Home - The Last Page Bookshop - The Horror Reviews Mail Hal C F Astell - Site Map

Death Trance

Novel by Graham Masterton (Scotland) 1986.

Randolph Clare is the millionaire president of one of Tennessee's largest companies. Bad fortune is plaguing him; one of his factories is found burnt to the ground, placing him on the brink of losing his largest contract, and his wife and three children are discovered tortured, raped and murdered. Clare responds by visiting Bali in search of a Hindu death trance adept, somebody who can help him into a trance where he can talk to his dead wife. He finds half-American Michael Hunter and enters his first death trance, but then things start to complicate.

Yet another superb genre effort by Graham Masterton, one of the world's best (and most underrated) storytellers. The characterisation, the concepts and the storytelling skill are up to his usual standards, maybe even just beyond. Masterton's main problem is that he is so consistently good that nine points somehow seem to be not quite enough. Most authors have to labour away at writing a book that doesn't bore the reader at any point between beginning and end; with Masterton that comes naturally, and all he has to work at is making his novels 100% perfect instead of just 99%. With this one, he comes closer than usual, but just not quite near enough for the maximum.


Home - The Last Page Bookshop - The Horror Reviews Mail Hal C F Astell - Site Map