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Creepers
THE AGONY EXPRESS
Ben Johnson had been a subway motorman for thirty years, but nothing had prepared him for what he saw when he opened his compartment door: The passengers were being attacked. But more than just attacked. They were literally being torn to bloody shreds by creatures who could not be human, yet could be nothing else.
Desperately Johnson locked himself into his compartment. He heard the screams outside fading, to be replaced by an eerie silence. Then, as the buzzing of fear quieted in his brain, he could hear a different sound—a grinding, slurping noise...
...and even as Ben Johnson yanked the throttle to full speed ahead, he knew there could be no escape-not for him or anyone else....
Ben Johnson had been a subway motorman for thirty years, but nothing had prepared him for what he saw when he opened his compartment door: The passengers were being attacked. But more than just attacked. They were literally being torn to bloody shreds by creatures who could not be human, yet could be nothing else.
Desperately Johnson locked himself into his compartment. He heard the screams outside fading, to be replaced by an eerie silence. Then, as the buzzing of fear quieted in his brain, he could hear a different sound—a grinding, slurping noise...
...and even as Ben Johnson yanked the throttle to full speed ahead, he knew there could be no escape-not for him or anyone else....
251 pages, Mass Market Paperback
First published October 5, 1982
72 people want to read
About the author
Robert Craig
100 books1 followerLibrarian Note: There is more than one author by this name in the Goodreads database.
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Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews
April 15, 2021
Very much a product of its time in good and bad ways, Creepers is a fun enough page-turner with some genuine suspense and moments of decent writing. The plot is basically C.H.U.D., but it's pretty fun to read and its inclusion of governmental conspiracy doesn't come off as contrived as it could have. What doesn't work well at all is the eye-rollingly bad dialogue and broad stock characterization. Lead character Frank Correlli is a smart but tough cop with a great mustache. He's grieving a loss, which humanizes him, but he's a tough-talking, no-nonsense cop who thinks outside the box. His boss is a brash, ignorant blowhard who likes to chew Correlli out for his screwball antics. Correlli's love interest Louise is a beautiful damsel in distress. Sometimes she attempts something like initiative and complicates matters which Correlli handles with firm but understanding composure. On three instances, Craig describes Correlli staring at Louise's breasts. At length. During conversation. Strangely, a random background female character appears in a single sentence referring mainly to her visible nipples in a scenario that has nothing to do with sex or nipples. Black characters--graffiti artists and quasi Black Panthers--speak in Hollywood jive like expendable villains in a Death Wish movie. All of which makes the whole work clearly out of step with contemporary norms. Take these elements as camp or ignore them and a halfway decent pulp suspense book emerges.
April 29, 2022
This wasn't bad. I would put it in the "Paperbacks from Hell" category of the 1980s. A race of mutated humans has been living in the New York City subways for years, but then a virus infects them and they start invading the upper world. Violent and creepy. Pretty solid for this type of novel.
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June 29, 2012http://pixhost.me/avaxhome/52/3e/001b... This is the cover, if anyone with the know-how cares to add that to the book page.
I read this book over ten years ago - more like fifteen - and I couldn't really tell you a whole lot about it, except I remember some truly eerie scenes of creatures creeping in the shadows of the subways.
I really need to re-read this sometime. Nothing like good subway-set horror fiction! (See also: 'Reliquary' by Douglas Preston & Lincoln Child - but only if you read their amazing 'Relic' first!)
I read this book over ten years ago - more like fifteen - and I couldn't really tell you a whole lot about it, except I remember some truly eerie scenes of creatures creeping in the shadows of the subways.
I really need to re-read this sometime. Nothing like good subway-set horror fiction! (See also: 'Reliquary' by Douglas Preston & Lincoln Child - but only if you read their amazing 'Relic' first!)
November 12, 2014
Solid Novel . It seems that it is a very little known book , but it is one of the first splatterpunk novels .
August 1, 2016
I enjoyed this book very much. I am thinking of reading it again very soon......
July 9, 2019
So I was recommended the book Creepers by a friend mentioning it was a really good novel about urban exploration gone wrong, seeing this in the secondhand book store I picked it up without taking much note of the blurb.
