Product Description

It was the perfect summer home for Max and Louise and their 12-year-old son. The Californian pine forest was peaceful and isolated, and the old couple who lived nearby just loved to entertain young Denny. Louise soon realised, however, that something evil was taking over her son.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #6783279 in Books
• Published on: 1987-08-01
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback

From Publishers Weekly
As Thomas Altman, Black wrote macabre novels including Kiss Daddy Goodbye; the theme of this book is also horror. Unfortunately, the characters and incidents aren't quite credible. The setting is a prosperous tourist town in northern California. The death of six children since 1899 is a secret guarded by the leading citizens, who discourage questions about the tragedies from young Sheriff Metger. He had seen the most recent victim of progeriapremature agingand suspects the rare disease as the covered-up cause of the earlier deaths. Readers are aware that the elderly couple named Summers, at home in the woods outside town, have been rejuvenating themselves by absorbing the children's vital forces. When Max Untermeyer and his wife Louise arrive with their son Dennis, 12, it's obvious that the old demons welcome their new neighbors. The Untermeyers' plans for a peaceful vacation from the city becomes a nightmare, ending with a bloody confrontation between Louise and the Summers. Metger has learned the truth but not in time and Dennis seems doomed. The sprawling narrative suggests that a firm editorial hand would have made a better story. 25,000 first printing; $25,000 ad/promo. (July 28pMAUD GONE Kathleen Rockwell Lawrence. Atheneum, $16.95 ISBN 0-689-11643-8 THE BARTHOLOMEW FAIR MUR
Copyright 1986 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal
Every 20 years or so, in an isolated California town that caters to the tourist trade, a child suddenly sickens and dies horrifyingly in a matter of weeks. The town's sheriff attempts to determine the cause before the malady strikes the son of a vacationing couple too involved in their marital problems to attend to their offspring. Black's novel is disappointing, simply because after maintaining a deliciously leisurely and suspenseful pace through four-fifths of the book he suddenly changes speed and races to an abrupt and unsatisfactory conclusion. Other major flaws are a superfluous main character and some plot elements that are too improbable even for an occult novel. Otherwise, this is a well-written and well-plotted concoction vaguely reminiscent of Brooks Standwood's The Glow ( LJ 9/1/79). For popular fiction collections. Eric W. Johnson, Univ. of Bridgeport Lib., Ct.
Copyright 1986 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Review
Another chiller from the author of Letters from the Dead (1985) as well as many pseudonymous thrillers under the name of Thomas Altman. Letters was a lovely example of a muted, misty ghost-story, more Henry James than Stephen King; while Black offers the same sensitive characterization, he stumbles with a plot that incorporates some creaky elements (vampire-like beings - led by a blood-drinker from eastern Europe, no less) and a central revelation that most readers will guess halfway through the text. When Max and Louise Untermeyer rent a summer house in the chic country community of Carnarvon, California, their only neighbors are a cheerful ex-hippie named Frog, who "grew Sideways" instead of up, and a reclusive old couple, Dick and Charlotte Summers. Soon the Summerses are plying the Untermeyers' son Dennis with all sorts of mysterious sweets, giving him a foul substance ("Magic Bait," they call it) to store in his bedroom, and otherwise acting like weirdos out of Grimm. In due time various townspeople lapse into insanity, something awful happens to Frog, and the local sheriff wonders why over the decades so many Carnarvon children have died from a strange ailment. For some reason, Black refrains from naming this disease until the end of the story - a clumsy attempt at suspense, one presumes - although anyone who reads medical journals or supermarket tabloids will recognize it as progeria (rapid aging in children) right off the bat. It turns out that the Summerses (ah, so that's why they have that name!) are enjoying an endless summer of youth by using witchcraft to steal the life from their younger friends. . . a secret that will surprise no one, although the gory, grim finale will leave a few readers feeling distinctly distressed. Any Black novel belongs in the permanent collections of horror/ thriller fans, but this one can be shelved in the back, where the dust gathers. Not bad, with a nice moldy air of degeneracy about it, but a disappointment nonetheless. (Kirkus Reviews)

Customer Reviews

Review
Something is very wrong in the state of California. Carnarvon is a seemingly peaceful little town, a renowned tourist attraction outside of San Francisco, known for the beauty of its serene forests. But a dark secret haunts the inhabitants: Every few years a healthy child takes ill with a strange, horrifying disease for which modern medicine can find no cure. Every few years . . .

Louise and Max Untermeyer are ready for a sabbatical in the country -- Louise is a successful children's illustrator; Max is a doctor with more than a few secrets -- so they pack their bags and leave San Francisco for Carnarvon. Their young son Dennis, they are sure, will enjoy the beautiful green countryside.

Soon after the Untermeyers arrive at their rustic country house, the troubles begin. Why is their son starting to drift away from them? Is it because of his growing friendship with Frog, an amiable hippie living in a nearby trailer? Or is it his involvement with the Summers, a gracious elderly couple who have taken a fancy to him? Or is there some deeper secret hidden in the majestic pines? As their child becomes more and more of a stranger, as the rural peace is invaded by an eerie sense of danger and foreboding, Louise must fight to keep her own sanity -- and to save her son's life.

THE WANTING is the novel readers have been waiting for from one of today's most exciting and accomplished writers of suspense fiction.

The industry reviews are quite unfair.
Well, it might seem a bit strange for me to be writing a review of a book published 20 years ago, but if I'm like other Amazon visitors, I like to have at least one reader review to go by, even if the book is quite old.

The industry reviews included with this book listing are fairly accurate--the old couple in the woods aren't what they appear to be, kids die of a mysterious ailment while the old folks seem to grow younger and stronger, and the main husband and wife in the story are having marital problems. However, the industry's despair over a "poorly crafted" horror novel is far from fair.

I personally found this novel to be gripping, and for all facets of the story to be interesting and part of the overall "big picture" of the book. Some of the characters featured prominently don't end up doing much by the end of the book, but they're far from superfluous--every character plays a role in this complicated but satisfying novel.

As for bits and pieces of the book being "too far-fetched" even for an "occult novel," I'd have to disagree there, as well. Some of the best-known horror fiction is based on premises that could never possibly be true, but the authors of those novels wrote in such a way that it was easy for us to picture something so improbable happening right in our own little towns.

All in all, a good effort by Black--this being the first novel of his I've ever read, I look forward to digging into another book of his that I own, Letters from the Dead.