a serial killer, and Night Touch (1988). Runaway
(1988) also fits the pattern but reduces the super-
natural element to an ambiguous peripheral issue.
Abracadabra(1988) fit the same pattern, but
it did show a considerable improvement in Gre-
sham’s delivery. A group of stage magicians had
dabbled briefly with genuine magic before dropping
the idea, but a memento left over from that time
falls into the hands of a young girl, with pre-
dictably disastrous consequences. Demon’s Eye
(1989) involves a cooperative effort by three fami-
lies to restore a tavern that turns out to be the
dwelling place of demonic forces. Once again chil-
dren are the primary characters, a device Gresham
seemed reluctant to drop even when the story
could be told equally well with an adult protago-
nist. That was the case again in Blood Wings
(1990), one of his best novels, the story of a vam-
pirelike creature whose existence is hinted at in a
young boy’s dreams. In The Living Dark(1991),
which is even better, a woman with magical abili-
ties creates a spectral wolf to protect her children.
Just as Gresham seemed on the brink of creat-
ing more memorable fiction, the field contracted
sharply. During the remainder of the 1990s, he
published only two horror novels, both for young
readers under the pseudonym J. V. Lewton. He re-
turned to the adult field with In the Blood(2001), a
familiar but well-handled vampire story, and fol-
lowed up with the intriguing Dark Magic(2002), in
which a group of three witches combine their tal-
ents to battle a supernatural menace that threat-
ens the world. Gresham returned to children in
jeopardy with Haunted Ground(2003), in which he
creates some truly nasty ghosts. All three of these
novels are markedly better than those produced
during the first portion of his career, although his
latest, The Fraternity(2004), is a rather routine su-
pernatural thriller. Gresham seems to have the
basic skills to become a more significant writer in
the genre but is perhaps too cautious about explor-
ing new territory. Time will tell whether he will
take the risks necessary to advance his career.
“The Grey Ones”J. B. Priestley(1952)
One of the most frightening concepts, in life as
well as fiction, is the possibility that people around
us might not be as they appear, that they may have
a secret agenda of their own. This fear of the hid-
den stranger has manifested itself in many forms,
from the witch hunts in Salem to the modern-day
witch hunts in search of communists during the
McCarthy era. The situation arises frequently in
literature as well, often disguised. Science fiction
writers suggest that aliens or mutants might live
among us without our knowledge, usually planning
our extermination or enslavement, and similar
devices show up in fantasy and supernatural fic-
tion in the guise of possession, changelings, and
werewolves.
John Bolton Priestley, a popular British novel-
ist and dramatist much of whose work has become
unfortunately difficult to find, wrote occasional
fantasy stories, including this one, which uses the
hidden personality theme to deliver a satiric look
at contemporary life and the human willingness to
settle for mediocrity and conformity. The entire
story unfolds as a conversation between Mr. Pat-
son, a patient, and Dr. Smith, a psychiatrist. Patson
explains that he has come to believe that there is
an “Evil Principle” at work in the world, a con-
scious force that means to corrupt and eventually
destroy the human race. Even worse, the Evil Prin-
ciple has countless agents who are secretly living as
humans, entities whom he calls the “grey ones.”
The grey ones are not born but possess ordi-
nary humans, displacing the original personality.
Their purpose is to dull down life rather than cause
overt trouble. They are plodding workers who
never excel but make their way into positions of
power through steady work. They quietly discour-
age innovation, maneuver things so that talented
individuals are not employed where they can best
use their talents, and are gradually lulling the gen-
eral public into an apathy so deep that humanity
will lose any chance it has of resisting. Dr. Smith,
of course, suggests that this is all a delusion result-
ing from Patson’s instinctive rebellion against sub-
tle social pressures, but Patson insists that is not
the case, that he has identified several individuals
who are definitely grey ones and even sneaked into
one of their conferences and saw them in their
true form, oversized transparent toads. The reader
is probably well ahead of Patson in anticipating the
climax, wherein we discover that Smith is himself“The Grey Ones” 147