#Readalong #BookReview-‘Crawl Space’ by Herbert Lieberman with @HeyLilThrifter

About the book..

I was absolutely thrilled to see the summer TBR(to be read) pile that Alex , aka Hey Little Thrifter, had gathered and picked up a couple of the books she had found including this one. Mistakenly thinking it was a Readalong, she explained, very kindly, that they were books she planned to read over the summer, however, I was welcome to read this novel with her and we’d link to her Booktube account (see foot of the post) and vice versa.

How lovely and kind was that?

I am a big fan of vintage horror , many of which can’t really be replicated in a modern setting, as well as recalling a certain time and aesthetic whihc is nostalgia inducing

‘Crawl Space’ by Herbert Lieberman is available via second hand bookshops , specialists such as ‘All Data Lost’ or in my case, ebay.

In this novel of mounting suspense from award-winning author Herbert Lieberman, a terrifying surprise waits beneath a couple’s New England home

Albert and Alice Graves live a normal, if monotonous, domestic life. They’ve never had children; they spend their days tending to their home and enjoying their time together. One day, when the oil man, Richard, is refilling their furnace, Alice invites him to dinner, never suspecting that a casual act of charity will lead to a horrifying, morbid discovery in the crawlspace underneath their beloved house.

The Graves take Richard into their lives, becoming attached to his presence as though to the son they never had. Their town, though, is not nearly so welcoming. When the locals lash out against the Graves and their strange houseguest, the contented household is irrevocably drawn into a darkness they could not have imagined.

”There is something about injustice.Once it starts,it spreads like contagion.First,you have one small injustice;then a whole conspiracy of subsequent injustices are required to support and sustain the initial injustice.And so very quickly the whole atmosphere of a place is irreversibly polluted.”

‘Crawl Space’  was not the book I imagined that I would be reading. There was more information on the Goodreads page than the back of my vintage paperback so I was expecting 2 people being increasingly menaced by a stranger who insinuated themself into the crawl space of their house…and never left!

Well kind of but also not, it was more psychologically dark than this-what you had was a couple who moved to the country for the sake of Albert’s health. His poor cardiac history rang alarm bell number one, alarm bell number two was rung by the casual mention of being two hours drive from the nearest town. Oh, and it is also winter…

Richard is one of a number of temporary workers hired by the oil company to visit their customers and tout for business, He gives the Graves a feeling of unease but being good Christian folk, they invite him in  for food and company before he goes to his next call.

The next day, they start noticing that things are ever so slightly different  in the house-things are missing and moved. Albert investigates as he begins to suspect that Richard never left..and guess where he finds him?

At this point, you would think that anyone would ring the police and say they have an intruder, but so begins a dark and twisted relationship between the man in the crawlspace, and the Graves who buy him clothes, give him food to coax him out of his hiding place, and culminates in them bringing him to church with them at Christmas. By this point you are chewing on your knuckles going ‘No! That is not how this works!!That’s not how any of this works!’

A quick phone call to the oil company confirms that they hire a variety of drifters who work for them and then they move on, leaving with the wind they blew in on. And Richard has handed in his notice with no forwarding address…this is because he has moved into the farm’s crawlspace!!!

From then on in I imagined a novel where the couple were stalked and menaced by this intinerant fellow, miles from help,in winter, in poor health.

However, this is where the novel does a complete one eighty and becomes something very different indeed.

Instead, the Graves become accustomed to their ‘guest’ and leave food for him and try to entice him out to eat, buy him clothes and eventually, they turn up at church with him as part of their ‘family’.

Despite the attempts of several professional folk, including the great ‘We don’t want your sort round here’ Sheriff Birge, to point out the folly of keeping basically a feral stranger in their crawl space, the Graves instead, withdraw from society as they focus on their own.

The pastor and the police chief try to intervene warning the Graves that this man is nothing but trouble. Using Bible verse-the Bible and religious imagery, such as William Blake’s poetry is a running theme throughout the book-he writes to the pastor telling him that they will no longer attend church.

Chief Birge is made to feel unwelcome and when the Graves nephew rocks up to stay with his relatives, the tension could be cut with a sword, it is that thick.

Alice is delighted with the son she never had, Albert has an altogether different relationship with Richard, more a love/hate affair. He protects and stands up for Richard as the townsfolk slowly turn on them, but when Richard, with an inate sense of justice and loyalty fights back, the violence and aggression towards the Graves and their curious visitor becomes increasingly scary and deadly.

This is a vintage horror that feels like it is not dated, the action and creeping sense of dread and horror is totally on point and I really enjoyed reading it! It’s not a book to rush, every page needs to be read. The ending is deliberately ambiguous and sort of open ended whilst the introduction of Richard’s backstory felt tacked on to maybe appease an editor/early reader. Leaving him as an enigmatic drifter would have been a bold move in this humble reader’s opinion.

The situation gets worse and worse as the more tightly wound Richard gets, his sense of justice towards his hosts explodes into increasingly violent behaviour until it tunrs fatal.

I had an overwhelming sense of familarity whilst reading ‘Crawl Space’ of ‘First Blood’ by David Morrell. The way that the locals treat the Graves, as relative newcomers, and by extension then Richard, is cruel, exclusionary and taunting. Who remains responsible for the climactic onfrontation is kind of left open to the reader, what I think happened and what you think may be both right and wrong.

It’s an intriguing read that kept me guessing and slowly reading every page, there was no skipping at all because the story was so taut you needed to follow every line.

I am thrilled to have been reading alongside Alex, her August wrap-up which includes her take on ‘Crawl Space’ is below so why don’t you drop by and give her a wave, or even better, subscribe?

About the author…

The author of Crawlspace, City of the Dead, The Climate of Hell, and several other acclaimed novels, Herbert Lieberman is a recipient of the Guggenheim Fellowship and a winner of France’s coveted Grand Prix de Littérature Policière.

He lives in Los Angeles with his wife

Links-http://www.openroadmedia.com/herbert-lieberman

Twitter @HeyLilThrifter

@Alldatalostbook