The Hour of the Oxrun Dead

Oxrun Station #1

by Charles L. Grant

WELCOME TO OXRUN STATION Oxrun Station could be a spooky place, especially out by the Windsors', right next to the graveyard. At night Natalie heard eerie sounds out in the fog, among the tombstones, unnatural sounds made by unearthly things. Natalie's husband had been born in Oxrun Station. He loved the town, and served it well—and in return it killed him. Ben's death had left Natalie isolated in a strange town she could not call her own. How strange and how deadly Oxrun Station could be, Natalie Windsor was about to learn. Once each year an ancient ritual was recreated, an ancient pact reinvoked—and Natalie Windsor was this year's sacrifice.

Genres: Horror, Fiction, Fantasy, Gothic, Supernatural, Dark Fantasy

219 pages, Kindle Edition

First published October 1, 1977

About the author

Charles Lewis Grant was a novelist and short story writer specializing in what he called "dark fantasy" and "quiet horror." He also wrote under the pseudonyms of Geoffrey Marsh, Lionel Fenn, Simon Lake, Felicia Andrews, and Deborah Lewis.

Grant won a World Fantasy Award for his novella collection Nightmare Seasons, a Nebula Award in 1976 for his short story "A Crowd of Shadows", and another Nebula Award in 1978 for his novella "A Glow of Candles, a Unicorn's Eye," the latter telling of an actor's dilemma in a post-literate future. Grant also edited the award winning Shadows anthology, running eleven volumes from 1978-1991. Contributors include Stephen King, Ramsey Campbell, R.A. Lafferty, Avram Davidson, and Steve Rasnic and Melanie Tem. Grant was a former Executive Secretary and Eastern Regional Director of the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America and president of the Horror Writers Association.

Reviews

[Kimberly · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is the first in a series of books set in the fictional town of Oxrun Station. If you are looking for splatter punk, or excessive gore, this is NOT that type of horror. Charles Grant has an incredible style that emphasizes the building of oppressive atmosphere, and developing strong characterization. I will admit that the "climax" was rather brief in relation to the build-up; but I felt that this was perfect for the type of tale that this novel set forth. The mounting dread was almost tangible in places, and made this story--for me--one that I read in a single day. I simply did not want to separate myself from the characters until their journey was done. In my opinion, a great example of "classic" horror from one of the true masters of the craft.

[Terry · Rating 3 out of 5]

Really maybe a little generous with three stars for my rating here. I was expecting more than I got out of this one, especially with the slow progression. I suspect my stars are for the nostalgia of the 80’s horror in general. Very hopeful that the next book will be better. Glad for the experience at least (and a fun buddy read as well!).

[Jordan West · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5; some aspects of the novel are thoroughly dated, and the ending is abrupt even by Grant's standards, but still well worth reading for the wonderfully eerie and understated atmosphere, which is perhaps comparable in tone and effectiveness to a Val Lewton film.

[Christopher Fulbright · Rating 4 out of 5]

THE HOUR OF THE OXRUN DEAD is an intriguing read, the first book in what would become an ongoing, disconnected series of books set in the fictional town of Oxrun Station. It is very subtle in its horror, with some gripping suspense and main characters you can like.

As with all of Charles Grant's gothic horror, the prose weaves a spell of almost surreal gloom. In a few places, in an attempt to weave that spell, the prose gets awkward, with strange analogies that make you stop and have to think about them. That said, this is a minor gripe, as the book is very well written overall. In re-reading this book after 20-something years, it was much more readable as an adult than I found it as a teen. In fact, I eagerly read as many pages as time allowed in each sitting, and forged ahead to the end with a driving need to know what would happen.

A previous reviewer complained that the book needed some "80s decadence" to place it more firmly in its time. I have to disagree. The book was written in the mid to late 70s. As such, it is very much on par with other books of its time. Though it came almost a decade years later, I found myself thinking it was similar in some ways to Ira Levin's ROSEMARY'S BABY, leaning on the occult mystery, strange hinted-at conspiracies, and suspense to drive the story ahead. The 70s were full of novels that attempted to re-capture that creepy sense of occult horror Levin achieved, and this (intentionally or unintentionally) was one of them.

