An eerie fairground amusement ride at midnight marks the setting of a sinister dark force that preys upon the innocent and terrorizes those who successfully grab its brass ring.
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From Publishers Weekly
If you want a ride to another town cursed by an immemorial evil, Grant (In the Fog) is again at the ticket booth, in this atmospheric tale of a mysterious curse visited upon the inhabitants of Oxrun Station. Whenever the itinerant Pilgrim's Travelers carnival comes to town, strange events occur. People disappear; ghosts roam the streets. Or do they? The "tales" of townspeople who have come under the carny spell frame this narrative, related by an Oxrun writer at a dinner party in his home. He tells of a garden that is inexplicably poisoned; of Casey Bethune, who takes a final ride on the black carousel and is never heard from again; and of Drake Saxton, who hallucinates a hellish horror show about relatives his mother hates. Their bodies died in a car crash, didn't they? Grant works dark magic in the lurid, orange-red lighting of the ominous black merry-go-round. He doesn't, however, anatomize the horror or spell it out clearly. It is the cold whisper of the monstrous and the desperation of those caught in the terror of an inscrutable evil that he conveys with mesmerizing effect.
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.
From Library Journal
The much-lauded Grant is at the top of his form with this new collection of four stories linked by the visit of a traveling fair. Since the fair has encamped at Grant's familiar stomping ground of the macabre, Oxrun Station-the setting for the author's classic The Hour of the Oxrun Dead (Tor Bks., 1987)-the reader knows that strange events are bound to occur. Whether the protagonist is a young man trying to escape the domination of his mother, a schoolgirl recently moved to Oxrun who makes some very odd friends, a townsman bewitched by a carnival worker, or an old man who can't seem to let go of his past, Grant subtly and seductively draws the reader into each character's plight with magical prose reminiscent of Ray Bradbury's. Recommended for both genre and modern fiction collections.
Eric W. Johnson, Teikyo Post Univ. Lib., Waterbury, Conn.
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Eric W. Johnson, Teikyo Post Univ. Lib., Waterbury, Conn.
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.
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First Sentence
A WAGON'S BROAD PAINTED WHEELS RATTLED AND slipped over the cobblestones that night, its team of old black geldings snorting in their traces, the driver's voice carrying through the early morning fog, urging the horses on in a practiced monotone. Read the first page
Front Cover | Copyright | Excerpt | Back Cover
A WAGON'S BROAD PAINTED WHEELS RATTLED AND slipped over the cobblestones that night, its team of old black geldings snorting in their traces, the driver's voice carrying through the early morning fog, urging the horses on in a practiced monotone. Read the first page
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Customer Reviews
Most helpful customer reviews
Format:Mass Market Paperback
Once again Charles Grant takes the reader on a chill inducing visit to his haunted town of Oxrun. The Pilgrim's Travelers Carnival has arrived and it is something to see, just stay away from the Carousel, as the quartet of novellas introduced by Oxrun's resident, and always anonymous, writer and reluctant historian repeatedly warn. Like Ray Bradbury's 'Something Wicked this Way Comes', which a cover blurb compares this novel/collection to, Grant's The Black Carousel is a sweetly melancholic and unsettling reading experience. New readers beware, you are in for an addictive treat. One that should be read while wrapped in a blanket so you can try and smother the chills it will give you. Also be prepared to start combing the used book racks for Grant's other Oxrun titles, you'll be wanting to visit Oxrun again and again. Highly recommended.
By A Customer
Format:Mass Market Paperback
THE BLACK CAROUSEL is an intriguing beginning but feels like a prelude to further works, rather than a complete story. How about bringing the rest of the Oxrun Station novels back into print so we can read the rest? Grant's prose is, as always, a pleasure to read.
Format:Mass Market Paperback
I just recently read this book and loved it. My only complaint is that there weren't more stories to make the book last longer. Each short story was wonderfully written and completely eerie. It was very reminiscent of Ray Bradbury whose books I have read over and over. I have to say that Charles Grant is now up there with some of my favorite horror writers of all time.
One story that particularly spooked me was the one about the little girl who moves to Oxrun Station. The part where she sees the boy under the tree watching the house is so spooky that I actually had to peer out the window during a thunderstorm just to make sure there was no one out there. Since I've read so many horror stories all my life, I find it great when I can find a story spooky enough to scare me out of my wits. This whole book is kind of like that. I think its great.
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