Haunters of the dark

The popular 'TABOO' series finally returns. This time with a compilation entry.

Four masked Assailants have just kidnapped Rian Fletcher, the teenage Daughter of Brian Fletcher; a prominent businessman and multi-millionaire. Their plan is simple; make a video of a battered and bruised Rian, send it to her Father and demand a ransom. Held up at an abandoned warehouse the first part of the plan goes off without a hitch and a ransom demand is sent. However, as night falls the Men realize that they are not alone, there is a Creature in the warehouse, a blood thirsty creature that begins to take them out one at a time. Very soon the Kidnappers and their Victim realize that they will have to work together if they are going to survive the night.

Four friends have to face their innermost demons when their car breaks down in cemetery and the reality of their situation suddenly becomes their worst nightmare.

The time is the Twenties. Dr. Carlo Rambelli, inspector for the Ministry of Health, is sent to the Ravenna area to investigate a presumed epidemic of malaria. Once he has reached his native Romagna, Rambelli finds he has to grapple with the elementary life in ghost towns and with the strange deaths of two doctors: the province doctor and the country doctor. The story, which began with a self-possessed, elegiac narration, starts being tinged with suspense and mystery. In the end it will take on the distinct colours of the splattered nightmare. This novel of Baldini's is well constructed, a 'visual' cinema narration. In particular, the description of the horizontal Ravenna countryside is suggestive, with the open plains, the silence, the fog. The characters are vivid: aside from Dr. Rambelli, a gentleman who lent himself to medicine, there is Elsa, the woman of the people full of sensuality and primitive charm, whom the lead character falls in love with, questioning his own marriage relationship; Bellenghi, the federal ignoramus, bossy and violent, symbol of local power and muscular Fascist squad member; Giuseppe, a sensitive, solitary, intelligent child, capable of seeing dead people. Malaria, Fascism, medicine are the topics tackled by the author in the book, and also the explosive mixture that can come from the combination of corruption with a primitive, backward, superstitious mentality extraneous to the scientific rationalism of medicine and the codified rules of civil living.

A father suffering from a dissociative disorder finds himself having horrific visions of brutally murdering his family - unaware that something dark and evil from his past is the culprit.