Masterton’s more recent novels have been
more likely to use familiar themes. Master of Lies
(1992), for example, is the story of a supernatural
serial killer, and Spirit(1995) is a fairly traditional
ghost story, although some of the manifestations
are very clever and nontraditional. Rook(1996) in-
troduces a recurring protagonist, a man drafted by
events into a series of battles with occult forces, a
voodoo cult in the opener. Rook’s adventures con-
tinue with Tooth and Claw(1997), in which he bat-
tles yet another Indian spirit, The Terror(1998),
Snowman (2000), which deals with an Eskimo
curse, and Swimmer(2002), a fairly straightforward
tale of ghostly revenge.
The House That Jack Built(1996) is a very tra-
ditional haunted house story. One of the new own-
ers becomes obsessed with restoring it, while the
other is troubled by recurring, unsettling visions.
The Chosen Child(1997) is one of Masterton’s best.
A number of headless corpses are found scattered
about the modern-day city of Warsaw. A private
detective and an entrepreneur investigate the
crime and discover that the responsible party is not
a human being. This is one of Masterton’s most at-
mospheric novels and contains some of his best
characterization. The House of Bones(1998), on
the other hand, is fairly flat emotionally and covers
no new ground. The Doorkeepers(2001) has a more
interesting premise, a portal in London that pro-
vides access to a bizarre and dangerous alternate
reality, but the plot wanders distractingly after the
initial mystery is revealed.
Trauma(2002) is another of Masterton’s best,
although the supernatural content is marginal. A
woman dealing with a variety of emotional prob-
lems becomes interested in Mexican legends when
references to them show up at a series of mysteri-
ous deaths. A Terrible Beauty(2003) also explains
much of its mystery in rational terms, although the
rather unique serial killer is, in fact, acting at the
behest of a supernatural force. The Devil in Gray
(2004) is a throwback to his earliest horror novels,
although it is much more polished. An invisible
killer slaughters a number of victims in graphically
described and very gruesome ways, while a police
officer struggles with his own personal demons and
the disinclination of his superiors to accept a su-
pernatural explanation.
Starting in the late 1980s Masterton began
writing short horror tales with some regularity, sev-
eral of which are quite good. Among his best are
“The Absence of the Beast” (1992), “Making Be-
linda” (1993), “The Hungry Moon” (1995), and
“Epiphany” (2003). Although there have been sev-
eral collections of his short fiction in Britain, only
one has appeared in the United States, Charnel
House and Other Stories(2002). Masterton has
been a reliable writer of very fine horror novels for
almost 30 years and has polished his skills consid-
erably during the course of his career. At his best
he mixes highly original images with unusual
themes and uses fully developed characters to draw
the reader into his terrifying imagined worlds. Al-
though he has never achieved the status of
Stephen KINGor Dean R. KOONTZ, his work is al-
ways warmly welcomed, and he seems assured of a
prominent place in the history of the field.Matheson, Richard(1926– )
Richard Matheson’s classic novel I Am Legend
(1954, also published as The Omega Manas a tie-in
to the rather disloyal film version), is technically
science fiction since the vampires who dominate
the world after a future apocalypse are rationalized,
but it is so closely associated with horror fiction
that it has been claimed by both genres. The pro-
tagonist is the only normal human left alive, exter-
minating the quasivampires created by a new
plague during the day and hiding from them at
night. It has been filmed twice, as The Last Man on
Earth(1964) and as The Omega Man(1971).
Although it has a much less unique plot, A
Stir of Echoes (1958) is actually a better-con-
structed novel. An otherwise ordinary man begins
to experience psychic visions that eventually lead
to the solution of an old murder case. The film
version was released in 1999. Bid Time Return
(1975) was the basis of the film Somewhere in Time
(1980), more fantasy than horror and a love story
involving reincarnation. Hell House(1971, filmed
as Legend of Hell Housein 1973) was obviously in-
fluenced by THE HAUNTING OF HILL HOUSE(1959)
by Shirley JACKSON, although its horrors are much
more overt. The man whose spirit dominates this
haunted house is decidedly nasty. What Dreams232 Matheson, Richard