Background
Lisa Cantrell was born in 1945.
Bram Stoker Award for superior achievement in a first novel
Bram Stoker Award for superior achievement in a first novel
(Each Halloween the Manse becomes a house of horrors. Vamp...)
Each Halloween the Manse becomes a house of horrors. Vampires, werewolves, ghouls and ghosts stalk the premises. But the Manse's horror is more awful than the innocent Trick-or-Treaters can imagine. For its thirteenth annual House of Horrors is tonight, and it will be the last. Original.
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0812516737/?tag=2022091-20
1987
(After five people are found dead, literally exploded by a...)
After five people are found dead, literally exploded by a mysterious force, Nick Vears must find the cause before he becomes the prime suspect in the grisly murders.
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0812500113/?tag=2022091-20
1989
(Thought to have been destroyed with the house it once occ...)
Thought to have been destroyed with the house it once occupied, an evil presence survives on the empty lot, waiting to torment the occupants of a new condominium complex.
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0812506685/?tag=2022091-20
1990
(Jackie Swann, North Carolina State Bureau of Investigatio...)
Jackie Swann, North Carolina State Bureau of Investigation, is a dedicated officer, unfazed by the dangers of her chosen profession. She is also a wife and mother, immersed in the struggle between career and family life. Her latest assignment will test her marriage and risk far more than her life. Dallas Reid, Phoenix City Police Department, is a bit of a rogue cop, accustomed to doing whatever must be done to bring criminals to justice. Drug dealers are his specialty. But he's beginning to wonder if there isn't more to life than busting bad boys. Phoenix City, North Carolina, like many small and large cities, has a drug problem. Like many cities, it is the scene of battles between rival drug gangs. But the current spate of violence has Dallas Reid baffled. All along the city's strip of bars and clubs, people are disappearing. Local pushers are being replaced by mindless giants who negotiate drug sales in chilling whispers. And Dal's usually reliable network of informers has dried up. There are plenty of rumors about the new gang in town, but precious few facts. Sent in by the SBI, Jackie Swann reports that a gang of Haitians is trying to take over the drug trade throughout the state, with Phoenix City as the first step. Their tactics are psychological intimidation, physical force, and something unnatural and evil - all orchestrated by a mysterious figure known only as the "boneman." What Dallas Reid and Jackie Swann experience as they investigate the boneman will challenge everything they believe about themselves, about justice and mercy, about good and evil.
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0312853076/?tag=2022091-20
1992
Lisa Cantrell was born in 1945.
Lisa W. Cantrell began her career as a novelist with a haunted-house yarn, then added increasing proportions of the mystery genre to her later horror novels. Her first book, The Manse (1987), concerns an abandoned Victorian house in a town named Merrilville, where the local Chamber of Commerce keeps the building as an annual Halloween attraction. The house is alive, however, and over the years it has been absorbing all the fear felt in it by visitors, until, at the thirteenth Halloween, it is ready to come fully to life. A reviewer for Publishers Weekly found the climax of this novel rather “chilling” but the buildup conventional; Science Fiction Chronicle's Don D’Ammassa more favorably praised the “unusually skillful writing” and the “bizarre” imagery of the climactic scenes.
Another novel by Cantrell, The Ridge (1989) is again set in a spooky house, this time a cliffside edifice on the North Carolina coast where the residing artist and his family have been strangely and horrifically murdered - except for a stepdaughter, who has mysteriously remained untouched in the midst of the gory act. The surviving child’s biological father, a professional killer, comes to investigate, and finds, on the human level, that he is forming a close attachment to his daughter, and on the supernatural level, that he must do battle with a mind-controlling stone that is hidden in a cavern underneath the house. Voice of Youth Advocates reviewer Joyce Hamilton wrote, “The fast-paced action and chilling ending make this book difficult to put down,” and added that Cantrell weaves together the human and supernatural worlds in an effective fashion.
Cantrell followed The Ridge with Torments and the 1992 Boneman. This latter work was seen by more than one reviewer to straddle the horror and police procedural genres. Set in Phoenix City, North Carolina, it concerns a local drug lord’s attempt to erase the competition by bringing in an evil voodoo force and turning his rivals into zombies. Assigned to the case are police investigator Dallas Reid and beautiful state special agent Jackie Swann; also interested is local reporter J. J. Spencer, Reid’s best friend, who writes fiction as a sideline. Scott Winnett in Locus called the J. J. character “delightful” and appreciated the humorous touches in the descriptions of J. J.’s writings: he is working on a superhero series about a character named Jehovah Jones, who is nothing less than God come to earth to have a good time. J. J. succumbs to the voodoo during the tale, and is rendered clinically dead, but is resuscitated by the novel’s end.
Although Winnett felt that the logic of the story stumbled at points, he called Boneman “a good read,” and of its two final plot twists, he opined that one was conventional but the other was “a jaw-dropper.” A Publishers Weekly critic held a similar view of the two plot twists, and declared, “the story moves along predictable paths, but Cantrell’s fast-paced style redeems a multitude of sins.” Also praising the novelist’s brisk style, Winnett wrote, “Cantrell’s particular gift is for pacing, and it works for her here; the story is like an express train.” A Kirkus Reviews critic was less enthusiastic, expressing the opinion that the novel’s attempt to straddle two genres was unsuccessful; however, the Publishers Weekly critic’s description of the novel as “lively” came closer to expressing an the general critical consensus.
(Thought to have been destroyed with the house it once occ...)
1990(After five people are found dead, literally exploded by a...)
1989(Jackie Swann, North Carolina State Bureau of Investigatio...)
1992(Each Halloween the Manse becomes a house of horrors. Vamp...)
1987Quotes from others about the person
Scott Winnett:
“Cantrell’s particular gift is for pacing, and it works for her here; the story is like an express train.”
