[ZodWallop]

Originally Posted by ZodWallop

Hell Train by Christopher Fowler. It is Fowler's attempt to do a story in the vein of the old Hammer films.

Originally Posted by ReadingManiac

Looks and sounds intriguing. Have you read it? I put it on my ereaderiq.

Originally Posted by ZodWallop

Not yet. It's on my TBR after I finish Lonesome Days, Savage Nights and then read 11/22/63.

Well, 11/22/63 was supposed to be a group read and the other person wasn't ready to start, so I started Hell Train.

I've only read the first few chapters. The writing is very good. Smooth and professional. I was a bit put off by each chapter seeming to be an introduction that doesn't yet tie in to the others.

The first chapter has an American screenwriter paying a visit to the Hammer studio/mansion in the mid 60's. He's hired to write a script. When discussing possibilities with the head of Hammer, he mentions Peter Cushing had wanted to do a movie on a train.

I'm not a Hammer fanatic, but it was fun to see all the name checking done here.

Chapter two switches to an unnamed girl bored at home. She opens a forbidden game called Hell Train and starts playing with it. The game starts with an evil train leaving her own village of Chelmsk.

Chapter three is where what seems like a traditional Hammer horror begins. An English con artist is on the run and gets lost on the trains somewhere in Eastern Europe as World War I is breaking out. He gets off in the village of Chelmsk where everyone is treating the visiting Englishman pretty badly. He's planning on boarding the midnight train out of the village, even though the villagers keep telling him they are not aware of any midnight train.

That's it so far. I am curious to see how the threads wind up tying together.

Incidentally, I've had Fowler's Rune in paperback since forever, but haven't read it. For some reason it is not available as an ebook in the States (though several other titles by him are), but is available in the UK.