The Bog

Hovern Bog. People live in terror of it-especially the residents of Fenchurch St. Jude, the little village located at its edge. They think of it as a living being. They've seen it reach out with sinewy tentacles . . . to take, entangle, and digest. When 2000-year-old bodies are recovered from the bog, perfectly preserved, it is the discovery of a lifetime for archaeologist David Macauley. But close examination of the corpses reveals a curious fact: all were cruelly, mysteriously murdered, gnawed to death by some unimaginable creature. Soon it becomes apparent that whatever tortured and killed the bodies from ancient times still roams the bog, and no one in Fenchurch St. Jude—especially David and his family—is safe. In The Bog (1986), Michael Talbot (1953-1992), author of the vampire classic The Delicate Dependency and the chilling haunted house novel Night Things, delivers an exciting mix of science and the supernatural that will keep readers guessing until the horrific climax. "One of the better horror novels . . . odd and risky mingling of pure science with fairy lore and gnashed bodies . . . terrific."—Kirkus Reviews "Exciting!"—Publishers Weekly "Convincingly original!"—Ocala Star-Banner

From Publishers Weekly

American archeologist David Macauley is thrilled when a 2000-year-old body is found, perfectly preserved by peaty water, in an English West Country bog; when another body turns up, David moves his family there. The villagers of Fenchurch St. Jude are a dour, clannish lot and the local lord, Marquis Grenville de L'Isle, isn't much friendlier. David's wife is vaguely worried by the local atmosphere, especially after hearing of a mysterius bog "creature," then David finds odd bite marks on the bog bodies and begins to wonder about their source. Mysterious occurences multiply, and soon David is in deadly conflict with a 4500-year-old necromancer and his demon. The book is a roller-coaster, alternately boring and exciting; the prose is often awkward and wooden, the people never more than cardboard figures, and the ostensibly brilliant David is occasionally pretty dim. While some of the magic lore is interesting, disbelief is never suspended effectively for long. Talbot wrote The Delicate Dependency. Copyright 1986 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal

For modern-day archaeologist David Macauley, Hovern Bog proves a rich source of bog bodies (ancient human remains preserved intact by chemicals in the peat water) and, ultimately, a near-catastrophic horror show for him, his family, and the nearby villagers of Fenchurch St. Jude. While exploring, Macauley encounters sinister local nobleman Grenville and his blood-thirsty demon, Julia. Grenville and Julia, both seemingly immortal, have terrorized the local countryside since the days of the Celts and the Romans. In that long-ago time Julia used Hovern Bog as a dumping ground; now for the most part, she is content slaughtering sheep. But with the appearance of the snoopy Professor Macauley things at Hovern Bog take a bloody turn for the worse. Hurt by a complex plot too dependent on coincidence, this otherwise entertaining horror novel is recommended for larger collections. James B. Hemesath, Adams State Coll. Lib., Alamosa, Col.Copyright 1986 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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