#Ghoulvember ‘Mr Cables’ by Ronald Malfi

About the book…

For bestselling horror novelist Wilson Paventeau, the scariest novel of his career is one he didn’t write.

It bears his name on the dust jacket and contains his bio near the end, but this enigmatic tome is not part of his oeuvre.

And the most frightening thing about it may not be the tale between the covers, but the reason for its mysterious appearance in Paventeau’s life.

‘Mr Cables’ is a less than 80 pages long novella which was published on November 6th,2020, by Journal Stone books.

I am so pleased to feature it as part of my #Ghoulvember celebrations of horror, which is going slower than a snail stuck in golden syrup at the moment, due the unbearable and crushing weight of daily life in 2020. As Pepe Le Pew would say (if he was allowed to in these enlightened times), le sigh

Times are tough, kids, and getting into that sweet spot where your imagination soars and the world diminishes to a twinkle in your conscious is getting harder and harder it seems.

And in ‘Mr Cables’, I would venture to say that I found that exact spot and sensation – the tale of a writer at a book signing, who is presented by a fan with a book that his name on, his bio but that he absolutely did not write.

The woman insists that she has read all of his books, excpet for this one and picked it up at a garage sale. But it was scarier than any other of his novels and she plans to never read it again.

After a brief argument and negotiation, Wilson goes home with the novel, ‘Mr Cables’, and begins to read…

There is an awful lot of story packed into such a short amount of pages-the book begins to take over Wilson’s life and as he realises that he is reading a book about a man reading a book about a man who himself reads books, so you realise that the pages of the novella also have you trapped.

It reminded me very much of Melville’s ‘Bartleby The Scrivener’ in the manner that the main character of the novel within a novel, Quimby,is so passive, that this in itself becomes horrific. And I am not sure if the name of the narrator, Wilson, is a name check to the Edgar Allan Poe tale, ‘William Wilson’, but I like to think that it does as this Wilson looks for his namesake.

Wilson rings his agent and sends her some of the pages and she tells him it is the most terrifying thing she has ever read, the same with his house keeper who finds herself picking up the book and unable to put it down. There are now three women not only terrified of the contents of this book, but by the imagination it came from-yet none of the details are shared with us, the readers, forcing us to examine our need to see the body under the sheet, not merely it’s shape, and look at our own response to being scared. The author, Wilson, finds none of this book terrifying at all but in reading this alleged work of his, he begins to search for the story behind the words and look for a truth that he does not want to face.

I really enjoyed this short read, it has a creeping sense of menace and a satisfying end that was really enjoyable, in all the best senses. 100% recommended for horror fans looking for a quick bite, such as you might look for,in the dark, from a stranger, on the neck-a brief interlude and flirtation with the darker side of things…

bout 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-http://www.ronmalfi.com/

Twitter @RonaldMalfi