My only real gripe with the book was that I felt the conclusion was too brief. All of the elements didn't seem to come completely together and adequately explain, to my mind anyway, all that was going on in the town. Granted, not everything *has* to be explained in detail, so it wasn't a deal killer, just a personal feeling when I came to the end. I still really liked this book a lot, and enjoyed reading it so much I'd recommend it without hesitation to anyone with an interest in horror of the "creeping suspense" variety, in that late-1960s and 1970s style.

Charles Grant deserves to be remembered for his work in the genre, not only as an author, but as an editor. Other books by Grant that I'd recommend include THE PET, and his short story collection TALES FROM THE NIGHTSIDE. I also highly recommend the SHADOWS series, which he edited from the late 1970s through the 1980s.

[Peter · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting idea and great cover. When starting with the book suspense slowly built up. But the more you read the more tedious the story became. I was warned about the quiet horror concept of the author but at some parts you really had to struggle to keep your eyes open. In my opinion it would have been better if Grant would have set the story in Britain than in the USA. Besides he could have integrated more horror elements not only the eerie basic flow. The reason I finished the book was because I wanted to find out why Ben and the other persons in the book were killed and what the source of evil was about. With Toal as a kind of highpriest of an unknown cult the veils lifted a bit but many things remain unclear and unsolved. Maybe you have to read other books of the series to get informed about the further story of Nathalie and Marc. Not a very revealing book. It stands as a classic of horror literature but to me it was a bit too slow winded and boring. The ending with the fancy dress ball and the chanting of the community was fine but all in all there were too few highlights. I would only recommend it to very patient readers!

[Alex (The Bookubus) · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 stars

[Kenneth McKinley · Rating 3 out of 5]

You could tell Grant was starting to come into his own with The Hour of the Oxrun Dead.The writing was much better than The Curse. The atmosphere that he sets has a nice slow build up of dread. In The Curse, the female characters were amazingly shallow and annoying. While they were better in this story, the main character still puts herself in stupid situations. Oddly enough, I've read a few other authors whose novels that were written in the 1970s and they had the same type of female characters that are portrayed as shallow and dim-witted. Coincidence? I'll let you decide. The dialog was also a bit sketchy in parts and the ending wasn't very satisfying. Overall, I felt this was a step ahead of The Curse and I look forward in seeing if Grant's progress continues in Last Call of Mourning.


3 out of 5 stars


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[Graham P · Rating 2 out of 5]

The first of the Oxrun series is a wet blanket of a novel. It's like reading a Nancy Drew cardboard potboiler tinged with the gothic--every small town has a cult seeking world domination, no? What is most memorable of 'The Hour of the Oxrun Dead' is that it contains one of the most nonsensical love affairs ever put to the page. Grant can lay on the atmosphere, and he passionately does so--the fog, the diffused lights, the prowler in the dark--but it seems like he was writing with one hand in the burgeoning horror market and the other in the tried & true romance genre. The amount of cock-teasing that goes on in this novel is of Mount Everest proportions. Here, if you just found out your friend is brutally murdered, what do you do? You flirt, go prance in the park, drop lustful innuendos, and then go get ice cream.

[Craig · Rating 3 out of 5]

The Hour of the Oxrun Dead is the first of a series of novels set in the fictional town Oxrun Station, which was quite popular at the time. It's a heavily Gothic (check out the original Doubleday cover; sheesh) story set next to a cemetery in a town with a very active ancient evil cult and all manner of supernatural hijinks. Think Dark Shadows (the original soap), a very atmospheric slow burn with typical 1970s characters... Natalie's not too likable, as I recall. I thought it was a well-written book (except for a kid of fizzled ending) but I liked a little more action and a faster pace, so I was never a huge fan.

[Jay · Rating 4 out of 5]

I've been a fan of Charles Grant, and his Oxrun Station stories, for a long while now, but this is the first of the Oxrun novels I've read, and I liked it. A lot.
Grant was a leading proponent of the quiet horror movement, the more restrained counter to splatterpunk. He viewed quiet horror as more based in atmosphere and character, as opposed to violence and gore. There can, of course, be a balance between the two schools, but that's an argument for another time. Still, his emphasis was often on character, and that certainly shows here.
Natalie, the widow at the center of this story, is strong and independent, moving on with her life eighteen months after her husband's passing. In her work at the library, she begins noticing strange things, as does her potential beau, a reporter.
Again, the emphasis is mostly on atmosphere, which Grant did well. There are strong, creepy moments here, times when I didn't even know I was holding my breath until it shuddered out of me.
What surprised me was how well-drawn the characters were. You laugh with them, care about them and mourn for them. They are strong enough to pull you through despite the slower pace.
The relationship between Natalie and Marc is a high point. Now, I don't much care for romance in my novels, but these two are such real people that it's hard not to get pulled in. The fact that Marc never takes center stage away from Nat certainly helps.
All in all, a fine novel, and I'll be returning to Oxrun Station soon.

