The Blog Awakes... The Morgow RISES!

I'm back at last (well, I've awaited my own return from the crypt of sickness)... Up first is a review of the Peter Tremayne horror novel THE MORGOW RISES. This one comes to us via the pen of one of my favorite artists, Ade Salmon. You can see some Salmon flavored artwork in the pages of Dr. Who magazine, 2000 A.D. Megazine and most amazingly in the full length graphic slobberknocker/shocker... Terry Sharp in THE FACELESS. Ade shares a passion of mine in the supergrue genre of fiction-and it seems he has found another winner here! Sit back and enjoy Ade "KILLER CRAB" Salmon's savory selections of scuzzy syllables today, and we'll be back tomorrow with some Doctor Orient, more mangled movie reviews and whatever else I can find.
Yes, even some more YOR!

THE KILLERCRAB review THE MORGOW RISES!
Peter Tremayne Sphere 1982.

Beware when the Morgow rises:
Lament for the living.
Lament for the unborn.
All things end!

The idyllic Cornish village of Bosbradoe is suitably populated by eccentrics - none more so than 72 year old retired mining expert Henry Archibold Penrose, known as *Happy* to the locals. Owning a crumbling old mansion Tybronbucca ( meaning House on Goblin Hill) - Happy likes nothing better than to pack a thermos and sandwiches and explore the disused Tom Wheal tin mine he owns, adjoining the property, in the hopes of finding a new vein of Malachite that will re-energise the town's economy.

However the dank and fetid undersea caverns hold something far more deadly than tin, as Happy finds out to his peril...

Meanwhile his visiting neice Claire breaks down on a lonely stretch of the Bodmin moor ( in the best Hammer Horrible tradition). Local fortuneteller and witch, cackling Mother Polruan accosts her - fortelling of her *doom* in no uncertain terms - echoes of a village CURSED reverberating across the desolute moors! Claire is *rescued* by Willian Neville - thriller writer, car expert and all round handsome chap and together their twin fates
spiral intextricably towards the slavering jaws of the Morgow!!...

Peter Tremayne's knowledge of Cornish lore embues the story with a delicious superstitous aura - is the Morgow a monster of myth or something of a more recent vintage?! The local pub The Morvren Arms is no doub't a derivation of Morveran - the name of the mermaid from Cornish folklore and certainly befits the drinking hole of the local fisherfolk like old Billy Scalwen and Jack Trenaglos - overseen by the moon-faced landlord Noall. The actual legend of the Morgow though seems more a fiction dreamed up by Tremayne - possibly the name inspired by the character of the same name in LORD OF THE RINGS? - no matter - Tremayne makes you believe that Mother Polruan's fortellings of the mythical beast returning are dangerously real enough. Mix into this potent brew journalistic rivalries and Harrier jump-jets and you've a cracker of a tale!

Whilst the book boasts a salaciously saliva-drippingly lurid delineation of red head siren Sheila Fahy (of the too full breasts she opines!) , getting scoffed alive by the slithering Morgow - Tremayne opts to concentrate more on building suspense initially, rather than outright explicit sex and gore - but let's fly as the reader rounds on the final bend of the book . The story is exuberantly kinetic and easy on the eye - a couple of hours should suffice the average reader. Tremayne's real strength lies in his ability to forge folklore and reality convincingly without the story getting bogged down in too much detail - highly recommended!

Killercrab CLICK Rating .... 4/5