#BookReview ‘They Lurk’ by Ronald Malfi

About the book…

From the bestselling author of Come with Me , five collected novellas from the master of terror, featuring possession, parasites and something monstrous lurking outside… COME CLOSER…

Five terrifying collected horror novellas newly reissued from the “modern-day Algernon Blackwood”.

Skullbelly After three teenagers disappear in a forest, a private detective is hired and uncovers a terrible local secret. The Separation Marcus arrives in Germany to find his friend up-and-coming prizefighter Charlie in a deep depression. But soon Charlie’s behavior grows increasingly bizarre. Is he suffering from a nervous breakdown, or are otherworldly forces at work? The Stranger Set a rural Florida parking lot, David returns to his car to find a stranger sat behind the wheel. The doors are locked and there’s a gun on the dashboard. And that was when then the insanity started… After the Fade A girl walked into a small Annapolis tavern, collapsed and died. Something had latched itself to the base of her skull. And it didn’t arrive alone. Now, the patrons of The Fulcrum are trapped, held prisoner within the tavern’s walls by monstrous things, trying to find their way in. And one more novella to be revealed!

All my thanks to the fabulous team at Titan who approved my Netgalley request for ‘They Lurk’ which is due to be published on July 20th!

A long time fan of Malfi’s work, who manages to land each and every tale no matter what the format, I was very, very excited to read ‘They Lurk’. To me, this is quintessential Malfi, he uses 5 novellas to tell tales which other novelists may have expanded to novel length and lost a lot in the process. He knows when to stop, and whilst readers may be unhappy with that stopping point, each and every one of these stories makes sense ending where they do. And although technically these have not been gathered elsewhere, but 4 have been published elsewhere, they do match each other in ways that are complimentary and make sense.

I haven’t read Algernon Blackwood, something I will be looking to remedy, however, if this refers to a pare down, very naturalistic style of writer which leaves gaps for the reader’s imagination to fill it with dark and nasty otherworldliness, then I think I will be a fan.

The placing of each tale, whether in the exposed outdoors, a relatively limited space of a public bar, or a barn, becomes important in and of itself as it relates to the protagonists and whatever internal or external force is trying to reach them.

In ‘Skullbelly’. you turn yourself in knots trying to work out if the title which refers to an urban legend, means that the community which told the tales brought its existence about, or whether it’s a dark and dirty secret hidden in plain sight-this makes sense when you read it-and you, the reader, are brought in with the perspective as an outsider, seeing the town and its people through the eyes of the private investigator protagonist who is investigating why 4 young people went into the woods, and only one survived. And ‘survived’ is a very loose term. As he digs deeper into the whys and wherefores , he finds that maybe some things are best left undisturbed.

‘The Separation’-in which a friend reconnects with another in the aim of helping him come out from a depressive and concerning state. There is money at stake, and an invested interest, both professionally on Marcus’ behalf as a therapist and money for upcoming boxing bouts. It’s a race against time to try and work out how and why prize boxer, Charlie, has lost himself in the breakdown of his marriage and is also in the process of losing himself physically and spatially.

‘The Stranger’-  bloody terrifying. A nightmare dive into a ridiculous-on the surface-situation that digs down and keeps on digging. Faced with an impossible situation, what would you do? What you see and what is happening sometimes have a tiny sliver of a gap between which things creep in…

‘After the Fade’-there may be inevitable comparisons to ‘The Mist’, because it involves a small bunch of people who would not choose to be with each other in ordinary life, stuck in a bar with unknown horrors pulling the known world apart outside. Not the ideal place or time to break up with your girlfriend as the world appears to be ending. But does the threat come from within or without? Would you choose to run outside and die quickly or hunker down and wait for things to pass? If indeed they ever do? Genuinely chockful of body horror and gruesomeness that underpins the feeling of restlessness and fear, you, the reader are caught up in this relentless slaughter without any explanation and find your feelings shoved head first into a mangler. Relentless is the word which keeps coming to mind because I had to put this away and take a break and walk the dog to try and shake the feeling of doom and despair after finishing this one.

‘Fierce’ –this final novella ties up some of the earlier threads, it’s tonally consistent in that it drips with existential dread and fear whilst a young woman and her mother face peril for the second time in their lives. Bickering and disconnected, they are driven off the road in a horrific car accident in the middle of nowhere, surrounded by snow, ice, and those ever present areas of forestry where human and non-human monsters like to hide. At once hidden and exposed-hidden away from any means of help, hidden in the woods whilst exposed by the blinding white of the snow-this is a nature versus nurture tale explored through the mother/daughter relationship of the protagonists. Just how far will you go for those you love? The complex nature of Connie and Elaine’s lives are examined in flashback at the same time as Connie is pushing forward to escape the monstrous presence which is tracking her down. It’s a fight to the death, but whose and how is both grim and unexpected.

As the title says, ‘They Lurk’ , these stories really do as they represent this hinterland between reality and what we cannot accept as reality. These things are happening whilst our brains say this is absolutely not possible. And in the space between what is and what is not, these stories and characters begin to seep in and take root. They are like those impressions you get of something in the corner of your eye, something not quite right yet somehow you are positive that it is there, no the less. Read these stories and weep. And check your peripheries.

About the author…

About the author.. Ronald Malfi is an award-winning author of many novels and novellas in the horror, mystery, and thriller categories from various publishers, including ‘Little Girls’, summer’s 2015 release from Kensington.

In 2009, his crime drama, ‘‘Shamrock Alley’‘, won a Silver IPPY Award. In 2011, his ghost story/mystery novel, ‘Floating Staircase’, was a finalist for the Horror Writers Association Bram Stoker Award for best novel, received a Gold IPPY Award for best horror novel, and the Vincent Preis International Horror Award.

His novel ‘Cradle Lake’ garnered him the Benjamin Franklin Independent Book Award (silver) in 2014, while ‘‘December Park‘, his epic coming-of-age thriller, won the Beverly Hills International Book Award for suspense in 2015. Most recognized for his haunting, literary style and memorable characters, Malfi’s dark fiction has gained acceptance among readers of all genres. He was born in Brooklyn, New York in 1977, and eventually relocated to the Chesapeake Bay area, where he currently resides with his wife and two children Links-https://ronaldmalfi.com/ Twitter @RonaldMalfi @TitanBooks