Ray Garton (1962–2024)

A Solid 5-Star Masterpiece!

I don't know why this book isn't better known. I've read several Ray Garton books, and as far as I'm concerned this is among his best. Exciting story, excellent character development, believable dialogue. This book kept me entertained from the first page to the very last. After I finished it, I went back and checked the original copyright date and was surprised to see it was first published in 1984. Wow, even back then this guy could write a fantastic story! I'll be looking for more overlooked gems from this author. A… (mais)

After reading “Paperbacks from Hell”, I found some of them were in eBook format. Some of those story concepts sounded too intriguing not to pick up. This book was written about modern vampires in New York. Yes, I know I just said I don’t like vampires, but this has to do with strippers and peep shows and the seedy NYC setting of the eighties.

It’s classic horror pulp, full of terror, horror, and gross-out. The kind of stuff Stephen King started out with. And I loved reading about classic New York when Times Square was full of peepshows and bums, not immigrants in Elmo costumes. The problem is you can’t talk about vampires in modern times. Too many advancements negate their existence–blood banks, constant surveillance, forensics. And to be brutal, their kills have to be sloppy. Detecting a vampire would be as easy as finding a superhero’s secret identity. They would have to organize like mob, which they kinda do in this book.

I got what I expected–a pulpy horror novel about vampires. The problem is, vampires aren’t scary to me. They’re monsters, but monsters with too many weaknesses. So steer clear if you have no interest in them.… (mais)

A compelling tale, and quite relevant in these days of non stop commercial bombardments with drug ads for everything from cholesterol pills to a prescription to thicken your eyelashes. Yes that is a real thing.
So many drugs, so many side effects and risks, and so many warnings of what can happen if you suddenly stop taking your pills, yet millions of people flock to doctors asking for the latest pill they've seen advertising. Drug companies count on this, hence all the ads that tell you to "ask your doctor about (insert name of latest pill) today!"
In "Meds" Ray Garton presents us with a frightening (and not so far fetched) idea of what could happen if people were suddenly unable to refill their prescription for the latest antidepressant and suffered a psychotic break as a result.… (mais)