Garden of Evil

by Graham Masterton

Overview

Jim Rook, remedial English teacher and psychic, knows it’s going to be a bad day. He nearly runs over someone dressed entirely in black – but why did they walk right in the middle of the college driveway? And who just walks off into the fog after nearly being run over? But when a splash of blood appears on a questionnaire Jim realizes that his day isn’t going to be merely bad: it’s going to be the day from hell. Perhaps quite literally . . .

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781847514684
Publisher:	Severn House Publishers
Publication date:	07/01/2014
Series:	Jim Rook Series , #8
Pages:	240
Product dimensions:	5.40(w) x 8.40(h) x 0.70(d)

About the Author

Graham Masterton, a “master of modern horror” (Library Journal), is one of the world’s best-selling horror writers. A journalist by trade, Masterton’s debut novel, The Manitou, was an instant hit and was filmed with Tony Curtis and Susan Strasberg.

What People are Saying About This

From the Publisher

“Masterton, a horror-genre veteran, shows us again why he’s been around as long as he has”
Booklist on Garden of Evil

Editorial Reviews

Masterton, a horror-genre veteran, shows us again why he’s been around as long as he has

Booklist

Masterton, a horror-genre veteran, shows us again why he’s been around as long as he has

Booklist

Frustrated professor Jim Rook finds his psychic gifts an ambiguous asset in his eighth horror-lite tale (after Demon’s Den). On the first day of class, Rook finds the corpses of a girl and eight Persian cats nailed to a classroom ceiling. As more deaths occur, sinister student Simon Silence, son of a donor to the college, woos Rook by showing interest in his ability to talk with supernatural entities. Masterton’s heavy-handed injection of signals about Simon’s preternatural nature erase any tension as Simon tempts classmates to pursue their own “personal paradise.” After much agonizing, Rook incautiously uses the Silences’ powers to resurrect his father, who drowned himself, and his murdered daughter. As the revived dead rampage through Los Angeles, Masterton hammers home the message that nobody achieves everything they want without cost, and Rook’s final weighing of sacrifice vs. salvation underscores the central issue yet again. Even adolescent readers will find the moralizing overly blatant and tiresome. (Apr.)

Publishers Weekly

Masterton, a horror-genre veteran, shows us again why he’s been around as long as he has”
Booklist on Garden of Evil

From the Publisher

A supernatural tale pits an English teacher against an adversary who may just be the devil. The students who enroll in Jim Rook's remedial English class at West Grove Community College have no idea what's in store for them from Day 1. It's not so much that these kids are particularly ignorant or ill-prepared for the real world, though they are both, as that bad luck seems to follow Jim wherever he goes. As the world's only true medium, Jim frequently finds himself embroiled in supernatural situations. The apparent ritual murder of a college student whose body is whitewashed and suspended from the ceiling of his classroom suggests this semester is dishing up more of the same. Whoever perpetrated this crime evidently wants to make it personal for Jim, who has an unexpected tie to the victim. Though Jim feels certain that the death is related to the mysterious Simon Silence, the son of a cult reverend and one of Jim's latest crop of students, principal Ehrlichman refuses to remove Simon from the class. Without warning, Jim finds himself drawn into a world in which he is expected to question good and evil and must make a choice between the two. As he's forced to decide, more people close to Jim are drawn into the drama, and it's not clear who will make it out alive, including Jim's usually well-loved cat, Tibbles. Though Masterton's (Festival of Fear, 2012, etc.) plot moves well and is action-oriented, the condoning of generally abnormal human interactions by all hands may make readers wonder what, in this world, normal is.

Kirkus Reviews