[Jon Recluse · Rating 4 out of 5]

Charles L. Grant proved that a whisper can echo longer than a scream and forever set the bar for quiet, atmospheric horror when he introduced readers to Oxrun Station.

[Redrighthand · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was my first book by Charles Grant and while it was very light on chills, it was an enjoyable story. More than any creepy atmosphere I had expected from reading reviews, the two main characters' relationship was what I found to be most charming. Character driven narrative and romance are not normally what I hope to find when I pick up a book, so this was surprising.
It was a nice palate cleanser.

[Netanella · Rating 3 out of 5]

A lovely story of quiet horror - a creeping sensation of dread that the author carefully crafts, with an emphasis on characterization rather than the more lurid elements of the horror genre. And so, I quickly devoured the story of the young librarian widow who is slowly caught up in the evil machinations of Oxrun Station, with her intrepid reporter boyfriend at her side. The story was enjoyable and the author is talented in developing his scenes. For an early 1980s piece, however, there were many areas of "male author writes female protagonist" in ways that only males could. For example, most women generally don't think about their "adolescently slim thighs" whilst showering. Usually, we think about water temperature and towel placement. You know, the normal shit people do, and not what men think that women think.

That, and the nightmare mad rushjob that was the ending of the book, is my only pet peeve. Nevertheless, I will persist and continue the series.

[Michael · Rating 2 out of 5]

I'd never heard of Charles L. Grant, until he died in 2006. Shortly after his death, Cemetery Dance ran a tribute issue to him, devoting two or three story slots to unpublished horror tales he'd written, and quite a bit of laudatory essays and personal accounts from his friends and fans. During his life, he'd been known more for his influential horror anthologies in the 80s, which according to many of the authors featured in the Cemetery Dance tribute issue, offered a haven for more subtle horror that did not depend on gore or extreme violence or gimmicky sci-fi for its entertainment value. I was not too thrilled with his short stories I read in Cemetery Dance but the praise his fellow genre authors spouted, and a quote from Stephen King calling Grant "the premier horror writer of his or any generation" compelled me to pick up an old paperback copy of one of the more popular novels set in his signature Oxrun Station.

The Hour of the Oxrun Dead is a subtle novel of terror, vacillating between a sense of mounting paranoia and the possibility of some real occult activity in sleepy Oxrun Station, a Connecticut village, a haven for small town provincial and a bedroom community for commuters. Natalie, a young, sexy librarian (they only exist in novels and movies, it seems) is the widow of Ben, a police officer in Oxrun who is murdered soon after he and Natalie marry. For some reason, Natalie feels the need to stay in Oxrun, a town that offers her little else but job security, even though she has gotten over the pain of Ben's loss. She starts falling for a young beat reporter for the local weekly paper, Marc, and together they begin to come up with what seem to be grand delusions about the town's upper crust establishment. Grant manages to create a comfortable, almost cozy bit of suburban horror with his very familiar setting and cast of characters - the creepy police chief, the corrupt banker, the old craggy innkeeper, the wicked head librarian, the megalomaniac millionaire. But the implications of the "plot" Natalie and Marc imagine some horrible small town cult enacting don't cross the boundaries of this sleepy little village. In the end, who cares what these folks do with Natalie and Marc. They lose all of their likability when Grant has them frolicking and flirting through the cemetery directly after the funeral of one of Natalie's only friends.

