Recently picked up this novel at a flea market and was immediately attracted (or repulsed) by the horrific cover. Classic late Zebra horror novel cover and good preview of things to come with the actual story. Like the cover art, the novel itself is good in some ways but bad in the others.

Victor Mullen has crafted an a-typical horror tale here of a young family who moves into a home in Western PA. Located outside the home is an ancient oak tree the scene of some previous horror that occured shortly before the family moves in. It is the oak tree where the real horror lies.

The problem the novel faces is that Mullen wraps up the story far too quickly and fails to really resolve the true nature of the [problem]. What he does to resolve the conflict is really entirely unbelievable as one of the major characters of the novel almost complete changes for no real apparent reason. By changing I mean the character suddenly undergoes a conflict of faith in a few pages when it hasn't been previously established the character has faith to begin with. This is not to say the novel is a complete waste of time. Mullen does describe some good horrific ... sequences with the main evil and he does keep the novel moving along a decent pace.

It's a very average horror novel that is heavily dialog driven from an era where pulpy horror novels were a gem to behold. Unfortunately, I cannot give Mullen's effort anything more than 2 stars. ...