Furnace - Hardcover

Gray, Muriel

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0385480024 ISBN 13: 9780385480024

Publisher: Doubleday, 1997

Synopsis

Trucker Josh Spiller pulls his rig into Furnace, Virginia, for a meal and leaves with an attractive, frightened hitchhiker and the conviction that something evil is afoot in the small town, and that his time is running out. 45,000 first printing.

About this title

Review:

Josh Spiller is a long-distance truck driver. Although his girlfriend is pregnant, he's got no major personal problems--until the day he rolls into a small town called Furnace, where a middle-aged woman pushes a baby carriage straight into his wheels and then vanishes. The dead baby's teenage mother and other passers-by swear the wind caused the carriage to roll, and the police take Josh for a troublemaker when he insists on writing a statement to the contrary. Shaken, Josh hits the road again, only to find that it's not so easy to get away from Furnace; something inhuman is hot on his heels. A pretty hitchhiker recognizes a mysterious scrap of writing in his truck as ancient runes spelling out--on human skin--a horrific curse. From then on, all roads lead back to Furnace as Josh races to unscramble a weird puzzle involving a wealthy town councillor, the Philosopher's Stone, and a demon who will destroy Josh in three days unless he returns the runes to their rightful place. The rotating point of view can be confusing, and the language occasionally doesn't ring true to a non- Scottish ear. Nevertheless, this is a grand, terrifying tale.

Review:

‘Pacy, energetic, violent entertainment whose flashes of intuition and glittery neurosis give it an idosyncratic edge’
- Elizabeth Buchan, The Times

‘Takes the horror genre by the balls’
- Deirdre Molloy, The List

‘A deliciously creepy horror to rival premium Stephen King. Guaranteed to give you a terrifying dose of the heebee-jebees’
- Company

About this edition

• Publisher: Doubleday
• Publication date: 1997
• ISBN 10: 0385480024
• ISBN 13: 9780385480024
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 360