Upon starting this, it seemed rather dull with disappearances taking place on the subway in New York and there I was wondering when the urban exploration part was going to start. Half way through with nothing happening but strange sightings in the subway and a bit of transit police detective procedural happening I came to the unfortunate realisation that the book my friend was referring to was Creepers by David Morrell, not Creepers by Robert Craig.
Nonetheless I ploughed on hoping things would improve, they didn't. There's the makings of a decent tale here but the exception is, well, crap. I found it to be quite the dull book, whilst the main character Frank Corelli has the gritty never give up attitude it just wasn't enough to make the story interesting, let alone compelling.
I now see why it was a mere 50 cents at the second hand book store. It sucks.
Upon starting this, it seemed rather dull with disappearances taking place on the subway in New York and there I was wondering when the urban exploration part was going to start. Half way through with nothing happening but strange sightings in the subway and a bit of transit police detective procedural happening I came to the unfortunate realisation that the book my friend was referring to was Creepers by David Morrell, not Creepers by Robert Craig.
Nonetheless I ploughed on hoping things would improve, they didn't. There's the makings of a decent tale here but the exception is, well, crap. I found it to be quite the dull book, whilst the main character Frank Corelli has the gritty never give up attitude it just wasn't enough to make the story interesting, let alone compelling.
I now see why it was a mere 50 cents at the second hand book store. It sucks.
May 19, 2021
I originally rated this two stars but then thought better of it. I bought this paperback because I just wanted to read a cheesy vintage horror paperback and that's exactly what I got.
The premise is interesting enough and the writing is decent. My only issue is that the characters were like these extremely stereotypical archetypes which made them seem a little fake and boring. The brave and dashing detective, the damsel whose daughter went missing within the last 24 hours but she's still somehow turned on by the detective who sees no issue with hitting on a women who's daughter was just snatched...
The black characters are poor, uneducated, and speak in ebonics-type language. There's plenty to be offended by in this book but honestly if you look at action movies made in the same year you'll find much of the same. 1982 wasn't that long ago but it's amazing how different things were.
Still, the story was compelling and I did want to see how it ended. One of those rare stories that rationally I know isn't that good, but I enjoyed it anyway.
The premise is interesting enough and the writing is decent. My only issue is that the characters were like these extremely stereotypical archetypes which made them seem a little fake and boring. The brave and dashing detective, the damsel whose daughter went missing within the last 24 hours but she's still somehow turned on by the detective who sees no issue with hitting on a women who's daughter was just snatched...
The black characters are poor, uneducated, and speak in ebonics-type language. There's plenty to be offended by in this book but honestly if you look at action movies made in the same year you'll find much of the same. 1982 wasn't that long ago but it's amazing how different things were.
Still, the story was compelling and I did want to see how it ended. One of those rare stories that rationally I know isn't that good, but I enjoyed it anyway.
March 28, 2023
I was very pleasantly surprised. Reading the short synopsis on the back, I really thought this was going to be cheesy horror(which I love, don't get me wrong), but I was wrong.
(Fun tidbit about the synopsis on the back...it says Ben Johnson and in the book his name is Ben Mason...whoops).
The title of the book is named after the mysterious and once-thought mythical creatures inhabiting the New York City subway system and follows a good TA cop named Corelli
The creepers are mutated descendants of underground dwellers who have been exposed to and inbred with a rapidly spreading rabies virus, causing them to crave violence and flesh.
Corelli attempts to uncover the mystery that the highest in the NYC government wants to keep hidden, all while trying to save his new love and get out of the subway alive.
(Fun tidbit about the synopsis on the back...it says Ben Johnson and in the book his name is Ben Mason...whoops).
The title of the book is named after the mysterious and once-thought mythical creatures inhabiting the New York City subway system and follows a good TA cop named Corelli
The creepers are mutated descendants of underground dwellers who have been exposed to and inbred with a rapidly spreading rabies virus, causing them to crave violence and flesh.
Corelli attempts to uncover the mystery that the highest in the NYC government wants to keep hidden, all while trying to save his new love and get out of the subway alive.
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July 19, 2020elibrary
September 14, 2015
Not a fan.
Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews