Skull Session

Paul Skoglund, who suffers from Tourette's syndrome, is hired by his wealthy aunt to fix up her ravaged house, but with the help of his girlfriend Lia and Morgan Ford, a police investigator, he uncovers links between the house and a series of brutal crimes

An ambitious but torpidly paced pass at a creepy-house horror tale that tries to combine Stephen Kingish gore-on-the-floor gross-outs with Dean Koontzical monster mash. Paul Skoglund, a 38-year-old victim of Tourette's syndrome, can't keep a job, sit still, or stop from babbling inanities and profanities. Still, he's a nice guy who can play pop tunes on his saxophone, do menial repairs, and exhibit otherworldly bursts of energy while rescuing his thrill-seeking girlfriend, Lia, from calamities. The product of an almost absurdly dysfunctional New England family peppered with suicides, madness, and gothic secrets, Paul has an apparently mentally retarded son, Mark, from a previous marriage, and an ex-wife who'd like full custody of the boy. To the rescue comes Paul's kooky Aunt Vivien, who's willing to pay him lavishly to fix up the family's rotting, vandalized Westchester, New York, hunting lodge, where, we learn, at least one young punk has been ripped apart by an unseen beastie. Paul takes the job and begins to discover that a few of those dark family secrets concern him. Meanwhile, Detective Morgan Ford finds that some supposedly accidental deaths that produced mangled, mutilated corpses might not have been so accidental. Newcomer Hecht spins a sticky spider web of intricate metaphors that boil down to the fact that appearances are deceiving. Paul rapidly learns that Aunt Vivien is closer to him in more ways than he can imagine, and that his troubles with Tourette's, as well as his son's difficulties, are due to a genetic trigger that can transform him into a superhuman fighting machine that's of passionate interest to the CIA and other government types. It's a bit much to be going on under one sagging roof, and the gory Oedipal Ragnarok ending is more disturbing than satisfying. An earnestly wrought, meandering tale that, despite some gripping scenes and lots of facts about neurophysiology, adds up to less than the sum of its parts. (Author tour) -- Copyright ©1997, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

In this debut novel, a monster is haunting Highwood, the large old family home of Paul Skoglund's aunt, Vivien Hoffman. The monster has nearly destroyed the house and its contents, flinging large appliances and furniture about, breaking walls and windows. Or perhaps the vandalism has been done by teenagers, some of whom have since disappeared or died mysteriously. Paul, unemployed and handicapped by Tourette's syndrome, accepts the challenge of restoring the home for his wealthy but unlovable aunt. Aided by his lover, Lia, and a sweetly melancholic cop, Paul begins the repair process while searching for the cause of the destruction. Just as Paul's father helped him learn to handle his compulsive behavior, Paul hopes to help his own son. But Paul's father committed suicide?or did he? A marvelous mix of modern Gothic horror and romance, with a generous helping of bioscience, this is a guaranteed page-turner for Koontz fans with a moderate tolerance for detached body parts.
-?Elsa Pendleton, Boeing Information Svcs., Ridgecrest, Cal.
Copyright 1997 Reed Business Information, Inc.