The Box Hunters - by Albert J. Manachino
(Argo Press, $16.95, ISBN 0-9634181-5-7)
Review by John M Peters

I have to admit right at the start of this review that there will be a small matter of bias here as both the author Al Manachino and the publisher Mike Ambrose are friends. Plus I have been 'in' on the extended process of publishing this novel for the last year or so. So you can read the following and take it at face value or if you are a miserable SOB who sees conspiracy at every corner I'll direct you to seek out George Dubyah's joke book...

OK, so here goes - The Box Hunters is the tale of a family called Em, a fractious, acerbic rat pack of disparate souls living together under the same roof. Looking for a cheap vacation, the Ems reply to a newspaper ad offering a house with 150 rooms for a paltry $75 a month. And so they turn up, baggage train and all, at Margrave, an ancient dilapidated house of labyrinthine proportions, and quickly discover that the advert they saw wasn't quite as truthful as it they had assumed [but then again, is any real estate ad truthful?].

Margrave is actually a battleground for a trio of bodysnatching wizards: superhero [and bit of a hunk] Captain Fearless on the one side and Mr Brown and Mr Chain on the other. And then there are the resuscitated skeletons of the late lamented, used by both sides to search for the choicest bodies to revive. And into this cauldron of rivalry and distrust step the Ems, and the Margrave is never the same again.

Well, that's all the plot you'll get out of me - if you are intrigued by a tale of superheroes, wizards, zombie skeletons and, oh yeah, talking ravens and a dog more intelligent than all the humans in this story combined, then you have to buy this book to find out what happens next. "Why the hell should I?" is probably going through your brain at this moment, and I'll tell you why. Box Hunters is a damn fine read - it ain't a Booker Prize winner [but that's their loss!], it is however a rollicking adventure story, set in one of the weirdest locales you will have ever read about. Vividly written by a veteran small press author who knows how to fashion a tale that lingers in the mind for a long time. And before I forget special mention must be made of the superb colour cover illo and interior black and white drawings by Larry Dickison, they do much to help create the weird atmosphere within this book.

So there you have it, if you are fed up reading franchise novels for Buffy or Angel why not try something a LOT more original - you won't be disappointed.