‘I Know What You Did Last Summer’ (1973) didn’t start as a slasher
Frightening Friday (Book review): Fifty years ago, Lois Duncan wrote a gripping mystery novel for teens about guilt, responsibility and moving on.
Horror Novels
‘I Know What You Did Last Summer’ (1973) didn’t start as a slasher
‘Endless Night’ (1967) shows the ‘happily ever after’ … not so happily
Sleuthing Sunday (Book review): Rightly labeled as one of Christie’s “horror” novels, “Endless Night” is light on killings, but drenched in foreboding.
Even Hank Searls can’t save ‘Jaws: The Revenge’ (1987)
Toothy Tuesday (Book review): Sure, the novelization is better than the movie, but a tale of a voodoo shark remains inherently ridiculous.
‘Jaws 2’ novelization (1978) reveals film’s early draft
Toothy Tuesday (Book review): “Jaws 2” eventually got simplified, but an early draft – as captured in the novelization – riffs on the original novel.
Peter Benchley’s ‘Jaws’ (1974) goes beyond the shark stuff
Toothy Tuesday (Book review): The film only drew upon the shark drama. As such, the novel provides plenty of bonus surprises for new readers.
King poetically chronicles dying small town in ‘’Salem’s Lot’ (1975)
Stephen King flashback (Book review): King’s definitive vampire novel is about more than vampires as it chronicles a crumbling Maine township in the 1970s.
King’s career starts with bloody bang in ‘Carrie’ (1974)
Stephen King flashback (Book review): King’s novel-writing career starts with a timeless classic of the teen-outsider genre.
‘Shining’ (1977) makes bid as great American horror novel
Stephen King flashback (Book review): Mixing realism and metaphor, King taps into a family man’s descent into the hell of alcoholism.
‘Bloodless’ an amusing dive into Savannah, weird science
Book review: Preston & Child’s 20th Pendergast novel is a wild page-turner, but it crams in too many ideas to be as memorable as their earlier gems.
‘Hannibal Rising’ (2006) makes Lecter sympathetic
Hannibal at 40 (Book review): It’s perhaps inevitable that we’ll find sympathy with the devil as a series goes on. That’s what happens in this prequel.