1963 Detroit is a hotbed of gambling, and the weekly baggage auctions keep a busy trade. Charlie Stewart and Joey Third are skilled in the art of successful bidding, but when Joey lands a mysterious suitcase, the thrill of winning turns to terror once they realize they've opened something sinister.
Inside the suitcase is an antique gramophone, and the music it plays is unlike anything they've heard before. A chanting voice speaks to them in strange words, evoking visions of a dark, frozen land. It's a voice that makes them sick with addiction, and it continues chanting in their heads even when the record stops playing.
Charlie sets out to solve the mystery of the unholy music and how to turn it off forever. But the urge to listen grows stronger, and the more it plays, the more the aural virus spreads, until people begin to vanish . . . feeding an apparition that seeks immortality.
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(Harper Day Books, 3 August 2020, 154 pages, ebook, copy from the author and voluntarily reviewed)
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I've read quite a lot of books by the author and have been impressed so I was really looking forward to this novella. I loved it. It reminded me of a TV show I can't remember the name of, where people pay money for the contents of lock-up's with only a glimpse inside, sometimes they buy a load of junk and sometimes they get antiques and make a fortune. Imagine if you bought something at auction and it turned out to be monstrous and evil? I know very little about Rasputin, the Mad Monk so found the information and research included in this novella quite fascinating. Things get bad pretty quickly. At first, Charlie is concerned as Joey seems to be obsessed with the creepy music and he wants to find out exactly what is on the records. When he finds out things get a whole lot worse. The last couple of chapters are intense as Charlie struggles not only to save his friend but the whole world. This is terrific.
