The Cut-Throat World of Cottonseed (Death Trance - Graham Masterton)

Member Name: Ophelia

Product:	Death Trance - Graham Masterton
Date:	06/10/03 (139 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Scary demons

Disadvantages: No sympathetic hero

?There?s nothing to fear in the world of men. It is only on the edge of the world of spirits that real fear begins.?

THE PLOT

Randolph Clare is the president of company that produces oil from cottonseed. He has refused to join the Tennessee Cottonseed Association, as they fix prices at high rates, of which he does not approve. Unfortunately for him the members of the Association are far from moral and set out to ?persuade? Randolph of the error of his ways.

First Randolph?s limousine is tampered with and then one of his factories burns down but this is minor in comparison with what he is to suffer. His wife, daughter and two sons are all brutally murdered and Randolph?s life is shattered.

With the help of his secretary, Wanda, he finds an Indonesian priest who can help him enter the world of the spirits where he may see his family once more. However, there are great dangers involved with this cause of action; demons called leyaks stalk the world of the dead and they can rip you apart and devour your soul and also condemn the spirits of the departed to eternal damnation.

These are risks Randolph is willing to take but he must also avoid the mortal risks posed by the Cottonseed Association and their hired heavies.

CONTACTING THE DEAD

After the death of his family Randolph feels an overwhelming need to see them once more so that he can tell them that he loves them. This is understandable enough but what is not so easy to grasp is why he chooses to contact them through an Indonesian priest!

When Randolph hears the news of his family?s deaths, he collapses and is taken to hospital. It is here that he meets Dr Ambara who, when questions, tells Randolph about his own beliefs about the afterlife and religion. The doctor is Indonesian and believes in a spirit world which can be entered with the help of a priest by attaining the state of a ?death trance?. It is then that Randolph decides to find s
uch a priest to help him.

I find this rather hard to believe. Surely Randolph had some religious beliefs of his own (this is not mentioned in the book, which is strange enough in itself). Why did he not simply pray to his own god for the welfare of his family? Or why did he not visit a medium and attempt to contact his family through a seance? Surely these would have been actions which would have occurred to someone in Randolph?s position more readily than flying to Bali to seek out a priest in order to access the spirit world in accordance with the beliefs of an Indonesian religion?

What makes his decision even harder to understand is the risk into which he is putting the souls of his family. Once he enters the spirit realm, the demon leyaks may be alerted to him and his family and if they capture his family, their eternal souls will be devoured by the Goddess of the Dead. Surely this is not a fate he would relish for his family and I would have thought that telling them he loved them was not worth risking condemning them to eternal damnation. He might feel guilty that he didn?t save them from their mortal deaths but surely this other possible fate would be far worse than that which they suffered in the living world. I find it very hard to accept that he would risk his family?s souls and, indeed, that he would try to contact them through a religion with which he had no prior knowledge.

OUR HERO

It is easy to feel sympathy for a man who has just lost his entire family. However, my sympathy for Randolph did not last long. Wanda accompanies him on his trip to Bali and it soon becomes clear that they are extremely attracted to each other and Randolph realises that he feels more for Wanda than he ever has for any woman, other than his late wife.

Just days after the funerals of his family Randolph is allowing Wanda to share his bed, although he does not touch her but explains that he is not yet ready. However, they
both acknowledge that they will be together once time has healed some of Randolph?s wounds.

The fact that he does not act out his desires with his secretary does not earn him many brownie points with me. I was appalled that a man who apparently loved his wife and was devestated by her brutal rape and murder could be desiring another woman within days. For his desires, even if they remained unacted upon, I condemned him.

It is hard to care about the fate of a man for whom you have no sympathy.

HORROR VALUE

The first horrific scenes in the book are those involving the murder of Randolph?s family. However, Masterton does not manage to engage the reader?s sympathy, fear or pity. We are not introduced to the family prior to their murder and the events seem to be described in a fairly flat and dispassionate manner. Although the actions that were wrought upon them were horrific on the face of it, I was not emotionally moved to the degree you would expect.

The other opportunity for a good scare comes from Randolph?s dabbling with the spirit world. We do see the leyaks killing some people and it is swift, brutal and messy. However, it is hard to believe the story of a Tennessee cottonseed magnate who enters the afterlife of an Indonesian religion. In addition to this I really wouldn?t have been bothered if the leyaks did get hold of him and rip him limb from limb.

MASTERTON NOT MASTERFUL

The book is a fairly enjoyable read but it is just not as good as some of Masterton?s other works. Without a sympathetic hero it is impossible to build sufficient tension and fear to provide a really good scare and once this is combined with an implausible scenario the book begins to fall apart.

I certainly wouldn?t recommend this as a first dip into Masterton?s works but if you see it sitting on the shelf of your local charity shop it is worth a few pence to a good cause!



OTHER INFORMATION <
br>Publisher: Sphere Books Ltd, Wrights Lane, London
ISBN: 0-7221-6124-7
Price: £5.99

Summary: