crowley comes into possession of Hitler’s skull, recently smuggled from behind the Iron Curtain, which he hopes to use for his own unspeakable ends. Unable to control the powers emanating from the skull, the train he is on derails in a small town called Batforth (in a fictional country called England) and the maleficent energy of the skull is unloosed, running roughshod over the poor inhabitants. This usually entails a disembodied spirit briefly materializing amidst some ‘mist’ and savagely tearing some nincompoop asunder, or merely copping a creepy, inappropriate feel when harassing the women-folk. Luckily for Batforth, the town happens to be the residence of Jon Hammond, a reporter for the local newspaper, and the ultimately competent male. Hammond, who happened to be on the ill-fated train, culls his investigative resources and limitless physical prowess to combat the spreading menace.
And that’s about it. Total trash. Pointless, and with absolutely no social importance. Poorly written (in the Queen’s English, no less) and lamely unimaginative, The Unholy is little more than the poor man’s version of “The Fog”. As if the plot wasn’t pathetic enough, the resolution to the conflict is absolutely asinine and must be read to be believed, there’s no way you’re going to take my mere word for it should I bother describing it. I’m not the type of persuasive speaker or Alpha male that could possibly hope to convince you…but Jon Hammond is. Yes, Jon Hammond is positively the man who could sell you on his master plan to conquer this unchecked reign of terror, at least if you’re a character penned by M-Falc. In Anderson’s silly little world on display here, here’s how it works:
1) Any male character that weighs over 'fourteen stones' and is cut from solid muscle goes around kicking ass
2) Any dude with less physical development and dabbles in spells, invocations, infidelity, or fishing gets their ass handed to them on a platter
3) All women act as little more than reinforcement of Hammond’s masculinity and virility (be it his girlfriend/nurse Tanya, his floozy secretary Jemma, or bartendress/cougar/ex-flame Bunty) or are the unfortunate victims of an unexpected fingering by a phantasm.
Couple all this idiocy with the fact that the profanity is meaninglessly edited (such as ‘what the f… is this garbage I’m reading?’) and you’ve got a certified loser.
I’m still giving this feeble book two stars, despite the complaints listed above. Half a star is being awarded because Anderson had the balls to get something so pedestrian and ridiculous published. The other star and a half are for the cover, which, despite the lacking contents of the books, remains completely badass.
October 1, 2020
A tall man with a padlocked box, a train wreck and multiple murders by phantoms, some in Nazi uniforms keeps the pages turning to the exciting climax in this interesting supernatural novel. Highly recommended
December 15, 2025
Violent death and mindless terror stalked the streets. The hooligan on the train died screaming as he was torn limb from limb, while a police sergeant ploughed his car into a crowd of children - children who did not exist and a nurse felt something embrace her and bend its filthy lips towards her. When newspaper editor Jon Hammond saw the corpses mounting a terror gripped his town, he knew he must find the source of the evil. For the magnet of horror lay hidden somewhere in the peaceful countryside, reaching out tendrils of cold evil, stalking the land for screams, souls and blood.
Opening with incidents on a train that lead to a spectacular crash, I went into this knowing very little and, luckily, had the cover which didn’t show symbols that spoiled the plot. As it is, the village of Batforth quickly succumbs to something supernatural, with ghostly apparitions in fields and houses, killing inhabitants and driving others mad and watching the cumulative effect is good fun. Once you realise what the cause of it is – no, I won’t spoil it – a lot of it becomes obvious but then it builds to a decently grim climax and a nice final twist. First published in 1987, this is absolutely of its time but good fun, even if Falconer does over-write at times, but the characters are clearly defined (especially Preece, an enigmatic occultist), the female characters have an edge of toughness and the village is a nicely used location. With a few gore sequences, a little bit of suspense and some nice imagery, this doesn’t do a bad job at all and if you’re a fan of paperback horrors from the 80s, you could do worse. I’d recommend it.
