Crucifax

Ray Garton

Apr 2014 · Open Road Media

About this ebook

Originally published in 1988, Ray Garton’s fourth novel, following not long after his award‐nominated Live Girls, is regarded as a classic of the “splatterpunk” movement in horror fiction. Garton has a way with teenage boredom, atmospheric small‐town isolation, incest, drug abuse, and over‐the‐top violence and he has managed to create a modern remake of the story of the Pied Piper with a sinister character, Mace (who wears a “crucifax” around his neck—a crucifix with an axlike blade on it) appearing on the scene, seducing mixed‐up kids with his siren song of pleasure, power, and indulgence, all leading to a horrifically unsettling climax of death and destruction. And then there are the ratlike things that do the piper’s bidding . . . 

Ratings and reviews

Read this book at age 17 and I never forgot it

About the author

Ray Garton is the author of sixty books, including horror novels such as the Bram Stoker Award–nominated Live Girls, Crucifax, Lot Lizards, and The Loveliest Dead; thrillers like Sex and Violence in Hollywood, Murder Was My Alibi, and Trade Secrets; and seven short story collections. He has also written several movie and TV tie‐ins and a number of young adult novels under the name Joseph Locke. In 2006, he received the Grand Master of Horror Award. He lives in northern California with his wife.