Oxrun Station has the odd, doomed quaintness of Stephen King's Derry or Castle Rock, which is an easy trope for a writer of horror in the 80s. There's no sense of the time period, however, in The Hour of the Oxrun Dead, no sense of an innocent yet excessive mid-80s decadence, which could spruce up the somewhat banal story. The supernatural elements of the novel seem psychological, a quiet muffled background conversation heard behind a tedious plot, like Argento's Suspiria but with little of the physical beauty and grandeur. There's still a tradition of quiet horror, both in literature and cinema, which combats the torture porn aesthetic of movies like Saw and books like Palahniuk's Haunted or the bizarro sub-genre. If Grant is responsible for bringing this approach intact through the 80s, we should thank him for it. I think to understand his true impact on horror, it might be important to read the anthologies he edited and is best known for and let his novels sit on the shelf.

[Kyle Blount · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is the first Grant novel that I read. It was great. Heavy on atmosphere and character development, the novel shies away from cheap scares. I've read a lot of Ramsey Campbell and this style is much more in that school than say Barker or King. I think I've heard it referred as "Quiet Horror". Regardless, much recommend! Will definitely dive into another Charles L. Grant novel soon.

[Mark · Rating 4 out of 5]

It was Grady Hendrix that made me do it.

Inspired by his Paperbacks From Hell summary of the 1970’s and 80’s Horror boom, I decided to read a book that I’d had around for a while, one that was a breakthrough novel from an author who’s a “writer’s writer”.

You may not've heard of Charles L Grant before, even though he’s widely regarded by those writers “in the know”. He’s one of those authors who amassed novels and sales while getting on with the job of writing during his lifetime without too much fuss, until his death in 2006. Stephen King, on writing about Charles, said that he was a professional:

“The one thing that does (and I suppose the stories also say this, but it is worth pointing out) can be summed up in five words of one syllable, none of them longer than three letters. It doesn’t take long to write or to say, but from where I sit, those five words say about everything that needs to be said: The man was a pro.” (Stephen King, Scream Quietly, PS Publishing, 2012)

It is often from fellow writers that the plaudits appear. Charles won a World Fantasy Award for his novella collection Nightmare Seasons, a Nebula Award in 1976 for his short story "A Crowd of Shadows", and another Nebula Award in 1978 for his novella "A Glow of Candles, a Unicorn's Eye". He was also the editor of the Shadows book collections from book 1 – 10 (1978-1987).

To many though, even genre readers, his name will not be recognised – his closest brush with fame and recognition is probably the two X-Files tie-in novels he wrote, Goblins (1994) and Whirlwind (1995). (Which I read at the time they were published and thought that they were just OK.)

With The Hour of the Oxrun Dead we’re reading Charles’ work from near the start. This breakthrough novel was the imaginary setting for many of his short stories and novels. Oxrun Station is typical “little-America”, a small-town place (described in the book as “a town that’s really a small village”)  that perhaps Ray Bradbury and Stephen King have passed from time to time. Like Bradbury’s Green Town or King’s Derry, there’s a lot going on beneath the deceptively placid surface. It’s rather like Peyton Place on the way to the underworld. (Fans of Buffy’s Sunnydale might recognise it too.)

This story concerns itself with near-thirty something Natalie Windsor (nee Clayton), librarian. (See, you like her already!) Her husband, policeman Ben, was killed about a year ago in a gruesome manner. Since then Natalie has been a grieving widower, constantly watched over by Ben’s brother Sam (also a policeman) and her ex-sister in law, trying to get on with her life and her job. Her work colleagues are also solicitous and generally as expected – haughty boss Adriana Hall, nosy oldster Arlene Bains and young, vivacious Miriam Burke.  Now a series of other grisly deaths, and in similar ways, suggest that, even with the original killer dead, something strange is a-stirring in Oxrun…..

 

First thought on reading is how Stephen King-like this is. (Less informed readers may think that Oxrun Dead is a deliberate King-imitator, but it is worth remembering that by 1977, the year of publication, Charles already had published over twenty short stories and another novel, and Stephen was just releasing his third novel, The Shining. Similar style, but not copyists.)

