Shadows

Chill #7

by Jory Sherman

A desperate and wealthy toy manufacturer seeks out a clinic in Mexico as a last-resort cure for his terminal cancer. But the mansion he buys there is more insidious than his illness-shadowy apparitions stalk his every move. No sooner are Chill and Laura summoned, than a doll, possessed of a life of its own, begins to terrify them all, as it seeks revenge on a mysterious evil-an evil only the shadows know.

Genres: Occult Detective, Horror

181 pages, Paperback

Published January 1, 1980

About the author

Jory Sherman was born in Minnesota and grew up in West Texas, Louisiana, and Colorado. He was a magazine editor for a time and had some of his work published, including some poetry, short stories and articles. Sherman had a friend who owned a publishing company and asked him to write a novel for the company. From that offer came five more novels, all written in one year. He wrote the supernatural mystery series, "Chill," which was somewhat revolutionary for the times, but which earned him an eight book contract. He then came up with the idea for "Rivers West," a series which had each book written by a different western author. Then came the "Baron Saga," the first of which was "Grass Kingdom" which earned Sherman a nomination for the Pulitzer Prize in Letters. Sherman has also won the Spur Award for his contribution to Western Literature.

Reviews

[Wayne · Rating 1 out of 5]

This book was a real dud. The author took the material way to seriously. He bored the hell out of me with talk of the "unknown." There was not much of that to boot. There was toy design talk. Corporate structure systems and lots of sesame stick eating. A real pain.

I don't know why the author even ventured into this genre in the first place. Jory Sherman wrote dirty westerns, mainly. I haven't read a lot of his work, but the "Gunn" and "Bolt" series are in that vein. So, I guess he should have had some succubus or other running around here. I won't be looking for any more of this series.

[Katherine · Rating 1 out of 5]

Unlike the other two I've read this didn't even have the decency to be amusing bad. It was just boring bad. There's a useless subplot involving an attempted corporate takeover, the half-Sioux love interest is completely useless and the one other woman was characterized as a power-hungry traitor who ultimately just needed to understand that what she really wanted was to have a baby. However, no slut shaming which pleasantly surprised me.