Cassandra Khaw: Hammers on bone

Cassandra Khawin novelli on lähestulkoon pienoisromaanin mittakaavaa, ja on ilmeisestikin kirjailijan esikoisteos: Hammers on bone (Tom Doherty Associates, 2016; ISBN 978-0-7653-9270-1).



Khawilla on omaperäinen kertojan ääni. Tarinassa yhdistyy kovaksikeitetty dekkari kauhuromaanien perinteeseen ilman tyhjäkäyntiä tai turhaa selittelyä. Tavanomaisempi kirjoittaja olisi laventanut tarinaa parisataa sivua pidemmäksi kertomukseksi ja menettänyt samalla paljon tekstin iskevyydestä.

Cassandra Khaw bursts onto the scene with Hammers on Bone, a hard-boiled horror show that Charles Stross calls "possibly the most promising horror debut of 2016."

John Persons is a private investigator with a distasteful job from an unlikely client. He's been hired by a ten-year-old to kill the kid's stepdad, McKinsey. The man in question is abusive, abrasive, and abominable.

He's also a monster, which makes Persons the perfect thing to hunt him. Over the course of his ancient, arcane existence, he's hunted gods and demons, and broken them in his teeth.

As Persons investigates the horrible McKinsey, he realizes that he carries something far darker. He's infected with an alien presence, and he's spreading that monstrosity far and wide. Luckily Persons is no stranger to the occult, being an ancient and magical intelligence himself. The question is whether the private dick can take down the abusive stepdad without releasing the holds on his own horrifying potential.