The Color of Evil
by Connie Corcoran-Wilson
Published by Quad Cities’ Press on 1/11/12
Horror
A traditional horror story in the vein of Bentley Little, Dean Koontz or James Newman, The Color of Evil brings it with the serial killing. In a small town in Iowa, 8-year-old Tad McGreevey sees auras, and one aura in particular, that of Michael Clay, otherwise known as Pogo the Clown. Pogo is a serial killer, and Tad soon lapses into visions of Pogo’s heinous crimes, but his insistence on relating the visions lead’s to Pogo’s incarceration.
Fast forward eight years: Tad still sees auras, but the visions no longer plague him. Instead, he’s beset by his love for Jenny San Giovanni, his worry about her violent football player-boyfriend and concern for his best friend, Stevie.
Then the visions begin again, and all hell breaks loose.
Based on the cover, I’d been expecting more killer clown. I like killer clowns. I know I’m in the minority here, but they’re genuinely scary. And this book too, is genuinely scary.
It takes awhile to get going, and there are a few chapters up front which seem to repeat themselves unnecessarily, but once the killings start, the book seems to find its footing, even if the timeline crashes and burns at one point. Ignore the timeline! Keep reading!
You’ll also have to ignore the bit where someone with first aid training yanks a hunting knife out of a stab wound for selfish purposes, cookie-cutter characters and racial stereotypes, but you might, like me, keep going with one burning question in mind: what *did* happen to Stevie Scranton?
© 2012 – 2013, oddmonster. All rights reserved.
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Clowns scare me so much that I can’t even look at that cover. *shudder*
Dude, trust me when I say the clown was easily the least scary thing about this book. For a book about a clown serial killer, it was remarkably light on clown, if nothing else,
You’re not in the minority re: Killer Clowns with me and my circle of friends. I’m not sure I would like the cookie-cutter characters and racial stereotypes, but the mystery sounds good and I always neeeeed a good scare!
I’d be interested to hear someone else’s take on this book, definitely. I was impressed by how 80s slasher film it came off as, but the other stuff…yeah. But those are dealbreakers for me, so everyone’s mileage varies.