Moonwalker

by Rick Hautala

Engineer Dale Harmon unknowingly confronts the unspeakable evil that infests the sleeply New England village of Dyer

Genres: Horror, Fiction

544 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1989

About the author

AKA A.J. Matthews

Rick Hautala has more than thirty published books to his credit, including the million copy, international best-seller Nightstone, as well as Twilight Time, Little Brothers, Cold Whisper, Impulse, and The Wildman. He has also published four novels—The White Room, Looking Glass, Unbroken, and Follow—using the pseudonym A. J. Matthews. His more than sixty published short stories have appeared in national and international anthologies and magazines. His short story collection Bedbugs was selected as one of the best horror books of the year in 2003.

A novella titled Reunion was published by PS Publications in December, 2009; and Occasional Demons, a short story collection, is due in 2010 from CD Publications. He wrote the screenplays for several short films, including the multiple award-winning The Ugly Film, based on the short story by Ed Gorman, as well as Peekers, based on a short story by Kealan Patrick Burke, and Dead @ 17, based on the graphic novel by Josh Howard.

A graduate of the University of Maine in Orono with a Master of Art in English Literature (Renaissance and Medieval Literature), Hautala lives in southern Maine with author Holly Newstein. His three sons have all grown up and (mostly) moved out of the house. He served terms as Vice President and Trustee for the Horror Writers Association.

Sadly, Rick died on March 21, 2013.

Reviews

[Phil · Rating 4 out of 5]

Hautala put together a nice, quirky zombie story here, with many good characters and a droll sense of humor. The story takes place largely in Dyer, Maine-- a small town up by the Canadian border whose main industry is potatoes. Dale Harmon, an traffic engineer, receives a call one day that his best friend Larry was killed in a car accident and the funeral is in a few days in Dyer, his hometown. Larry was something like an uncle to his daughter Angie, so Dale and Angie (who is 12) take off for the backwoods of Maine for a few days. Another set of protagonists, Tasha (a runaway from FL) and 'Hocker' (an escapee from a mental institution in Georgia who likes to set fires) met up on the road hitchhiking and eventually end up in Dyer as well. Finally, we have Donna, who is returning to Dyer after a fling with a married man went sour to live with her sister for a while.

Something is not quite right in Dyer, however. First, there is the strange mortician who handles the funeral, who will not let anyone see Larry's body. Secondly Angie and Lisa, a new friend and grand daughter of the lady who runs the B&B in Dyer where Dale gets a room find some strange, silent but intent men in an old barn and they have to make a run for it. Finally, it is potato season and groups of people are heading to Dyer to help with the harvest.

Hautala goes back to the roots of Zombies for this one. Zombies were originally rumored to exist in Haiti as basically reanimated dead slaves who obey and work without food, etc. It seems the mortician, who studied botany for his Ph.D. found some interesting herbs in Haiti that he 'experiments' with on dead bodies. He works out a deal with the largest farm owner to provide 'cheep labor' for the harvest, and recruits some locals at the hospital to help him acquire fresh bodies (and occasionally make some dead bodies) to keep up supplies. So, what has Dale and friends stumbled upon?

This is part small town horror to be sure, but Hautala serves it up with a great deal of wit and not a little tongue and cheek. While there are surely some tense sections, they are always laced with a tinge of humor. This is not a comedy, but a zombie story like none other. These zombies are not contagious (or are they?!?) and 'live to serve' so to speak for their master. 3.5 stars rounding up!!

[David · Rating 4 out of 5]

Today zombies are all the rage, thanks in part to the Walking Dead in television and comics and George Romero returning to the scene. In the late 80s however, zombies were still a small sub-genre of horror fiction. Sure there was Return of the Living Dead parts 1-3, Zombie High, Night of the Creeps and of course Day of the Dead but the fan base was not nearly as rabid it is today. It is in this setting that Rick Hautala delivers his zombie novel Moonwalker.

Moonwalker has a lot going for it right off the bat. The idea of zombies lurking in potato fields in northern Maine is an interesting premise and a great visual. Not satisfied on that image alone, Hautala strove to add his own interesting spin to a traditional zombie run wild novel. Without giving away too much of the story, there is a great villain to battle who has created the zombies and the unraveling of the story is quite interesting. Hautala as always shines with his characters. There's a pair of hitchhikers traveling north with their own secret pasts, a man and his daughter traveling to the small town of Dyer to lay a family friend to rest, a woman returning to visit her sister after being away from town a long time, a grandmother running a bed and breakfast while taking care of her abandoned granddaughter, and a cop whose instincts are being put to the test in the middle of the madness. This group of people must confront the evil lurking in the funeral home at the center of this story and of a town trying to survive in a changing world.

