Reviews

Campbell, probably the foremost practitioner of the horror story in Great Britain today has produced his eighth novel under his own name. The author's longer works tend to be rather muted, unlike his intense short stories; this one, after the usual slow opening, is more lively and effective than his previous efforts. It concerns a strong-willed, wrathful spinster known as Queenie, who has spent a lifetime terrifying and controlling her siblings, nieces and nephew. Her death is a reliefbut Queenie returns, in the form of a young girl, to further destroy the family by befriending and then abducting her grand-niece Rowan, changing her from a sweet-natured, generous child into something ``other.'' This is a chilling work and the fullest treatment of one of Campbell's recurring themesthe psychic violence family members wreak upon one another. (February)

Campbell, who has won many awards for horror fiction, has outdone himself in this tale of a woman who refuses to die. Despite the death of her body, supreme egoist Queenie tries to live on by taking over the body of her niece, eight-year-old Rowan. Campbell shows the child's increasing confusion and fear as Queenie preys on her and finally triumphs and the mother's growing horror of her child as she becomes convinced that Queenie is inside her. For readers who can suspend disbelief, there is great emotional realism in this novel of psychological suspense and evil. Marylaine Block, St. Ambrose Univ., Davenport, Ia.