Ryder Brady – Instar

Ryder Brady – Instar (Nel, 1978)

Cover art by Tony Masero

First published in the USA by Doubleday & Co. Inc, 1976
First published in Great Britain by New English Library, 1977
First NEL paperback edition April 1978

Blurb:

GOSNOLD’S BAY WAS A QUIET HOLIDAY RESORT FOR THE WEALTHY, BUT BENEATH THE SURFACE STRANGE THINGS WERE HAPPENING.

Then the screams began – terrible human screams in the night and mysterious animal whimperings.

Hugh Murray decided to investigate – and that was his first mistake. When he took a maltreated dog into his home that was his second mistake. For the dog had peculiar powers, and soon the screams in the night were replaced by a new hysteria – his own, as he struggled to resist the evil that threatened to destroy him.

Don’t be fooled by the Lassie Come Home cover (look at those eyes…), this is clearly marked HORROR & SUPERNATURAL on the spine lest there be any doubt. The term ‘instar’, by the way, relates to molting in insects – shedding the exoskeleton in order to metamorphose into a new form.

STEVE GOODWIN