Cal Noble

Title: Monstrosity
Author: Edward Lee
Publisher: Leisure Books
Copyright: 2003

Summary:
After being raped by her CO’s son and dishonorably discharged from the Air Force, Clare Prentiss ends up homeless for more than a year. Then someone handpicks her for the job of the century. She’s made head of security at a cancer research company in Florida, where she gets a great salary, company car, and a house on the beach. Naturally, nothing this good comes without a hitch. Almost as soon as she gets there, creepy things start happening. A crackhead is found raped and brutalized in the surrounding woods. Clare learns the entire security team (three people) mysteriously vanished–opening the job for her.

Pros:
Edward Lee is a great story teller. He manages to keep the suspense up through the entire novel. There is a second story running concurrent with the first. I admit I kept wondering how Lee was going to connect the too. I was surprised. I’ll also say I was surprised by some of the twists Lee threw in.

Cons:
While the ending surprised me, it came more like an “info dump” than an illumination to me as the reader. In that respect, I was a little disappointed. It felt a bit like Lee was getting near the 90,000-word mark and said, “Well, I better wrap this up.”

Could go either way:
This was not Edward Lee’s best work. For those looking for “erotic horror” like Lee’s “Flesh Gothic,” this will
disappoint. This book was good, but not great. Overall, I’m glad I read it. It was worth the money and time invested.

Rating: 3 out of 4 haints