This breakthrough novel was the imaginary setting for many of his short stories and novels. With The Hour of the Oxrun Dead we’re reading Charles’ work from near the start. (Which I read at the time they were published and thought that they were just OK.) To many though, even genre readers, his name will not be recognised – his closest brush with fame and recognition is probably the two X-Files tie-in novels he wrote, Goblins (1994) and Whirlwind (1995). He was also the editor of the Shadows book collections from book 1 – 10 (1978-1987). Charles won a World Fantasy Award for his novella collection Nightmare Seasons, a Nebula Award in 1976 for his short story “A Crowd of Shadows”, and another Nebula Award in 1978 for his novella “A Glow of Candles, a Unicorn’s Eye”. It is often from fellow writers that the plaudits appear. It doesn’t take long to write or to say, but from where I sit, those five words say about everything that needs to be said: The man was a pro.” (Stephen King, Scream Quietly, PS Publishing, 2012) “The one thing that does (and I suppose the stories also say this, but it is worth pointing out) can be summed up in five words of one syllable, none of them longer than three letters. Stephen King, on writing about Charles, said that he was a professional: He’s one of those authors who amassed novels and sales while getting on with the job of writing during his lifetime without too much fuss, until his death in 2006. You may not’ve heard of Charles L Grant before, even though he’s widely regarded by those writers “in the know”.

Inspired by his Paperbacks From Hell (review HERE) summary of the 1970’s and 80’s Horror boom, I decided to read a book that I’d had around for a while, one that was a breakthrough novel from an author who’s a “writer’s writer”. It was Grady Hendrix that made me do it.*

Shadows 3 by Charles L. Grant