The most-striking thing is the emphasis on prose and plot. Throughout the novel there’s a clarity of prose that is quite refreshing. Even when the writer gives description, it is eloquent without being over-florid:

“THE LIBRARY still seemed spring-new after four New England years. A red-brick rectangle, it was fronted by two-story arcs of polarized glass weekly washed and giving it a distinctly churchlike appearance. Surrounding the building were three narrow concentric aprons of white concrete that served as footpaths between wire-braced saplings of birch and willow. Four large squares of lush grass still a summer green stretched from the steps to the sidewalk and were bordered by redwood benches, today occupied by several elderly men bundled in grey and brown and playing checkers. Natalie had never understood why they didn't prefer the municipal park that began only one block further on, but she liked to believe it was the stimulation of proximity to her books. Soon enough, however, the weather would add an uncomfortable dampness to its autumn bite and like aged birds too weary for migration, the men would retreat inside to one of the reading rooms off the main lobby where the warmth more often than not would put them quickly to sleep until closing.” (Chapter 2)

“At the end of the street was a low cyclone fence topped with a double strand of barbed wire. During the growing seasons it was camouflaged by untended shrubbery and several massive willows; during fall and winter it was slightly imposing—less for its size than the clearly visible expanse of carefully mown grassland that stretched for over a hundred yards toward the newest section of the Oxrun Memorial Park. Sans moonlight, the tombstones and scatterings of ornate mausoleums were invisible, and with the sun the closest seemed only to be nothing more than sculptured boulders.” (Chapter 2)

 

40 years on from the book’s first publication, there are elements that may jar a modern reader. There’s no talk of mobile phones or social media and very little about computers – home computers are still a few years away. (How easy these stories would be to sort with a mobile phone and the Internet!)  Instead, we get a place where newspapers are still a prime source of information, newspaper copy is typed up on a typewriter, sometimes with carbon paper, and libraries use index cards for referencing. There’s a pleasant buzz of nostalgia for older readers but it may as well be a different planet for younger readers.

On the positive side, the characterisation of Natalie and her friend Marcus (Marc) Clayton is surprisingly good, though these days may be seen as predictable. Admittedly they can tend towards the cliched, and are not there entirely for their navel-contemplating capabilities, but there’s enough there to make the reader care. Natalie, despite her issues, is not the weak-willed victim as much as the stereotype would have us believe, although it must be said that she has her moments. By turns, her long-term friend Marc is good-humoured, dependable and acts as honourably as anyone who has been holding a torch for someone for an eon does. Their dialogue is charming and realistic:

"You know," he said, hugging himself as he wandered back toward the counter, "I never did see what anyone would want with a mausoleum like this." He stared up at the darkness above the light, glanced at the shadows of books and magazines on the racks to the right of the desk. "I mean, libraries are no fun anymore. No dust, no snoring old men at the newspaper table, things like that." When he reached the counter, he picked up a portion of the printout and waved it. "See what I mean? Computers and everything. Whatever happened to that rotten old lady who wouldn't let me read anything in the adult section because it would warp my impressionable little mind?"

"You're looking at her," Natalie said mock sternly. "Only, I don't particularly think of myself as rotten."

By comparison, the bad guys (and yes, they are mainly guys) of the novel are a little less fleshed out. More of a caricature, they look and act like we expect bad guys to do, almost hissing and snarling in the shadows like pantomime villains.  It’s also never really explained why the things that happen have decided at this moment to appear, although we can always blame it on Halloween, I guess.

By the end of the book it all turns a little Rosemary’s Baby, with the creepy local family, under a veneer of manners and societal moirés, dominating local society circles and clearly up to no good. After such a great set-up, the weakest part of the novel for me was the ending, which is rather abrupt. The strange events that happen to that point are not explained nor entirely resolved. It feels that there should be more, though this may be taken up in future stories in the series.

Nevertheless, despite this, The Hour of the Oxrun Dead is a pleasant surprise. The development of character and place, through the plot, up to the conclusion allows the suspense to build throughout, to the point near the end when I was reluctant to put the book down. It’s also unexpectedly subtle in parts and not the gore-fest I was rather expecting.

And, as events in the novel come to a head at Halloween, you know that I’m going to recommend this as a read for this time of year. It’s perhaps not quite the work of an Award winner – yet. But the signs are there, and it means that I’m going to hunt out more by this author. It’s taken me a while to read his work, but I’m pleased I got there. (If you can't find the paperback, there's a very cheap copy available for Kindle!)

