Incubi

Rating:
Summary: Incubi, by Ed Lee
Review: Police Captain Jack Cordesman has seen better days. Not only did his girlfriend, Veronica, just leave him, but now there's a series of ritualistic murders he's got to solve. And these aren't your normal, heat of the moment murders--these are specific, deliberate, time-consuming.

This is an old book, originally published by Berkley/Diamond in 1991, but Necro Publications is stepping up and publishing, for the first time, the uncut edition, Ed Lee's original story. At that time, splatterpunk was coming on big and everything was gore and sex and violence, and you couldn't find a horror novel that wasn't 30% gratuitous crap. But Ed Lee--now HE'S a different breed. You don't go into an Ed Lee story, and then gasp in shock when you get to the graphic stuff, because Lee isn't gratuitous in the least. He knows how to include all that stuff and make it an important part of the story (even the stuff in "Header" was PART of the story) The ritual upon which the murders are based is steeped in sex and blood, so Lee's descriptions of the crime scenes only serve to give us insight into what Jack's dealing with.

This story is more a police procedural than anything--it's not even a mystery, because it's obvious quite early on that Khoronos is the man behind it all. Who's Khoronos? Well, that's a subplot. When Veronica left Jack, she told him she was leaving for an artist's retreat--she's a famous painter. Khoronos, she says, is the man hosting the retreat, a rich foreigner who recently bought one of her paintings.

And that's enough on plot.

Let's talk about the book itself. Even though it's one of Lee's older stories, it's still, in my opinion, one of his best. The prose is tight and flowing, taking you from page to page without the plodding effort some other books take. It's not a chore to read Incubi, it's a pleasure. It's not often I'll take a book out to the porch and read in the middle of the afternoon, but I found myself doing that more and more over the summer, and every time it was an Ed Lee book.

(This next comment may come out wrong, so I'll try and explain it afterward.)

Incubi is just another example of how pathetic the public can be sometimes--Ed Lee should be a major player in big name horror publishing. Instead, his best work is only finding true appreciation in the small press. He's a star there, yes, but this man should be a major star, everyone should know the name Ed Lee, everyone should have a few Lee novels on their shelf. Instead, it's only recently, with the publication of his latest novel City Infernal from Leisure, that he seems to be gaining the widespread acceptance he should have had a long time ago. But God forbid the public love this novel with its graphic descriptions of sex and violence. This can't be horror. Surely this guy's just doing this to get a reaction from people. Sure. OR, he's a writer who knows what the hell he's doing. Well, better late than never, I guess.

And I know that may sound like a jab at the small press--nothing could be further from the truth. I love the small press, it's a place to find real quality work you don't get from the bigger houses. But there are authors in the small press who may be too big for the limited print runs, people who deserve the massive distribution a major publishing house can offer. And Ed Lee is at the top of that list. I love the small press, and I'm pretty sure Ed Lee does, too. But take my word for it--read Incubi and you'll see what I mean. Make this man a major star now.

Rating:
Summary: No one can resist the INCUBI
Review: This is another hard to find title from Edward Lee. It's a shame it isn't in-print anymore. I am a big fan of this writer and INCUBI ranks up there with his best (see my review of COVEN for more).
Lee isn't for the weak of heart (and stomach) though. His horror is of the most extreme kind and his sex is almost always nasty and/or perverted-- kind of like Richard Laymon, another favorite of mine.

INCUBI is about a pair of ex-lovers, a cop and a female artist, both of whom (in different ways) get involved with -- and become the target of -- a pair of male sexdemons who prey on the lusts of women. If you don't mind reading about people gettting sliced up in the most brutal ways and women see raped by grotesque phallusses this is your kind of book. Lee's ending isn't a happy one though and INCUBI has an epilogue which can be called downright weird.
ONLY READ THIS WHEN YOU'RE SURE YOU CAN HANDLE IT (for example with all the lights on)!

I heard Lee is now writing SF novels. I hope he'll return to his older form with more work like this. INCUBI is extreme horror/ gore at it's peak, written in a time when every horror novel didn't have to be targeted at a Young-Adult audience and/ or had te be part of a series like Buffy the Vampire Slayer.