John Coyne's third horror novel has a fascinating premise: not just the best one he ever came up with, but one of the most original in genre history. My only quibble with The Searing is that it could have gone on for much longer than a measly 248 pages. Whereas The Legacy was just about perfect in terms of length, this book could easily have been stretched into a 500-page epic; the potential was there, and if Coyne had put a little more effort into fleshing out the situations and characters, it might have made the difference between a good novel and a great one. The book is perfectly readable as is, but left me craving more depth and substance.

Without spoiling the premise for those who haven't read The Searing, it's reminiscent of early David Cronenberg films like Shivers and Rabid: part horror, part sci-fi and part sexual melodrama, taking on a Lovecraftian tinge near the end. In 1980, young female children are dying mysteriously in a new housing development on the Potomac River, and women in the same neighborhood are suddenly being struck by thunderous, uncontrolled orgasms. What's really happening in Renaissance Village? Does it have anything to do with the profoundly autistic twelve-year-old girl who lurks at the edges of the neighborhood, and who seems to be trying to communicate with one resident in particular? You'll have fun finding out. At the time of its publication, this novel appears to have been misunderstood ("I've heard it described as manipulative, farfetched and gimmicky," the author himself lamented in a 1986 Fangoria interview), but The Searing merits a reevaluation by connoisseurs of '80s horror lit. ( )

Fiction, Science fiction, Horror, First published by Putnam's Sons, New York, 1980, hardcover, 223 pp.; First Italian edition, Milano, Mondadori, Urania, 1981, n. 877, under the title: "L'occhio di Bel", 192 pp., translated by Laura Serra ( )