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Dew Claws
GRIP OF DARKNESS
He was Jonathan, now. He had two foster parents, a room of his own—even a clock radio by his bed. Everything was going to be just fine. Even the nightmares were finally beginning to leave him. And the memories of his uncle and three brothers being sucked into the fetid mud of Night Horse Swamp were starting to fade.
GRASP OF DEATH
Then it returned. Once again Johnny Ray saw the glimmer of movement in the dark, smelled the dank odor of decay, felt the withered black claws of horror closing around his heart. It had taken away everything he loved. And now it had come back—for him.
He was Jonathan, now. He had two foster parents, a room of his own—even a clock radio by his bed. Everything was going to be just fine. Even the nightmares were finally beginning to leave him. And the memories of his uncle and three brothers being sucked into the fetid mud of Night Horse Swamp were starting to fade.
GRASP OF DEATH
Then it returned. Once again Johnny Ray saw the glimmer of movement in the dark, smelled the dank odor of decay, felt the withered black claws of horror closing around his heart. It had taken away everything he loved. And now it had come back—for him.
335 pages, Mass Market Paperback
First published April 1, 1986
1 person is currently reading
150 people want to read
About the author
Stephen Gresham
33 books35 followersSuspense, supernatural, and young adult fiction writer Stephen Gresham (1947- ) has been intrigued by the gothic tradition of the South since moving to Auburn, Lee County, in 1975 to take a teaching position at Auburn University. This area of Alabama provides the backdrop for his novel The Fraternity (2004) and imbues works such as Rockabye Baby (1984) with the horror and fantasy elements of the southern magic genre that guide him as he writes of supernatural creatures and forces.
Gresham was born in Halstead, Kansas, on September 23, 1947, to Chester Gresham, a building contractor, and Helen Kennedy, housewife and wartime riveter. He was raised with five brothers. Gresham's literary passion was sparked by listening to his grandmother read him everything from comic books to Edgar Allan Poe and watching 1940s B movies by horror film producer Val Lewton. Gresham studied journalism for two years at Wichita State University, where he began his professional writing career as a freelance sports reporter at the Wichita Eagle. He then transferred to Kansas State Teachers College (present-day Emporia State University) to earn a bachelor's and a master's degree. In 1975, he completed a Ph.D. in English Renaissance literature at the University of Missouri. While in Missouri, Gresham married Linda Duffy in 1969, and the couple had their only child, Aaron, in 1974.
In 1975, Gresham joined the English Department at Auburn University as a professor of creative writing. By the later 1970s, he had published several pieces of short fiction with two small presses. Gresham is drawn to the mythical South and has described east Alabama as an inspirational place. Moon Lake, Gresham's first novel, uses such a backdrop to tell the tale of two honeymooners who encounter evil hidden in the water hyacinths on Moon Lake.
Gresham's novels have aimed to mesh the supernatural world of ghosts, magic, and witchcraft with the real horrors of places like his boyhood Kansas, with its tornados, polio scares, and threats of nuclear war. The most distinctive aspect of his writing is the centrality of unrequited love and the unexpected yet powerful bonds formed by his characters. When Teddy, the teenage hero of Haunted Ground, battles ghosts at a neighboring farm, he must also come to terms with his adolescence and the wrath of his dysfunctional family. This focus on the destructive innerworkings of families is balanced by a respect for what Gresham refers to as "soul" families, those united not necessarily by blood but by heart or circumstance. Even after Teddy is assaulted by his own brother and neglected by his psychologically unfit mother, he is able to find solace with his cousin Judith, the black sheep of his extended family.
Another characteristic of Gresham's books is his attention to research and historical settings. In the 1990 novel Blood Wings, Gresham researched the field of cryptozoology to create the massive batlike creature from which the novel gets its title. In The Fraternity (2004), two warring vampire fraternities battle against the backdrop of Depression-era America where the only threat greater than the crumbled economy of the Hoover years is the risk of being kidnapped by rival vampires.
In addition to the many novels he has published under his own name, Gresham has also written under two pennames to establish a distinct identity between his suspense thrillers and his young adult fiction. For the 1994 suspense/thriller Primal Instinct, he adopted the name John Newland from the 1950s television series "One Step Beyond." The next year, he paid homage to director Val Lewton when he published two novels, Just Pretend and Called to Darkness, under the name J. V. Lewton. Gresham's best selling novel to date has been Midnight Boy (1987), and Haunted Ground (2003) has garnered the most favorable response from readers. Reception from readers, especially young ones, has been largely favorable, and he continues to publish thrillers.
Gres
Gresham was born in Halstead, Kansas, on September 23, 1947, to Chester Gresham, a building contractor, and Helen Kennedy, housewife and wartime riveter. He was raised with five brothers. Gresham's literary passion was sparked by listening to his grandmother read him everything from comic books to Edgar Allan Poe and watching 1940s B movies by horror film producer Val Lewton. Gresham studied journalism for two years at Wichita State University, where he began his professional writing career as a freelance sports reporter at the Wichita Eagle. He then transferred to Kansas State Teachers College (present-day Emporia State University) to earn a bachelor's and a master's degree. In 1975, he completed a Ph.D. in English Renaissance literature at the University of Missouri. While in Missouri, Gresham married Linda Duffy in 1969, and the couple had their only child, Aaron, in 1974.
In 1975, Gresham joined the English Department at Auburn University as a professor of creative writing. By the later 1970s, he had published several pieces of short fiction with two small presses. Gresham is drawn to the mythical South and has described east Alabama as an inspirational place. Moon Lake, Gresham's first novel, uses such a backdrop to tell the tale of two honeymooners who encounter evil hidden in the water hyacinths on Moon Lake.
Gresham's novels have aimed to mesh the supernatural world of ghosts, magic, and witchcraft with the real horrors of places like his boyhood Kansas, with its tornados, polio scares, and threats of nuclear war. The most distinctive aspect of his writing is the centrality of unrequited love and the unexpected yet powerful bonds formed by his characters. When Teddy, the teenage hero of Haunted Ground, battles ghosts at a neighboring farm, he must also come to terms with his adolescence and the wrath of his dysfunctional family. This focus on the destructive innerworkings of families is balanced by a respect for what Gresham refers to as "soul" families, those united not necessarily by blood but by heart or circumstance. Even after Teddy is assaulted by his own brother and neglected by his psychologically unfit mother, he is able to find solace with his cousin Judith, the black sheep of his extended family.
Another characteristic of Gresham's books is his attention to research and historical settings. In the 1990 novel Blood Wings, Gresham researched the field of cryptozoology to create the massive batlike creature from which the novel gets its title. In The Fraternity (2004), two warring vampire fraternities battle against the backdrop of Depression-era America where the only threat greater than the crumbled economy of the Hoover years is the risk of being kidnapped by rival vampires.
In addition to the many novels he has published under his own name, Gresham has also written under two pennames to establish a distinct identity between his suspense thrillers and his young adult fiction. For the 1994 suspense/thriller Primal Instinct, he adopted the name John Newland from the 1950s television series "One Step Beyond." The next year, he paid homage to director Val Lewton when he published two novels, Just Pretend and Called to Darkness, under the name J. V. Lewton. Gresham's best selling novel to date has been Midnight Boy (1987), and Haunted Ground (2003) has garnered the most favorable response from readers. Reception from readers, especially young ones, has been largely favorable, and he continues to publish thrillers.
Gres
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Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
May 19, 2018
Let the back cover's reference to the symbolic clock radio be a warning that this is not a very exciting book, much less a scary one. This is a children's adventure story with some spooky parts. Swamp kid Johnny discovers soon after his 13th birthday that he has an embarrassing problem he is afraid to discuss with anyone - his arm keeps turning into a horrible claw! He uses it to scare a bully and to fight some wild hogs, but most of the times when it flares up he has to hope no one will notice before he can find some swamp healer to help him. After the prologue, skip ahead to Chapter 15 around page 176 so you can enjoy the vivid descriptions of the swamp with fun details like cathead biscuits and a moccasin ball, the visit to the snake handler church and the entertaining, oddball conclusion. You will miss most of the day care scenes, but they are dull and confusing. The author has a habit of changing characters and even locations in the middle of long paragraphs, burying action at the ends of sentences or after reactions, and of picking annoyingly wrong words: rising mists don't go "swinging" and a machete doesn't "swish" the air. Add to that the insistence on trotting out an almost constant parade of dumb new characters: meet Sheila, meet Shayna, meet Melissa, meet unmentionable Melba, meet supposedly Vietnamese 'Ricky', meet Sam, meet magical negro 'Kudzu Dan', and yes meet George Washington Carver in an embarrassing cameo. You might find yourself checking your own clock radio.
February 3, 2011
Dew Claws by Stephen Gresham was book written in the 1980's under the Zebra Horror label. While the cover is a typical Zebra cover, with a scary looking skeleton, it really doesn't give you a lot of insight to what the book is about. Dew Claws does have some elements of horror but really isn't all that terrifying. It starts in a swamp where young Johnny Ray loses his uncle and brothers to some unseen force. The story then picks up with Johnny living with another family but the swamp seems to be calling him back. Dew Claws has a quick moving story and is worth a read if you are able to locate a copy of it.
August 8, 2015
Pretty dull. When searching for ever yet more great vintage horror fiction, I seek out these authors that had many books published. I think maybe they had something. This author, while his writing is okay, has no feel for pacing or suspense. This was a suspense and scare free horror novel. I had to push myself to get through it. The prologue is good, the ending is good, but the rest is really slow and bloated. Maybe if it was marketed as a YA novel? Just seems like he wanted to write a nice story and he happened to have some creepy ghosts in it. None of it is scary and very little of it is of interest. Can't beat that cover, though!
September 1, 2023
Review to come.
October 15, 2021
Less horror, and more horrible. Lacking any real suspense or thrilling action, this book delivers a boring story laced with an uninventive and lazy plot movement, and a cringey mammie trope for one of its main characters. The premise and setting had a lot of potential, but it fell way short in execution.
March 7, 2019
Slow moving with some glaring issues, but the core story was actually quite good.
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews