The Manor
Scott Nicholson
Pinnacle/ 384p /$5.99
(September 1, 2004)
ISBN: 9786015802 (mass market paperback)
Mason Jackson, a working-class sculptor on a grant, and a gaggle of
stereotypical character-artistes (the creative gay couple, the
wounded-wife dilettante, the sexually and literarily impotent Great
Novelist and his latest young girlfriend, the famous
photographer-poseur, the exotically beautiful and talented-but-yet
to-be-fulfilled female) are on retreat at isolated Korban Manor. Anna
Galloway, a dying parapsychologist who has repeatedly dreamed of the
place, is also a guest. The manor and its environs are connected to
civilization only by an old wooden bridge. Therešs no
electricity, but the house has plenty of always-lit fires, strange
servants, and spooky portraits of Ephram Korban, its original lord and
master. Ghosts and the weird abound and the coming "blue moon of
October" means things will get stranger still. Working through Miss Mamie,
the manoršs mistress, Ephram Korban has scheduled a comeback using all
the assembly of creative folks as fuel. As with his first two novels,
Nicholson derives his most effective touches (here, the faithful
backwoods witchwoman, Sylvia, with her herbs and charms and spells and
Miss Mamiešs far from benign "folk-art" dolls) from Appalachian
folklore. His writing never soars, but it is solid. The Manor is better
than most of this era's mass market paperback originals, but only slightly less
predictable. If you have a hankering for genre-style horror to stuff
in your trick-or-treat bag for Halloween, you'll be
entertained by The Manor. (Written for CFQ Oct/Nov issue, 2004)
Mason Jackson, a working-class sculptor on a grant, and a gaggle of
stereotypical character-artistes (the creative gay couple, the
wounded-wife dilettante, the sexually and literarily impotent Great
Novelist and his latest young girlfriend, the famous
photographer-poseur, the exotically beautiful and talented-but-yet
to-be-fulfilled female) are on retreat at isolated Korban Manor. Anna
Galloway, a dying parapsychologist who has repeatedly dreamed of the
place, is also a guest. The manor and its environs are connected to
civilization only by an old wooden bridge. Therešs no
electricity, but the house has plenty of always-lit fires, strange
servants, and spooky portraits of Ephram Korban, its original lord and
master. Ghosts and the weird abound and the coming "blue moon of
October" means things will get stranger still. Working through Miss Mamie,
the manoršs mistress, Ephram Korban has scheduled a comeback using all
the assembly of creative folks as fuel. As with his first two novels,
Nicholson derives his most effective touches (here, the faithful
backwoods witchwoman, Sylvia, with her herbs and charms and spells and
Miss Mamiešs far from benign "folk-art" dolls) from Appalachian
folklore. His writing never soars, but it is solid. The Manor is better
than most of this era's mass market paperback originals, but only slightly less
predictable. If you have a hankering for genre-style horror to stuff
in your trick-or-treat bag for Halloween, you'll be
entertained by The Manor. (Written for CFQ Oct/Nov issue, 2004)