Have you ever got fed up with your job? Changing profession is the obvious answer. Of course, that’s somewhat more difficult when it’s one of those lifestyle jobs. And infinitely more difficult when your employer is Strowg, an age-old creature of the night.
A long time ago, Charles Hennessy struck a bargain with Strowg. This strange and darkly charming figure had a noble bearing, was clearly wealthy and offered something too tempting to resist. The keys to immortality.
With hindsight, what a wonderful thing that is, the deal was a rather big mistake. The promise has yet to be fulfilled and being Strowg’s factotum grows more onerous and offensive with each passing year. Worse still, Strowg isn’t the same. The human skin shedding and the creature beneath it is terrifying even for someone acquainted with the diabolical.
They live a nomadic existence in order to satisfy Strowg’s thirst for blood but they need to rest and have come to one of their boltholes. More than that, Hennessy hopes that a spell in Bledbrooke may restore what is lost in Strowg. Because Bledbrooke isn’t like other places. It’s home to an unknowable entity that could swallow Strowg whole and spit out the warped bones.
Hennessy’s life has to change and he’s right insofar as Bledbrooke is where that will happen.
It just may not be how he expects.
I’ve read quite a few of John’s stories before and although all of them have monsters or other beings of the not so human kind, Strowg as a story in itself somehow felt darker, gloomier, more serious, with less hope. Yet, still brimming with John’s signature wholesome writing and descriptions. Horror, softly.
Conservative within kissing distance of sombre.
Strowg is a vampire. But not one of those hunky pieces of walking-talking-charming type of vampires we have come to know within the past 15+ years via Twilight, The Vampire Diaries and the like. Strowg is actually the exact opposite. Turning back into a savage menace – not so easy on the eyes, scary and wild. Thus, in need of assistance from a “minion” to keep him fed.
Enter Hennessy… the footman… the errand boy. Strowg promised Hennessy enternal life in exchange for being a… well… butler slash servant slash supplier of fresh human blood.
But, as corporate life has taught us all – you give a finger, they take a hand and you will be waiting for rewards for ever and ever and ever 😀 (this is somewhat tongue in cheek… maybe… definitely… is it? yeahhh…)
Boil the bones and plug in the cremulator. The roses would be beautiful this year if he could be arsed making bone meal.
Anyway – Strowg, the story, clocks in at a 101 pages. As you can tell, it’s definitely to the side of horror more than your swoony, slicked back hair, bourbon drinking vamps kind of romantasy thriller. Although… ! Although, even in Strowg there is a hint of love! Cue swooning! Or, evil laugh.
Look, thing is John F Leonard has a particular way with words. His horror always has a bit of the undercurrent of something redeemable. What makes Leonard’s stories one of the best of its kind? Definitely the way this author writes. There is a certain smoothness and something that, when you read more than one of his stories, just feels and reads like Leonard. The turn of the words and use of similes. It all works very nicely to deliver horror, heart and a consistency of the supernatural.
I would recommend horror fans to dig into this now, but if you’re of a type that only reads horror once a year – maybe during Halloween – then I suggest you pencil this one in. In a nutshell, you get a pretty good look at what it would be like to make a deal with a vampire and maybe when the opportunity presents itself, you’ll think twice about it after having read Strowg.
Cover to Cover 