The Nursery

Rating:
Summary: A old warrior comes home to hell
Review: I first read this book in high school and couldn't put it down. The story starts out as a old warrior (mercenary to the P.C generation) decides to retire and return home. While driving his Jag he finds that the old homestead has changed a great deal. The mystery continues when he returns to his old house and discovers that someone has cleaned, aired out and stocked the house with all his personal items.(i.e old spice and cigars that the old warrior recently decided to use) Yet NO ONE knew he was coming home until he decided it less then a day ago.

The mysteries build up as the hero discovers more strange items and finds that some of the facts don't fit. The story goes at a clip pace as the hero is finally forced to fight the evil forces of The Devil's agent.

The story stumbles a little toward the end when the hero and the Devil's agent have their final battle. The twists and mysteries abound in the end of the story is a surprise to the reader.

I hope Mr Johnstone will return to writing horror again as I would like to see a sequel to this book as well as several others that he has written.(Wolfsbane, The Uninvited, Jack In The Box, Sandman, Rocking Horse to name just a few). If you can find a copy of this book DON'T LET IT GO!

Rating:
Summary: Old Warrior Finds You Can't Go Home Again
Review: The story opens with the a nursery where unborn babies floating in man-made wombs are being brain washed. The story then cuts to a local woman whose was expecting a baby, being found dead across two state lines, from where she lived, with the unborn baby being surgically removed. The hero of the story is a person who (while fighting out in the field as a mercenary) receives word that his parents have died. By the time he can return home his parents are buried in the ground. Deciding on his way to his old hometown to retire and stay in his parents' house, the hero discovers many strange and unusal changes have occured during the twenty years since he has left town, most of the changes aren't good. The story continues at a semi-fast clip and is a hard book to put down.

One charater who appears in this book as a hero appears in another book by Mr. Johnstone as a villin (the Devil's Laughter)

The twist in the end is strange but the story begs for a sequel as many of his other horror books. I would recommend that the publisher reissue this book since many used book stores don't or won't carry this book any more and fans of Mr. Johnstone aren't going to release their copies to anyone.