[Addy · Rating 3 out of 5]

Mediocre at best

[Hayden Gilbert · Rating 5 out of 5]

4.5, but rounding up.
Charles Grant is my comfort zone. I love his writing, which feels like an extension of Ray Bradbury, but far less purple. So while it lacks the heart-bursting jolts of loveliness, joy, and nirvana, also absent are the flourishes of twee. I’ve been wanting to dig into his Oxrun Station series in earnest, as I’ve kind of dabbled in it in an odd order (a short story here, a novella collection there, the Universal Monsters tribute trilogy, oops, this is the FOURTH book in the series!)
I loved The Grave when I read it, but really wanted to go back and read them all from the beginning. I wanted to catch the references to characters and people about town. I wanted to start drawing a map of the village in my head as I explore more. And the first outing is an intoxicating mood-setter for our sleepy, creepy, Connecticut town. We follow a librarian as she’s stalked by a phantom cat and watched from the shadows by a cult of town elders. I’m actually surprised at how relatively big the scope is for the first book in a series about a mysterious little town full of secrets. Like…it seems like everyone who was anyone in The Station were cult members…so I’m wondering if that affects things going forward, although I doubt it.

The plot itself isn’t what I’d call “fast-paced��, in fact it’s pretty damn deliberate. And better for it. It very much reminds me of the movies of Val Lewton, a comparison that’s felt especially during the excruciatingly creepy scenes of the cat from Hell stalking its prey, which felt right out of a novelization of Cat People or The Leopard Man.
The mood, atmosphere, flirtation between the characters, mysterious dangers in the shadows, and setting are what this is all about. And what a pleasure it was.

[Dave Roberts · Rating 3 out of 5]

Nicely put together from Centipede Press. Great production values, nice artwork, etc. I enjoyed the novella and the interview more than that the main novel: hence the three stars. Grant is a good writer, and the novella seems to be written later in his career (I haven't confirmed, but it is a more mature piece of writing than the main novel, which was one of his first published). That said, Grant has a good, minimal style, with generally well thought out sentence structure. This is not lazy writing, especially in the novella.

[DJMikeG · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was the first novel I've read by the late, esteemed Mr. Grant. He was a very talented writer. His writing oozes atmosphere. The setup and basically the first two thirds of the book were fantastically creepy and interesting. I wasn't wild about the climax, it felt kind of rushed after all that slow burn and brilliant setup. Still, I guess this was Mr. Grant's first novel and his writing improved hereafter. As a first novel its incredibly impressive. I definitely enjoyed this and look forward to reading more novels by Grant. Perfect October reading.

[Kevin Lucia · Rating 5 out of 5]

Awesome, as always.

[Ryan · Rating 4 out of 5]

While I can understand why some readers might find this novel underwhelming, I personally loved it. Grant’s style here is very much like a great 1970s horror film with amazing atmosphere — think along the lines of Rosemary’s Baby, The Stepford Wives, or The Wicker Man. It’s a terrific small town horror filled with paranoia and spooky imagery. It’s set around Halloween time so it has that nice fall vibe going on. There’s not really any gore or anything like that so if you are looking for that you’ll be disappointed. Grant is quite subtle in his horror; he doesn’t hit you over the head with it, focusing more on the characters and getting you involved in their mystery. I just really enjoyed it from beginning to end and wouldn’t mind reading more books in this series.

[Shannon · Rating 4 out of 5]

A slow, creeping sense of unheimlich pervades the town of Oxrun Station, and nearly every word of this book, as well. A librarian, running ordinary maintenance on the collection, discovers that certain volumes have gone missing. There's a connection between the titles, but she has to figure out what it is. And in beginning to investigate, she starts to pull back the curtain hiding the dark secrets of what might appear to be an ordinary, bucolic little town.

I just love Grant's writing style. He reminds me a bit of Blatty, where the language occasionally obscures what's happening, in the way a bank of fog might hide the monster at the edge of our vision.

[Bryan Cebulski]

Aw I like Charles L. Grant. Solid spooky vibes even when the story doesn't stand out. Not great dialogue in this one and the ending is rushed but, again, stellar vibes. Dead leaves in the wind and things peering out from the dark and ominous forebodings. Vibes, vibes, vibes.

[Alex Budris · Rating 3 out of 5]

Sexy small town librarian thwarts doomsday cult in Oxrun Station.

[Sidney · Rating 4 out of 5]

Finished a re-read. It had been so long ago that I had forgotten all but the basics. It is truly atmospheric and is focused on the lead character’s experience of the strange world of Oxrun Station. The chills become more nebulous and eerie in later books, but this is still an engaging read with the abruptness of the ending intended to be a bit disorienting, I think.