This is the second time I have read this novel, once a long long time ago back in high school. My memory of the basic plot was the same but I completely forgot the delivery. Hautala has a tendency to write lengthy novels much like his fellow Maine counterpart Stephen King that could be edited down. However, that is not to say this isn't a good novel. Far from it. It's a solid tale with a different spin on the zombie genre that actually could stand to be made into a film today. There is enough here to set it apart from traditional zombie (caused by a virus) fare that it does deserve some attention. The novel really picks up in the third act and while not everything feels resolved at the end, it's definitely worth your time. Zombie fans need to give this a try and once again Hautala proves that even an off novel by him is still a solid read.

[Drew · Rating 3 out of 5]

I wanted to give this book a four star rating but there were some inconsistencies and somewhat dumb behavior by the protagonists, that I had to lower my rating. Overall, though, it was a very enjoyable read and I would recommend it to anyone who is able to overlook certain flaws and allow themselves to read it just for fun, not to pick it apart. If you are the type of reader who does like to pick apart every sentence of a book, then this is not the one for you.

[Thee_ron_clark · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is another zombie novel I read in the past and just came across recently. Despite a number of bad reviews I have seen on Moonwalker, I must disagree and say that it's a decent novel. The zombies featured in this book are more the hoodoo voodoo type than the Romero type, but it's still a creepy novel with some scenes of droves of undead attacking humans. Not a bad read. Zombie lovers should check it out.

[Addy · Rating 3 out of 5]

I had to think on this one for a while. I love Rick Hautala but for me, this one missed the mark. I should have known because most zombie books I’ve read are pretty cheesy and this one def fits into that 80s cheese theme that was so rampant back in those days. There was a time in the book where I felt it could have ended and I would have been fine with it but Rick added about another 100 pages that prob wasn’t necessary and just dragged the story on. For that, I gave the book 3 stars.

[Joe · Rating 2 out of 5]

The literary equivalent of a b horror movie starring lance henriksen or tony todd that catches your eye in the horror aisle with it's slick cover art but leaves you questioning your adherence to the horror genre. By the final act, I was left feeling deflated as the story plodded along. Sad!

[Greg]

When of Hautala better attempts, in my opinion. The zombie angle is lifted entirely from '30s classics like White Zombie with a mad scientist creating slave labor. Doesn't fly in a modern setting, but that doesn't stop the author from trying. The book stages some good action and scares, but falls into the "attack on an isolated farmhouse" scenario that has been done to death...or un-death as the case may be.

[Ivy]

Wasn't a bad novel. Found that it dragged on a bit

[Brent Winslow · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was a really fun Halloween read. The plot mixes the zombie genre with clear inspiration from Phantasm, and set in rural Maine, with a twist of science (potatoes being members of the nightshade family). I look forward to reading more of the late Rick Hautala's novels.

[Chloe N · Rating 3 out of 5]

Kinda boring in the beginning but once it picked up, about 200 pages from the end, it was interesting and cool. Ending took me off guard. A pretty unique take on a popular idea, I just wish it was executed a little better. I felt like this would be a really cool movie.

[Horror Guy · Rating 2 out of 5]

Overlong and bloated. Pass.

[Chris Stephens · Rating 3 out of 5]

One of the masters of 80s horror imo, zombie theme

[Krista · Rating 2 out of 5]

A disappointingly predictable zombie story that adds nothing new to the genre.

[Stony Graves · Rating 2 out of 5]

I always enjoyed Hautala's work, but this book really bombed in my opinion. My main concern was the reason for the zombies came off as silly--to harvest potatoes... Really? And how the villain met his end made little sense. The guy made a living of dispatching people that way and he succumbs to the vary fate? Parts were clunky and frankly, cheesy, but an author of Hautala's caliber is permitted a stinker every decade or so.

[Betsy · Rating 4 out of 5]

As I was reading this, I kept imagining it as a movie. Very creepy!