Reviewed by Dan

Content Warning:  Contains scenes of rape, torture and murder of teenage boys by a serial killer.

TITLE:    The Boys on the Mountain

AUTHOR:     John Inman

PUBLISHER:  DSP Publications

LENGTH:     330 Pages

BLURB:

Jim Brandon has a new house, and boy is it a pip. Built high on the side of the San Diego mountains by a legendary B movie actor of the 1930s, Nigel Letters, the house is not only gorgeous, but supposedly haunted. As a writer of horror novels, Jim couldn’t be happier.

But after a string of ghostly events sets Jim’s teeth on edge and scares the bejesus out of his dog, Jim begins to dig into the house’s history. What he finds is enough to creep out anybody. Even Jim. It seems long dead Nigel Letters had a few nasty habits back in his day. And unhappily for Jim, the old bastard still has some tricks up his sleeve.

As Jim welcomes his ex, Michael, and a bevy of old friends for a two-week visit to help christen the new house, he soon realizes his old friends aren’t the only visitors who have come to call.

REVIEW:

Wow, I started this book this morning, figuring I’d read part of it, and here it is 10:27PM and I just finished it. I will warn you, it is not one of those books you can put down in the middle!

This is my first review of a book by John Inman, and my first review of a book published by DSP Publications. I’m not sure what I expected, but this book was way more than anything I thought it would be. I expected a ghost story, haunted house, etc. I got way more than that.

Jim Brandon has moved into an old mansion in the mountains overlooking San Diego, which formerly belonged to a quite famous B movie actor of the 1930’s. Renowned for his horror films, which were considered quite scary at the time, Nigel Letters reveled in the glory of being a handsome young movie star. But when he started to age and his beauty started to fail, he built this home outside San Diego and retired from public life. Several years later, Letters was found dead in his home of autoerotic asphyxiation…dressed in full drag.

Now Jim has moved into the house. Jim is a writer specializing in horror novels, and he has specifically chosen this home because it is supposed to be haunted. Sometimes you should be careful what you wish for!

When his old friends from Los Angeles come to visit, they aren’t the only visitors Jim is hosting. As the mystery of the house, and of Nigel Letters, is revealed, the story takes on some very dark aspects.

I loved this book. I highly recommend it to anyone who enjoys a good ghost story, complete with very believable characters, some humor, a very believable storyline and the feeling that the story could be true it is so well written.  OK, I’ll admit it…I even Googled Nigel Letters to make sure he wasn’t a real person!

RATING:

BUY LINKS: 

DSP Publications  

Amazon