The prologue of LITTLE HEAVEN is set in 1980 and depicts an ancient evil that has been dormant and now sleeps no more. The description of this evil entity is somewhere between "The Blob" and John Carpenter's creature in The Thing. The massive body of the creature is made up of figures with features from your darkest nightmare as well as random pieces of forest and countryside.

Nick Cutter burst onto the horror scene with the terrific novels THE TROOP and THE DEEP. Cutter is a pseudonym for Canadian author Craig Davidson, whose typical work consists of poetry and short stories. It is when he dons the Nick Cutter name that pure horror drips through his fingertips onto the page. Reading LITTLE HEAVEN brought to mind the older works of Stephen King and Dean Koontz --- particularly Koontz's PHANTOMS --- as well as elements of dark, fantastical horror that we used to see from Clive Barker. There is also a tip of the hat to the granddaddy of all horror, H.P. Lovecraft, who knew a little something about ancient evil beings living in the earth.

"Cutter's work is refreshing and brings back old school horror/dark fantasy that is rarely seen today.... LITTLE HEAVEN is highly recommended to those who miss the style of horror that the likes of King, Koontz, Barker and McCammon have produced."

There is a plot to LITTLE HEAVEN, but it’s so absorbed in the horrific opening sequence that you pay less attention to the characters and just wait for the next crazy thing to happen. Little Heaven is where a religious cult is operating from in New Mexico. A woman named Ellen Bellhaven hires an interesting band of renegade hitmen: the one-eyed Micah Shughrue, the deadly Minerva Atwater, and Ebenezer Elkins, known as “the Englishman.”

Ellen's nephew, Nate, has been taken in by the group at Little Heaven and the charismatic Reverend Amos Flesher. The three hired killers do not trust each other but are forced to rely on their newly formed trio being enough to save Nate and get out alive. They are quick to notice that there is something far more sinister going on in and around Little Heaven that does not involve Flesher's group.

LITTLE HEAVEN skips back and forth between the ’60s and ’80s, all the while depicting the entity that is growing more and more hungry. Of all the many life-forms depicted by the evil being, the scariest is the character nicknamed “The Long Walker,” who resembles a stretched-out, obscene version of human being. The only thing that rivals Cutter's command of horrific prose are the illustrations by Adam Gorham that bring to life some of the horrors Cutter has invented.

With each passing page, the madness grows and Little Heaven literally becomes hell on earth. When Flesher poisons and guns down most of his congregation, the three anti-heroes recognize that no amount of money will keep them in this evil place. The only concern is if the evil entity that dominates this area is done with them before they are allowed to escape. When they discover the black monolith in the forest, in the area known as Black Rock, they realize that a higher power is at hand and they are mere ants on the forest floor waiting to be crushed.

Lately there have been slim pickings in the horror genre, so Cutter's work is refreshing and brings back old school horror/dark fantasy that is rarely seen today. The last time I read a novel with this much mass hysteria turning things into a true circus of evil was in the writing of author Bentley Little. LITTLE HEAVEN is highly recommended to those who miss the style of horror that the likes of King, Koontz, Barker and McCammon have produced. I cannot wait to see what Cutter comes up with next!