In a short time, Greg Chapman has become a master of the horror novella. In the last two years, I've read the ghost story Torment, a wonderful tale of a demonic muse in The Noctuary, and now, his third novella Vaudeville. The later work published by Australia's Dark Prints Press. All three, wonderful examples of the genre.
I think the reason I like his work so much is that Chapman writes the TRUTH and writes it with passion. I know, this is horror fiction and fiction is made up, LIES by definition, but when I'm reading one of Greg's novellas, it doesn't read like something that's been made up. It reads like, well like the TRUTH, even when it's about ghosts, demonic muses or, in this case, a group of troubadours; performers, if you will. troubadours with with a dark, disturbing past.
I've always loved the evil carnival story, the best being Ray Bradbury's, Something Wicked This Way Comes, so when I saw the premise of Vaudeville I was eager too see what Chapman would come up with. Let me tell you now, he does not disappoint.
First there's the town of Keaton, home to just under 1,000 citizens. A town which reminded me a bit of Mayberry and there's young Anthony Moore, who seems a bit like Opie Taylor, but that's where the similarities end.
It was a year ago that Anthony's father was found hanging from an oak tree in the woods outside of town. It's at this very tree that Anthony meets these performers and things get interesting, so very interesting.
Vaudeville is a wonderful way to spend an evening in the dark, with just enough light to see the written word. Available now from Kobo and Amazon ; with the iBookstore (Apple) available very soon.
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