Read and finished another one off horror novel, and is also another Paperbacks from Hell reprint, in Joan Samson's "The Auctioneer".
The Moore's have lived and worked on their land in the New Hampshire town of Harlowe, a town that's changed very little in the past several decades. But that was before the moment a charismatic figure named Perly Dunsmore arrives and begins to solicit donations for the auctions he hosts, and that's when things start to change.
As he carries out his plan, the Moores and their neighbors are gradually stripped of their freedom, possessions and even perhaps their lives.
The Shirley Jackson vibes I'm getting from this novel are off the charts! There was always that sense of menace and quiet horror that I've always associated with Jackson's work. And this novel, the only one that Joan Samson wrote, is just so good!
My heart literally broke for the Moores and the entire town of Harlowe as they have to endure something that they never really asked for. A thing brought on by Dunsmore.
And Dunsmore himself? At first he seems like a charming and likable character at first, but as things in the story go on it slowly becomes obvious that he is not what he seems or claims to be.
Things slowly build up as the story goes along, and it keeps right on going until the breaking point is reached. And that's one way that i like my horror stories!
by i-the-muso-1968