The Rats

Written by James Herbert
Year of Publication:  1974

This book was the debut novel of one of Britain's most popular authors, James Herbert, who was an art director at an advertising agency before he turned his hand to writing.  By the time of his death in March 2013, Herbert had written twenty four novels and two books of non-fiction.

The Rats tells the story of a new breed of rat appearing in London.  These new rats are much larger, stronger, more intelligent, more vicious and bolder than normal, and one of their preferred foods is human flesh.  To make matters worse, they carry a new type of disease, and a single bite from one of the rats causes death within 24 hours.

It's very much a pulp B-movie style plot with the handsome tough but caring teacher hero, Harris, bravely battling the evil mutant rats, and indifferent or ineffectual authority figures.  It's very much a product of it's time and many of the attitudes and some of the language in the book are not exactly politically correct.  The female characters are rarely anything more than victims or girlfriends.  There is also a lot of clunky dialogue.  However this doesn't really detract from the force of Herbert's writing.  The action scenes and the film's plentiful explicit gore scenes are handled with real skill and power, and there is also a very strong level of social commentary.  Also in the scenes of the rat attacks, the secondary characters who are soon to be brutally slaughtered are depicted with skill and compassion.    

The book was an immediate bestseller on it's first publication and helped introduce a new wave of more visceral, socially aware contemporary-set horror writing.  It was also very controversial due to it's frequent graphic descriptions of death and mutilation.  Herbert wrote two sequels to The Rats:  Lair (1979) and Domain (1984).  The novel was also adapted into a video game in 1985 for the Commodore 64 and ZX Spectrum, and it was adapted into a movie called Deadly Eyes (1982).       

House of Small Shadows

Written by Adam Nevill
Year of Publication: 2013

This is Adam Nevill's fifth excursion into supernatural horror.  The story revolves around 38 year old Catherine Howard, a woman with a deeply troubled past, who works for an antique dealer.  She is offered the career opportunity of a lifetime when she is asked to visit the lonely country house, Red House, and value the estate of master puppeteer and taxidermist M.H. Mason.  When Catherine arrives she is met with suspicion and outright hostility by the house's two residents: Mason's elderly wheelchair-bound niece Edith, who is his sole surviving heir and executor, and her formidable, mute housekeeper, Maude.
Catherine finds the house full of grotesque puppets and dolls and hideous tableaux made up of stuffed animals: such as amazingly detailed World War I battlefields populated by dead rats.
At night however the house comes alive with strange sounds and shadows.  As Catherine delves deeper into the mysteries of the house and it's occupants she becomes convinced that she is the victim of a monstrous game.

The book is hugely atmospheric, with a twisty plot.  It's very heavy on backstory and takes some time for the action to kick in, but it all leads to a genuinely shocking conclusion.  The characters are well drawn and the sense of time and place is well done.

It's main flaw is that sometimes the pacing flags, but that is a minor quibble.  This is a must-read for horror fans.