The Bone Worms

by Keith Minnion

Philadelphia, 1983 – Who is walking the streets of this city, committing crazed, inhuman acts only on victims with very particular things in common? Is it a serial killer, or is the monster stalking the cobbled streets of this ancient city something else, something even older, more insane, more unspeakable than the homicide detective charged with solving the murders can possibly imagine? After all, who could imagine the Bone Worms?

In this updated and expanded novel, Keith Minnion re-enters the world first imagined in his story “Up In The Boneyard” from Shivers IV, expanding and extrapolating the original idea to encompass a horror that stretches across hundreds of years and innumerable acts of depravity and death, to land finally in the IN basket of Detective Sergeant Francis Lomax, and in the growing fears of a city populace with no idea of the nightmare that hunts them.

Genres: Horror

440 pages, Paperback

First published June 11, 2011

About the author

Keith Minnion sold his first short story to Asimov's SF Adventure Magazine in 1979. He has sold over two dozen stories, two novelettes, an art book of his best published illustrations, two story collections, and one novel since. Keith was a book designer and illustrator from the early 1990s to the 2010s, and also did extensive graphic design work for the Department of Defense. He is a former schoolteacher, DOD project manager, and officer in the U.S. Navy. He currently lives in the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia, pursuing oil and watercolor painting, and sometimes even fiction writing.

Reviews

[Peter · Rating 3 out of 5]

Mysterious murders start in 1946. Then in the early 1980s the series begins again. Victims are deboned. Who is doing this? Can Sgt. Fran Lomax from Philadelphia Police stop the murders? What about Billy and John Pictairn? Do they know more about the strange killings? At parts the book is eerie and has a very intriguing and unique back story (the bone worms). But I really would have known more about what those bone worms really are. Aliens? Demons? At parts the story is a bit long winded and tedious, not in a way to put the book down but in a way to wish the author would continue his gripping tale. Fascinating horror motif combined with good storytelling. The editor should have cut it a bit then it would have been ideal. Nevertheless a recommended read!

[Paul Preston · Rating 4 out of 5]

“I see an entire body here,” she said, “but it’s been, what, taken apart? All the meat, all the skin, all the guts, all the bones…” She looked up. “I don’t fucking get it.” “This flesh belongs to the bones upstairs,” Fran said.
Fran is a Detective Sargent in homicide and he is just back from leave for a confrontation that almost ended his life. His first day back finds him and his partner Bill, working on case where the victim was severely mutilated in a very specific way.
Fran discovers that this same thing happened decades before.
I am not one for police procedure type horror but this was intriguing. Fran is a great vulnerable character who has to act the part of a police detective while still dealing with his recent breakdown as well as moving back in with his mom.
There were several parts that really made me squirm and it was fun trying to figure out what was happening to these people and why.
I don’t think I have ever added “oh dear God” to my notes before, yet, with this book I did it several times.
This book is being rereleased this month by Cemetery Dance.

[Sheena Forsberg · Rating 3 out of 5]

An eagle mysteriously disappears into thin air, as does a boy in a plane.
Objects that return from wherever they were plucked to are found with a coating of ash. Horribly murdered victims with their bones missing start piling up. It’s a busy city, but something’s definitely.. up.

-Billy & Jack went missing, too. Many years have since passed but Jack is starting to feel a pull that won’t be denied once more.
Meanwhile, detective sergeant Francis Lomax tries to make sense of the unfathomable and seemingly impossible murders. Is it the work of a homicidal maniac or a different kind of evil altogether?
————
Part police procedural, part squishy-leaky-visceral horror makes for an interesting read. I enjoyed this but I’ll have to track down a copy of the original short story to make up my mind as I’m not convinced it benefitted from being this length.
That being said, Minnion has created an engaging antagonist and I’d be interested to read more stories set in this world.

[Erwin Michelfelder · Rating 4 out of 5]

Surprised this book didn't get that much recognition! It read fast for a 400+ page book. I like the police procedural approach. There was a nice amount of body horror, and, though not all that scary, it was suspenseful because of the well drawn characters. 4 and 1/2 stars.

[Lora Offord · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoyed this read! It grabbed my attention at the very beginning and had me wondering what was going on and what was going to happen!!

[Joseph Maddrey · Rating 4 out of 5]

This one gets extra points for originality. At times, I felt like I was watching a lost Larry Cohen movie. Weird stuff, in the best way.

[Kurt Criscione · Rating 5 out of 5]

I've known Kieth Minnion as a fantastic illustrator and now i know him as an amazing writing. This story is a a mystery, a series of grisly murders where the bodies have had all the bones removed with surgical precision and the only leads are a previous series of murders almost forty years earlier.

I like creature feature type stories, nothing i love more than a good monster, and Kieth has created his own little gruesome creatures in the Bone Worms. I'm intrigued by them and i hope that he expands on them in further shorts or a second novel. I for one would like to know about the Boneyard.

[Frances · Rating 4 out of 5]

The downside: due to a combination of the ebook formatting and my old Kobo, the chapter breaks weren't clearly indicated; there were a couple of times where I missed the scene change and had to skip back a paragraph to pinpoint where it had happened.

Besides that: it was a sweet, interesting story that wasn't too heavy on the grue and body horror (I mean, it had some, as one does when writing a story about monsters that jigsaw people to pieces and extract their bones). Premise is interesting, characters are sympathetic and plausible, research and unfolding of the mystery makes sense. I'd look up further works by the author.

[Rob Errera · Rating 4 out of 5]

Minnion's supernatural police procedural reminds me of the work of Graham Masterton. Minnion's characters may no be wholly original -- the emotionally unstable cop, his doting ma, his long-suffering gal, his trusted partner -- but they're lively, engaging, and they keep this story humming along. Kudos to Minnion for coming up with a truly creepy creature in the Bone Worms, one that would make Masterton proud! The Boneyard awaits!