[Isidore · Rating 2 out of 5]

I thought Grant was a dull writer when I first encountered him in the 1980s. Knowledgable people continue to sing his praises, so I recently decided to take another look. He's still dull.

If I may borrow terms applied to his work by two other Goodreads reviewers, "genteel suburban horror" sums things up quite satisfactorily. No complicated, tormented, edgy characters, just respectable, bland middle class folk. Plotting is straightforward, if sometimes clumsy and rudimentary. The prose is mostly direct and clear, although Grant writes some dreadfully cute dialogue for his lovers. Supernatural events are very understated prior to the hasty and abrupt climax, and much of the book is taken up with romance, melodrama, and surprisingly exhaustive accounts of people's dress and coiffures.

Now, understatement and subtlety are fine things in the hands of a Blackwood, but this novel suffers from imaginative anaemia. There simply isn't any visionary power or dramatic tension. The strange goings-on at Oxrun Station are not explored because of the mystery and wonder inherent in the intrusion of dark forces from outside our framework of reality––they are present merely to imperil our pretty and plucky heroine, and are bested with astonishing ease in time for a lovers' clinch and happy ending.

I guess Grant is just too subtle for me. I mean, look at the rating I just gave No Orchids for Miss Blandish.

[Russell Coy · Rating 4 out of 5]

When young widow Natalie looks into the disappearance of some books from the local library, she finds herself targeted by the community's most wealthy and powerful, and uncovers a conspiracy of the supernatural which threatens the freedom of the small town of Oxrun Station, and beyond. With the help of newspaperman Marc, Natalie races to stop the cabal from carrying out it's evil plans before the town falls victim to ...The Hour of the Oxrun Dead.

This book, the first in Grant's legendary series, was a vast improvement over his first horror novel, The Curse. His descriptive prose creates a steady atmosphere of dread, combined with a great New England flavor. The story itself has a nice, leisurely feel to it, even when the plot is racing forward at the speed of a hungry panther. The main flaw for me was it's frankly third-rate climax, in which it never occurs to the villains to do a simple pat-down because it would rob the ending of a cool set-piece. The character of Natalie also fell a bit flat for me--she is a typical heroine of the 70s, when male authors were taking admirable but fumbling first steps toward writing strong women.

Overall, I was quite impressed with Grant's style and storytelling, and plan to visit Oxrun Station again soon. I'd recommend this book to anyone looking for a vacation from loud, bloodsoaked horror.

4 stars.

[Nelio Gomes · Rating 3 out of 5]

Although the introduction to events in the town of Oxrun Station was a little clunky, it did capture my interest, and soon I was contentedly following the life of small town librarian Natalie Windsor. And as events quickly began to point to some sort of sinister conspiracy, and a possible supernatural connection, I was hooked! What could some sort of fraternity rings and missing books at the town library have in common? What was the mysterious killer that lurked in the night? How did the leading citizens of Oxrun Station all fit into this puzzle? Well, as the book was written in the 70’s, some of the ideas about media manipulation and thought control seem quaint in this era of Wikileaks and Snowden (some of the romantic asides in the book seem a little dated as well), but the concept was chilling enough… And despite the wing chair that “suddenly sprouted a head”, and a rather abrupt ending, it was good enough to get me thinking about the other books set in the town of Oxrun Station…

[Chip Howard · Rating 3 out of 5]

Let's face it, the guy had style. Those staples of horror--the rundown graveyard, the sinister shape in the fog, the strange noises in the night--they're all here in spades, but rather than feeling cliched, author Charles L. Grant has fashioned them into an engaging little novel of paranoia (one of his first, if I'm correct). "Oxrun Dead" isn't startling or brutal or even all that frightening (well, okay, I lied... maybe it's a little frightening). What it is is atmospheric--even elegantly so, at times.

Perhaps this is why--after an almost absurdly casual build-up--many seemed to feel cheated by the book's abrupt ending. I don't necessarily disagree, but when all is said and done, isn't it really more about the journey than the destination?

This was my first Grant novel, and I have to admit I liked the moody and leisurely pace here... I'm already gassing up the car to make another trip to Oxrun Station, Conn., soon.