Throwback Thursday – The Nestling by Charles L. Grant

note: I had completely forgotten I had an earlier run in with Charles L. Grant as an author. I’ve covered a couple of his Oxrun series books here and here. While I enjoyed those, I didn’t like The Nestling at all. I don’t think I ever got around to reading the Raven. I’ll have to check and see.

Jason Clarke is a reporter from back east that is summoned to the valley he spent part of his childhood in by a desperate relative. There is something wrong in Windriver Valley. First there were the animal attacks and then the deaths started which only adds to the tension between the Whites and Native Americans, who infused suddenly with cash started buying up ranches. The Native Americans buy them, but don’t work them cutting off the only source of money for the town. The local businesses, all owned by whites, suffer from the lack of money coming in from the closed ranches. Jason’s relative, Galen, expects him to sort out what is going on and tosses him into this powder keg. This in spite of the fact that Jason and his mother were run out of town after his father was killed after going on a bender. Jason realizes before most everyone else that there is something way beyond a simple disagreement or conspiracy and that that valley has been targeted by something evil. 

I had heard good things about author Charles L. Grant. That combined with the nice blurb on the cover from Stephen King (yes, I know you should never buy into those) convinced me to pick a couple of his books up from the local used bookstore. I haven’t read the other book yet, but I honestly have to say that I wasn’t all that impressed with The Nestling. The story is interesting and I’m always up for a good horror story that integrates Native American beliefs and folklore. But there are a couple of things that just killed the book for me. First of all there are just too many characters in the book and it gets really hard to follow who is who. Again and again I had to backtrack to figure out what character just got killed or beaten up and how they relate to each other. Really there are several minor characters that have their entire families mentioned in passing with the reader supposed to make those connections later on. If you don’t then the story makes no sense. What makes it worse is when you get the to the end of the book only to find out none of this mattered as it has little to do with the story and resolution! 

My second problem with the book partly relates back to the first. Like I said there are too many characters, but if that weren’t bad enough the book jumps between different characters and storylines constantly. Now I will give Grant credit all the various storylines do end up connecting in the end but this constant jumping between characters and story made The Nestling a very frustrating book to read. Just about the time that I had some interest in a character or had gotten into a rhythm reading the book it jumped to another character or story. Grant keeps shooting himself in the foot every time the plot starts building up momentum by stopping and restarting with new characters.

I know that this book was up for some awards when it came out in eighty two, but I found it a real chore to get thru and just didn’t like it. I can’t recommend The Nestling. That said I have the other Grant book, Raven, that I picked up and will give it a chance.  Maybe this one just didn’t work for me.

© Copyright 2023 John Shatzer

The Hour of the Oxrun Dead by Charles L. Grant

I’m back with another review of a Charles L. Grant book. After reading the really fun Dark Cry of the Moon I decided to check out his other Oxrun Station books. It just so happened that I walked into my local used book store and found the first three of the series. To refresh your memory these books take place in the same small town, but tell what I think are unrelated horror stories. At least I think so. I suppose I’ll have to read them all to find out.

Our main character here is named Natalie and when things kick off she is having a nightmare. It is a reoccurring one about the murder of her husband who died under mysterious circumstances. He was a cop and she heard the attack over the radio while she was home listening to the police scanner. We are then introduced to a cast of odd characters that live in Oxrun Station including the local minister, banker, jeweler, and police chief, who also just happens to be her former brother in law! It becomes clear that something is clearly up in the town when eighteen months after her husband’s death there is another murder eerily similar. But what is going on?

With the help of a local reporter, Marc, who is also her love interest Natalie starts to unravel things and expose the seedy inner workings of the town. Simple things like missing books from the library and strange attacks on her by a mysterious big cat start to add up. The more she uncovers the more dangerous it gets. It all takes a supernatural turn when Marc shows her something has been trying to hide the town from him. Literally it is like people just don’t want to see the small town of Oxrun while they are driving along!

Honestly, I didn’t enjoy this one as much as I did Dark Cry of the Moon. But that book had a werewolf in it and I do love me some Lycanthrope action. Still The Hour of the Oxrun Dead was a decent read. Grant does a nice job of setting up the mystery and building a sense of paranoia. It becomes clear early on that there is some sort of conspiracy happening which leads to the whole “who can they trust” vibe. There was even a part where for the briefest of moments Grant had me doubting one of the main characters. That was cleverly done and a good bit of writing on his part.

I guess I only have one complaint about Hour of the Oxrun Dead and that is it wraps up too quickly. We get this great build up with the conspiracy and the mysterious creature chasing Natalie all around town trying to kill her. Only to suddenly have things end rather abruptly without the kind of payoff that the rest of the story deserved. Heck the “monster” doesn’t even get to play a part in the big finale. I found that very disappointing.

In the end the good here far outweighs the bad. I was excited to read more of Grant’s books before I cracked this one and I’m still interested in them. If you see this or any of his other efforts, I’d recommend picking them up. Except for the Nestling. I really didn’t like that one.

© Copyright 2018 John Shatzer

The Dark Cry of the Moon by Charles L. Grant

I had only read one other book by Grant called The Nestling and I honestly didn’t like it that much. I found it difficult to get thru, so I never picked another of his books up again. But then I joined a Facebook group of likeminded readers of horror novels and one of them professed their enjoyment of his work. Specifically, the book that I didn’t like. I decided to give him another chance, why else do you join groups if not to be challenged and find authors you might like or have otherwise judged incorrectly?

From the cover you can tell that this is a Werewolf story. I was totally prepared for your typical run of the mill who is the wolfman, and can they be stopped plot. And that is what I got along with the normal trappings of the old Gyspy woman and silver bullets. Here we find our main character, Stockton, having been named Police Chief on the very day that bodies start to show up. Like everyone else he assumes that it is just an animal come down from the hills, but soon realizes something is up. Helped by his housekeeper, the previously mentioned Gypsy woman, he is able to turn the tables on the beast and hunt it.

This is an excellent read. I loved and was surprised by the setting. Instead of the typical small-town America setting we get a period piece that is still set in a small American town but takes place during the Civil War. I can’t think of a horror story that I’ve read before that took advantage of the chaos surrounding the Civil War. That was very cool. The book is fairly short coming in just under two hundred pages. Not a word is wasted by Grant as he weaves a tight and straightforward tale. The monster appears on the first couple of pages with some bloody kills and is in your face until the very end. Well actually there is an expected but still fun ending where you think it is over, but is it really? Got to love these twist endings.

The book has a very universal monster movie feel to it (tell me the cover of the paperback I read doesn’t scream out Lon Chaney!) and I suppose that was on purpose. Apparently, Grant wrote a series of books based around this small town, Oxrun Station, and within that series are three that were inspired by the old Universal and Hammer movies with this being one of them. I’m going to have to track down his Vampire and Mummy tales as well now.

This is a prime example of why one should never judge an author on one book. While I might not like everything he writes I know that I need to check out the Oxrun Station series. There is some really good stuff here. I can’t say anything about his other books yet, but if you do find a copy of The Dark Cry of the Moon at your local book store I recommend picking it up.

© Copyright 2018 John Shatzer