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New Moon
The West Side Butcher case is driving Detective-Sergeant Len Malecke crazy. He can't figure out what ties the victims together, other than they are all young, all female, and all brutally murdered—partially dismembered, organs missing. The killer must be a madman—and Len Malecke's very good at catching madmen.
The West Side Butcher is not mad. An immortal, evil magician, he has been accidentally freed from his hundred-year entombment. The murders are sacrifices to his dark gods, who in return give him wealth, power, and eternal life.
The West Side Butcher is in love with Len Malecke's ex-wife. Will she be his next sacrifice—or his chosen companion through eternity?
The West Side Butcher is not mad. An immortal, evil magician, he has been accidentally freed from his hundred-year entombment. The murders are sacrifices to his dark gods, who in return give him wealth, power, and eternal life.
The West Side Butcher is in love with Len Malecke's ex-wife. Will she be his next sacrifice—or his chosen companion through eternity?
- GenresHorror
320 pages, Mass Market Paperback
First published October 1, 1987
38 people want to read
About the author
William Relling Jr.
26 books1 followerWilliam Edward Relling Jr. (March 15, 1954 – January 22, 2004) was a St. Louis-born horror/mystery writer. He graduated from Lutheran High School North in 1971. He was a member of the Colin Sphinctor Band and in 1978 moved to Los Angeles with the band. When the band broke up, Relling chose to stay in Los Angeles, where he continued writing. Fellow writer Gary A. Braunbeck wrote of Relling's death by suicide in his 2010 book To Each Their Darkness.
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
March 2, 2025
Get a load of these character names: King, Straub, Barker, Matheson, Romero, Leiber, Herbert, Beaumont, Levin, Campbell, Woolrich, Ellison… you get the idea. It got to the point where even when I encountered a name that wasn’t a famous horror (or horror-adjacent) writer I’d think, “Hmm… is McCarron supposed to be McCammon? Is Burgess meant to be a nod to Anthony Burgess of A Clockwork Orange fame, or is that one just a coincidence? What about Crawford? Is that 19th century ghost story scribe F. Marion Crawford or no?”
Very distracting to say the least. I couldn’t help picturing the authors instead of the characters as described — especially since they were usually referred to by their last names — or else I found myself daydreaming about those authors’ books as opposed to focusing on this one. Why would Relling Jr. want to constantly remind the reader of other, better writers they could be reading?
I thought I’d be able to move past all that, as otherwise the story was decent pulp trash featuring an immortal evil sorcerer/serial killer attempting to summon the old gods (which were given entirely original names like Ctha-lu and Azag-Thoth) and whatnot, with a detective trying to track him down, but I cringed every time I came across another shoutout, and was annoyed way more than I was entertained.
Still, I can’t give it one star based solely on distracting names, so I’ll go with two so I don’t seem like a petty psycho.
ETA: I had a similar issue with Nathanael West’s The Day of the Locust, where one of the main characters is named Homer Simpson. Made it hard to take the book seriously when I’m imagining everything as sort of grey and film noir-ish, and there’s a bumbling yellow cartoon character in the middle of it all. Sometimes I can’t control my own brain. But I tried not to hold that against the novel considering it was written half a century before The Simpsons came out.
Very distracting to say the least. I couldn’t help picturing the authors instead of the characters as described — especially since they were usually referred to by their last names — or else I found myself daydreaming about those authors’ books as opposed to focusing on this one. Why would Relling Jr. want to constantly remind the reader of other, better writers they could be reading?
I thought I’d be able to move past all that, as otherwise the story was decent pulp trash featuring an immortal evil sorcerer/serial killer attempting to summon the old gods (which were given entirely original names like Ctha-lu and Azag-Thoth) and whatnot, with a detective trying to track him down, but I cringed every time I came across another shoutout, and was annoyed way more than I was entertained.
Still, I can’t give it one star based solely on distracting names, so I’ll go with two so I don’t seem like a petty psycho.
ETA: I had a similar issue with Nathanael West’s The Day of the Locust, where one of the main characters is named Homer Simpson. Made it hard to take the book seriously when I’m imagining everything as sort of grey and film noir-ish, and there’s a bumbling yellow cartoon character in the middle of it all. Sometimes I can’t control my own brain. But I tried not to hold that against the novel considering it was written half a century before The Simpsons came out.
May 11, 2022
Every year I seem to come across one or two books, that, in essence, aren’t very good, but I still somehow end up enjoying.
New Moon is one of those.
This one is far from perfect. In fact, a lot of it is rather kind of dumb, with little explanation for why/how things happen, with thin characters that are unlikable and pretty dense, with a plot that goes from plodding to fast paced, and then back to plodding, and with a conclusion that ends up feeling incredibly rushed.
And yet, for one reason or another, I found myself unable to put New Moon down. Maybe it’s because it doesn’t ever try to be high literature. Like Laymon, the book is trashy, but it’s incredibly readable and simple (and, thankfully, never delves into Laymon’s disgusting predilection for pedophilia).
I also kinda sorta enjoyed Relling’s mashup of horror tropes. Of course this one never felt original, but at least an attempt was made, and when it works, it works.
I can’t really recommend this book because I can honestly admit it’s not very good, but if you go in with low expectations, it’s not that terrible.
New Moon is one of those.
This one is far from perfect. In fact, a lot of it is rather kind of dumb, with little explanation for why/how things happen, with thin characters that are unlikable and pretty dense, with a plot that goes from plodding to fast paced, and then back to plodding, and with a conclusion that ends up feeling incredibly rushed.
And yet, for one reason or another, I found myself unable to put New Moon down. Maybe it’s because it doesn’t ever try to be high literature. Like Laymon, the book is trashy, but it’s incredibly readable and simple (and, thankfully, never delves into Laymon’s disgusting predilection for pedophilia).
I also kinda sorta enjoyed Relling’s mashup of horror tropes. Of course this one never felt original, but at least an attempt was made, and when it works, it works.
I can’t really recommend this book because I can honestly admit it’s not very good, but if you go in with low expectations, it’s not that terrible.
February 18, 2024
The old school cover looks pretty interesting. But what about the story inside? You'll have a mass murderer, some worshippers of the old gods (you know the bunch of them when you've read Lovecraft), a woman falling in love with a psychiatrist, her former husband trying to solve the case of murdered women mostly. But who is the murderer? What's his story? The author makes strong references to Dracula with his story... does everything make sense? Well, it is quite intriguing like a good old horror flic from the 80s. Like the motifs and ingredients. Absolutely enjoyed this pulp horror gem and can highly recommend this page turner.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews