cover image Crimson

Crimson

Gord Rollo, . . Leisure, $7.99 (336pp) ISBN 978-0-8439-6195-9

This memorable debut, first published by Prime Books in 2002, reads like a clumsy but endearing homage to Stephen King. Four engaging boys from Dunville, Ontario, dub their 1977 club “The Knights of the Round Room” after finding a bomb shelter on Johnny Page's farm. In 1955 Jacob Harrison killed his family and hanged himself on that same spot, and Johnny's tumble into a well awakens a creature who has possessed what's left of Harrison's corpse. It confronts the boys and tempts one of them into evil. By 1986, the boys are 19 and the creature is rampaging again, framing Johnny's friend Peter for the Ripper Killer's 12-victim crime spree. The sometimes cartoonishly gory descriptions and awkward prose find their foundation in Rollo's skillful borrowings from horror's top writers. (Mar.)