Opening with incidents on a train that lead to a spectacular crash, I went into this knowing very little and, luckily, had the cover which didn’t show symbols that spoiled the plot. As it is, the village of Batforth quickly succumbs to something supernatural, with ghostly apparitions in fields and houses, killing inhabitants and driving others mad and watching the cumulative effect is good fun. Once you realise what the cause of it is – no, I won’t spoil it – a lot of it becomes obvious but then it builds to a decently grim climax and a nice final twist. First published in 1987, this is absolutely of its time but good fun, even if Falconer does over-write at times, but the characters are clearly defined (especially Preece, an enigmatic occultist), the female characters have an edge of toughness and the village is a nicely used location. With a few gore sequences, a little bit of suspense and some nice imagery, this doesn’t do a bad job at all and if you’re a fan of paperback horrors from the 80s, you could do worse. I’d recommend it.
April 23, 2019
For the last couple of years, I've participated in the Popsugar Reading Challenge, which collects various prompts for choosing books and challenges you to read a book for each prompt. I don't usually use it as a reading guide so much as a way for me to classify the books I read in a given year, but one of the prompts for this year -- read two books with the same title -- prompted me to read this book. I saw it and Paul Stuart Kemp's book for sale from the same online seller, and I bought them both just to check off this challenge.
Going in to the book, I didn't expect it to be that great, and I wasn't disappointed. Anderson's writing is fine -- it's serviceable, and flows smoothly enough -- but his characters are cliches and the plot is a bit hokey. The cover may give you an idea of what's going to happen in the big reveal, but I'll save you the time and tell you that it's Adolf Hitler's skull that's causing all the trouble in the book.
There's not much else to say about the book, since everything that happens in the book leads up to that reveal, and it's laughable in the first place. It's brief, and you won't struggle with getting through it, but you might not find it to be the best use of your time by the time you get to the end of it. It's not even worthy of being mentioned in Paperbacks from Hell, which should tell you something.
Going in to the book, I didn't expect it to be that great, and I wasn't disappointed. Anderson's writing is fine -- it's serviceable, and flows smoothly enough -- but his characters are cliches and the plot is a bit hokey. The cover may give you an idea of what's going to happen in the big reveal, but I'll save you the time and tell you that it's Adolf Hitler's skull that's causing all the trouble in the book.
There's not much else to say about the book, since everything that happens in the book leads up to that reveal, and it's laughable in the first place. It's brief, and you won't struggle with getting through it, but you might not find it to be the best use of your time by the time you get to the end of it. It's not even worthy of being mentioned in Paperbacks from Hell, which should tell you something.
September 2, 2014
I picked up a copy of this book at the local Goodwill for a dollar. I was taken in by the cover art and the dust jacket blurb. I am an Anglophile and always a sucker for novels set in Old Blighty. This novel started out with an interesting sequence of events but soon fell into the routine horror story happenings. The characters were very thinly sketched, tending towards types rather than personalities. Still, you keep on reading until you discover what is in the box and then to see what the protagonist and his friends do about it. I would recommend this to genre fans and to Anglophiles who aren't overly concerned with high literary efforts.
February 3, 2021
One of the best books I’ve ever read. It’s well written in a style and language that’s easy to follow and relate to, it’s griping throughout and very descriptive almost like watching a film.
November 26, 2024
What can you say?
Hitler’s skull controls a legion of Nazi zombie/ ghosts in an assault on a small northern English town
Hitler’s skull controls a legion of Nazi zombie/ ghosts in an assault on a small northern English town
January 22, 2012
A train wreck in a small English village leads to a series of gruesome murders. Newspaper reporter Jon Hammond is investigating the murders as well as horrific visions that he and others are experiencing. These murders and visions have unleashed a supernatural force which Jon Hammond must ultimately battle in the end. I give this story an A+!
May 31, 2019
This was a hell of a lot better than Blood Rite by the same author. Still dumb, but fun.
Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews