Chophouse

by Horns

A sinister night falls over the relaxed rural community of Dominic County, and a restless evil plots its escape from years of confinement. Before the light of day would return to the quiet woodland town, many came to believe that the gates of Hell had broken open and the Devil's minions were rampantly spreading terror and death there.... ....a family on vacation....a sheriff with a tragic childhood.....a curious young woman looking for love in the wrong place at the wrong time....an outsider ambulance driver who finds himself in dire medical straits.....and a host of unwitting victims struggling against forces of madness and wickedness unlike anything they could've dared imagine. A diabolic freight train carrying insanity and murder is barreling down the dark, towering woods known to the locals as Horror Hill, and everyone in its way is getting a free-ticket ride to the other side. . . . The CHOPHOUSE is open!

270 pages, Paperback

First published May 28, 2010

About the author

Abandoned on the snow-covered, icy banks of the Ohio River, left there by a clan of otherworldly fiends who could no longer bear the incessant whining of the most unusual infant, Terry "Horns" Erwin was delivered on a dark and stormy and cold December night in the same month and year the Satanic Bible was first published…..1969 (frightened yet?). Well, maybe it wasn’t storming, and factually it was a nearby Cincinnati hospital, but for the purpose of sounding cooler he would like us to entertain it to be so. Born under the sign of the Goat, this rebellious soul started writing fiction at an early age. His very first short story "The Sad Dragon", written in the wild, jungle gym confines of primary school, won a prestigious blue ribbon award and infected him with the proverbial bug he’d later in life come to discover had burrowed deep within the core of his brain and cocooned there, waiting to mature and eventually claw out in one fierce, gore-splattered evening in 1999. By then the monstrous creature of sinister creativity had grown and become a thing of unstoppable, dark ideas that continues to this day to spew its horror on the written page. Feasting over the long years on a steady diet of horror books, slasher films, and metal music, it’s no wonder the content of the beast within has led him to pen some of the creepiest, most shocking tales known to mankind.

Reviews

[Ben · Rating 4 out of 5]

Chophouse by Horns
Black Bed Sheet/Diverse Media Books
Trade Paperback $16.98 / eBook $3.98
260 pages
Release Date: May 2010
　
HORNS [Terry Erwin] has opened the pages of his imagination, and invites you, yes you, the innocent reader to join him on a ride of unimaginable terror. Keep the lights on. Those noises you hear, they are only your imagination playing tricks again. These horror books are no good for anybody of a lightweight disposition, who is scared of monsters that hide under the bed, or the local myths that surround the single man in flat 4, above you.

All of those fears are made flesh in Chophouse. It is violent, visceral, it is also very good. As well as being a book of horrific happenings, it is also a book of humanity, of characters you feel for, of the dread that keeps a hold of you, and won’t let go until every single secret is revealed to the innocent reader. Every single secret.
When night falls over the woodland community of Dominic County, many are sure that the Devil himself has arrived, with his evil minions intent on spreading their own terror and death.

So, we have the usual suspects in terms of characters. The Sheriff with
too much on his plate, and not enough men, and the tragic childhood that still plays with his mind; the lovelorn young woman, who has chosen the wrong place and time to make changes to her life; an ambulance driver who finds himself in mortal danger, as well as a myriad of other characters all looking for a way out of the town where they have lived their lives, and hope not to die their deaths.
There is a rich and varied imagination at work in these stories, with enough details and character to keep the reader guessing, and scared at the same time. Things are never what they seem, and is it the devil and paranormal agents at work, or just the imagination and paranoia of the people at work?
I will not spoil the ending for you, but it is fitting, and will keep you awake for a while after.

[Mikhail · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love Slashers & I love HORNS. (It is actually the second time I have read this book)
A wave of nostalgia washed through me. It is like I was watching a good slasher film & I am in to that sort of thing! It's like watching a good B horror movie (& for me that is a GOOD thing!) while reading. I can't wait for Chophouse 2!