Best in Books Suggestion for October 2009

Creepers by David Morrell

Creepers received the 2005 Bram Stoker Award for the best horror novel by the Horror Writers Association. The Paragon Hotel, built in 1901 by a rich eccentric hemophiliac, allowed the owner to live a protected life by observing the hotel guests. Decades later the crumbling hotel built in Asbury Park, NJ is set for demolition, but not before a group of urban explorers known as creepers trespass for an evening of thrills and a glimpse at the past. Everything turns upside down when the group finds they are not alone and struggle to survive the night. The suspense filled story combines aspects from several genres to put the reader into a haunted mood.

Booklist Review
Frank Balenger is a New York Times reporter doing a Sunday magazine profile on urban explorers, better known as creepers. It's an illegal activity but a very popular one, in which adventure seekers invade crumbling old structures in search of thrills and perhaps a glimpse of the past. Frank joins a team of four as they prepare to enter the long-shuttered and mysterious Paragon Hotel. They surreptitiously enter as darkness envelops the city, planning to emerge before dawn none the worse for wear. At least that's the plan. Initially they encounter the expected assortment of crumbling furniture, magazines, and rats, but soon they realize they are not alone, and their counterparts are not friendly people. It turns out that Frank's group has a hidden agenda involving treasure, and their rivals are after the same loot. Throw in an even more unfriendly kidnapper and his captor, and you have a nightmare in the making. Veteran thriller writer Morrell gleefully and shamelessly cherry picks from several genres (crime, horror, adventure, western) and blends them into a violent, claustrophobic nightmare. There's the survive-the-night-in-a-haunted-house plot starring a Norman Bates villain; there's a Treasure of the Sierra Madre cast that would rather die than give up the loot; and there's a version of the classic western in which the outlaws and the homesteaders join forces to battle the Indians. An unabashedly entertaining thriller that has blockbuster movie written all over it. --Wes Lukowsky Copyright 2005 Booklist

David Morrell website