Product Description

For 13-year-old Ronnie Day, life is full of problems: Mom and Dad have separated, his brother Tim is a constant pest, Melanie Ward either loves him or hates him, and Jesus Christ won't stay in his heart. Plus he has to walk past the red church every day, where the Bell Monster hides with its wings and claws and livers for eyes. But the biggest problem is that Archer McFall is the new preacher at the church, and Mom wants Ronnie to attend midnight services with her. Sheriff Frank Littlefield hates the red church for a different reason. His little brother died in a freak accident at the church twenty years ago, and now Frank is starting to see his brother's ghost. And the ghost keeps demanding, "Free me." People are dying in Whispering Pines, and the murders coincide with McFall's return. The Days, the Littlefields, and the McFalls are descendants of the original families that settled the rural Appalachian community. Those old families share a secret of betrayal and guilt, and McFall wants his congregation to prove its faith. Because he believes he is the Second Son of God, and that the cleansing of sin must be done in blood. "Sacrifice is the currency of God," McFall preaches, and unless Frank and Ronnie stop him, everybody pays.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #988547 in Books
• Published on: 2002-06-01
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 352 pages

Review
"Like Stephen King, Nicholson has an eye and ear for the rhythms of rural America and summons serious scares." -- Bentley Little, author of The Association

"Nicholson writes with a mixture of H.P. Lovecraft and Clive Barker, stirred with a dose of his own originality." -- Kevin J. Anderson, author of Hopscotch

"Readers will sense echoes of Stephen King's classic Castle Rock tales in The Red Church. Scott Nicholson knows the territory." -- Stewart O'Nan, author of The Circus Fire

"Scott Nicholson explores a nightmare country that ends in Stephen King's yard. A wonderful storyteller." -- Sharyn McCrumb, author of the Ballad novels

“Rarely does a story teller weave prose with the emotional energy and sheer gusto of Nicholson.” -- Horrorfind.com, December 2000

From the Publisher
The church was constructed in the 1860s under the guidance of Reverend Wendell McFall. His sermons declared the existence of God's Second Son- whose mission it is to undo all of Jesus' work on Earth. But when he sacrificed a child to support his rantings, his congregation hung him from the rafters of his own sanctuary.

For twenty years, the red church has stood empty. Crumbling to ruin, it has become a site for Halloween pranks and the setting for ghost stories- including one about the thing that lives in the bell tower, a creature being blamed for a brutal murder that occurred in the church's graveyard.

Now Archer McFall has purchased the church to house his Temple of Two Sons- whose zealous worshippers will stop at nothing to see the Second Son return to his rightful glory.

From the Author
The Red Church is a novel about faith. The supernatural elements and the Southern Appalachian setting add to the story's complexity, but the main characters and how they react to the strange events are the driving force behind the plot.

Customer Reviews

A good debut horror novel
Scott Nicholson's first widely published work, "The Red Church", is a good first novel. It's better than most "first" novels I've read in the horror genre. It's entertaining, but does have its faults.

The book centers around an old church that until recently had been used as a barn. A relative of the church's original preacher offers a large sum of money and re-opens the church. However, this church worships the Second Son of God. The church is haunted by a bell tower creature and ghosts of those who died on church grounds are seen. Eventually, the ultimate battle of good versus evil occurs in the great climax of the book.

The main problem, although not a major one, with the book is the author's over-description of past events, inhabitants of the area, etc. While a little description is necessary, at times the author seemed to delve too deep in the history and it did little to enhance the story. However, overall the book is entertaining, complete with a few eerie moments (the communion scene being one of them) -- a good novel, especially for an author's first foray into the world of fictional horror.

Rusty Red
Mad Southern preacher Wendell McFall painted the town church red back during the Civil War, in anticipation of the birth of the Second Son of Christ, who he believed would bring death to the world as a gift. To get the Second Son's ball rolling, old Wendell sacrificed a parishioner's child at the altar, and got himself lynched by the townsfolk as a result. The red church has been haunted ever since, both by McFall's ghost and some demonic shadow in the bell tower.

Now, Archer McFall, Wendell's descendant, has come home to roost. He, too, is a preacher, with a television following and a lot of money behind him, back from California to restore the church to its former infamous glory. Archer has numerous acolytes still living in town, and even a former mistress or two - women willing to give up their own sons, as Wendell did almost a hundred and fifty years ago. And the local constabulary is concerned, because Archer's return to town has brought with it a series of mutilation murders - caused, apparently, by something neither animal nor human.

This book sounds better than it is, but it still isn't bad. It's a first novel, and suffers from typical first novel flaws. Character actions and transitions are sometimes abrupt and not always clearly understood. The plot needs more development than it is given. The nature of the red church's supernatural menace is inconsistent and confusing. Too much time is spent debating the nature of Christian beliefs, at the expense of plot and story development, and there is unnecessary padding.

However, overall it's a pretty good read, if lightweight. It reads a great deal less like Lovecraft (which it has inappropriately been compared to) than a cross between Peter Straub's Ghost Story and the movie The Howling, though it is not as good as either of those pieces. It manages a few chills, even if its surprises are sprung too early.

For a first novel, pretty good. A pleasant way to pass the time, if you're looking for a simple, straightforward little horror story with a rural setting. But I expect the author's next book will probably be better.

Not Bad, Not Bad at All...
I picked up this book at DragonCon when it came out so that I would have a little something to keep me occupied in my hotel room. I just wanted a light read by an author whom I had never heard of. This seemed like a perfect little book for the occasion.

I was not disapointed. It took me 2 or 3 days to read and it held my interest. Religion is a spooky subject in my opinion anyway. I will have to admit that I found the ending a little anti-climatic, but the trip there is charming (in a horror type way).

It isn't a literary masterpiece by any means, you can tell it is a first timer's effort. I think that Scott Nicholson has a lot of potential though, and The Red Church was good enough that I am interested in reading more novels by this author.