What book(s) are you most excited about right now? (it can either be something you’re currently reading, or something you just bought, or a book/books that are soon to be published).
Well, I guess I'm a little behind on the times, because it was just yesterday when I discovered that one of my favorite authors is the son of another favorite author of mine. Joe Hill, whose real name is Joseph Hillstrom King, wrote the great horror novel Heart-Shaped Box, is the son of Stephen King. His younger brother, Owen King, is also a writer.
Stephen King and his wife, Tabitha, named Joe after the famous labor-activist, Joseph Hillström (1879-1915), who was killed by a firing squad in Utah for a murder he didn’t commit.
I recently received a copy of Heart-Shaped Box from paperbackbook.com and I can't wait to read it…I've heard that it’s a wonderfully scary thriller!
Judas Coyne is a collector of the macabre: a cookbook for cannibals...a used hangman's noose...a snuff film. An aging death-metal rock god, his taste for the unnatural is as widely known to his legions of fans as the notorious excesses of his youth. But nothing he possesses is as unlikely or as dreadful as his latest discovery, an item for sale on the Internet, a thing so terribly strange, Jude cant help but reach for his wallet.
I will "sell" my stepfather's ghost to the highest bidder...
For a thousand dollars, Jude will become the proud owner of a dead man's suit, said to be haunted by a restless spirit. He isn't afraid. he has spent a lifetime coping with ghosts--of an abusive father, of the lovers he callously abandoned, of the band-mates he betrayed. What's one more?
But what UPS delivers to his door in a black heart-shaped box is no imaginary or metaphorical ghost, no benign conversation piece. It's the real thing.
And suddenly the suit's previous owner is everywhere: behind the bedroom door...seated in Jude's restored vintage Mustang...standing outside his window...staring out from his widescreen TV. Waiting--with a gleaming razor blade on a chain dangling from one bony hand...
Yeah, Joe Hill kept the "King" out of it since he wanted to make it on his own merits. He's a good writer too, I'm loving the short story collection he has out too.
ReplyDeleteHere's my Musing Mondays (March 7) post!