Joe R. Lansdale has quietly toiled for years as a short story writer and appeared in all the major publications, from Shadows to Twilight Zone, yet he has pretty much escaped notice by the general reading public. His first novel, the misleadingly titled Act of Love, disappeared as a paperback original from Zebra Books a few years back. Even so, that book-a psychological thriller about a rampaging maniac-was written with much raw power. This reviewers still remebers many brutal and vivid scenes; even back then, this was a man to watch. With these three new books, Lansdale serves notice that he means to break through into the mainstream of horror fiction, and with a voice uniquely his own.
The Nightrunners is another psychological thriller, but one which is so quirkily written that it appears to sometines slip over into the supernatural. It's the story of Monty Jones and his wife Becky, who are trying to pick up the pieces of their shattered lives after Becky barley survives a vicious gang rape. However, the worst is not over, since the surviving members of the gang (the leader hanged himself in his cell and now apparently posseses the second-in-charge) are still after her, anxious to finish the job they left half-completed. Like Lansdale's first novel, The Nightrunners, is filled with incredible descriptions of explicit sex and even more graphic violence. For my money, you have to turn to somebody like Clive Barker to equal the repulsive and vivid imagination that Lansdale has at his command. Like his two other novels, it would make a great motion picture. A signed edition is also available from the publisher at PO Box 941, Arlington Heights, IL 60006.
Dead in the West is another wild and dangerous book, which can best be described as Dawn of the Dead set in the old west. Lansdale also has a healthy reputation as a writer of Westerns and is the only horror authour I know who regularly sets his tales in the old or contemporary West. In this one, Reverend Jebidiah Mercer rides into the town of Mud Creek one day to find his destiny. Unfortunately, his destiny lies in trying to stay alive when all the corpses in the area come back to life as bloodthirsty, gut-crunching zombies who have no intention of stopping until everyone in Mud Creek is dead...or undead. Again, Lansdale is merciless in portraying the kind of stomach-churning violence that can only compare to the grisliest moments in a Romero of Fulci movie.
But Lansdale is more than just a superior gross-out artist. This fact is no more evident that in the wonderful The Magic Wagon, where we see how Lansdale can write haunting poety as well as kick-ass action. The best way to describe this novel is to call it unclassifiable. There's horror, suspense, Mark Twain-type humor, images right out of the L. Frank Baum books, wild West action, pathos-this plot has more rides than as amusement park. It's set in 1909 and revolves around the adventures of young Buster Fogg, an orphan after a tornado leterally blows away his house and family. He hitches a ride on a medicine show and soon has more adventures than could be found in a then-contemporary dime novel. The Magic Wagon is a crazy delight.
Repeatedly, Lansdale proves himself a writer who truly loves to tell stories and seeks to entertain the reader first, last and foremost. Reading these books, one is reminded of the horror-fantasy giant Rober E. Howard, who wrote for the very pulps that Lansdale openly pays hes respects to in Dead in the West. Lansdale's style is simple, stark and direct, like a cannon fired at your face. He reportedly has more novels forthcoming from the trade publishers, so these are definitely worth grabbing before they become collector's items.