As Time Out puts it, “A thin line separates crime and horror, and in Michael Slade’s thrillers, the demarcation vanishes altogether.” Slade was guest of honor at both the Bloody Words crime convention and the World Horror Convention. He argued the last death penalty case in Canada’s highest court.īacked by his forensic experience, Slade’s Special X and Wyatt Rook thrillers fuse the genres of police and legal procedure, whodunit and impossible crime, suspense, history, and horror. You can follow Steve Newton on Twitter at /earofnewt.Criminal lawyer MICHAEL SLADE has acted in over one hundred murder cases. On March 14 at the VCC King Edward Campus Auditorium Clarke will be hosting 'An Evening with Michael Slade', during which he'll speak about his body of work and his 'Mountie noir' genre.įeel free to ask him which renowned rock journalist coined the term 'Sladists' to describe his hardcore fans. Funny how things work out sometimes.Clarke has published 12 more novels since Ghoul, and currently writes them with his daughter, Rebecca. Clarke caught wind of Cooper's quote in the Straight, ended up contacting him, and next thing you know we're all backstage together at the Pacific Coliseum. I was interviewing horror-rock legend Alice Cooper on the phone that year-he was coming to town on his Constrictor tour, I think it was-and when I asked him if he'd read any good scary books lately he started raving about Ghoul. When I got back to Van I quickly hunted down Slade's second novel, 1987's Ghoul, which was equally entrancing, and also sported a heavy-metal-based plot. Its cover featured a blurb from one of my fave authors of all time, Robert Bloch, who called it one of the most gruesome things he'd ever read.

Headhunter was a riveting read, a really awesome whodunnit, which was made extra special because it was mostly set in B.C. I also have vivid memories of the paperback I took with me, Headhunter, the 1984 debut novel by Vancouver author Michael Slade (which at the time was the pen name for three people, criminal lawyer Jay Clarke being the predominant voice).

I spent five-and-a-half weeks down there, mostly on the beach between Frankston (a nice little seaside town outside Melbourne) and up the coast to Coff's Harbour.Ī few things I remember most fondly about the trip were the drive-in bottle shops, the 24-packs of Toohey's Draft (or I as I liked to call them, 'White Rockets'), and the sightings of white pointers (look it up). I haven't done a lot of traveling, but back in '86 I did make it out to Australia for my little sister's wedding.

Ghoul by Michael Slade