The Evil One

by J.N. Williamson

Sandy discovers that she possesses psychic powers and uses them to stop the series of murders committed by her senile cousin, Maggie Keeler

Genres: Horror

333 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1982

About the author

Gerald Neal Williamson (April 17, 1932 - December 8, 2005) wrote and edited horror stories under the name J. N. Williamson. He also wrote under the name Julian Shock.

Born in Indianapolis, IN he graduated from Shortridge High School. He studied journalism at Butler University. He published his first novel in 1979 and went on to publish more than 40 novels and 150 short stories. In 2003 he received a lifetime achievement award from the Horror Writers of America. He edited the critically acclaimed How to Write Tales of Horror, Fantasy & Science Fiction (1987) which covered the themes of such writing and cited the writings of such writers as Robert Bloch, Lee Prosser, Richard Matheson, Ray Bradbury, H. P. Lovecraft, August Derleth, William F. Nolan, and Stephen King. Many important writers in the genre contributed to the book. Williamson edited the popular anthology series, Masques. Some of his novels include The Ritual (1979), Playmates (1982), Noonspell (1991), The Haunt (1999), among others.

He was also a well known Sherlockian and received his investiture (The Illustrious Client) in the Baker Street Irregulars in 1950.

Source: Wikipedia

Reviews

[Craig · Rating 3 out of 5]

Back in the early '80s when Stephen King was new and setting the world on fire, the Leisure/Pinnacle/Kensington/Zebra groups were putting out horror novels as fast as they could get their presses to print. Most had die-cut, garish covers designed to attract attention in the drug-store and bus station spin-racks; many of them were very bad, some were pretty good, a few were excellent, and most were entertaining but flawed in one way or another. Williamson produced a lot of novels during this period, and The Evil One is okay, but I got the impression that it could have been a lot better if he could have afforded to spend more time on it. There are some good lines ("There are more basketball coaches in Indiana than keypress operators or geography teachers anyway."), and some interesting choices of words ("dolichocephalic" and "recondite" stuck out), but overall there's not much to make this one more memorable than the average. The cover is interesting in that it depicts a menacing and apparently demented ventriloquist's dummy, but there's no such creature or object mentioned in the text; someone in the art department must have decided it worked on The Twilight Zone and for R.L. Stine so they should go for it here.

[Andy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fun throw back to the days when horror ruled the paperback racks.

[[on hiatus, probably forever] The rockabilly werewolf from Mars · Rating 2 out of 5]

A rather forgettable book about an old woman who kills people via psychic powers. Unfortunately, this one lacks the unintentionally comedic aspects of the other Williamson novel that I read (Premonition) and has little to recommend about it.

[Kevin Fitzsimmons · Rating 3 out of 5]

Don't regret having read it, but I can't really recommend it.

[Amanda M. Lyons · Rating 1 out of 5]

Ouch, its been ages since I've had to give up a book in the first few pages. This one had horribly distracting narrative prose which made it difficult to follow what was going on.

[Stacy Simpson · Rating 1 out of 5]

This book sucks so bad I couldn't get past the first 30 pages if you're interested in reading it you can pick it up at the local thrift store

[Cyndi · Rating 4 out of 5]

A Good Scary Read!