Ghoul is a horror-crime novel by Michael Slade, released in 1987. Inspector Zinc Chandler of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police is closing in on a serial killer; across the pond, Hilary Rand of Scotland Yard is working on a similar case. A fast-paced horror classic.
Some tropes appearing in the novel include:
- Abusive Parents: Several, but Saxon's mother and stepfather are particularly vile.
- A-Cup Angst: Averted; Rika Hyde's flat chest doesn't stop her from playing up her onstage sexuality as a head-banging rock performer. Her lack of cleavage becomes plot-relevant when it gives away that a more buxom woman had impersonated her.
- All Bikers Are Hells Angels: The Headhunters, although with a twist: they're all gay.
- Author Tract: While more mild than some, the conversation between Zinc and Caradon during their stakeout. They discuss the psychology of horror fans and the possibility that someone with violent tendencies might take the fantasy too far. Also a form of Foreshadowing.
- Bait-and-Switch: Since it's a twisty-mystery-thriller, the book does this frequently.
- Big Bad: Played with. For most of the story, it seems to be Raymond Hengler, mob boss and backer of a mysterious Snuff Film. Then the game changes.
- Boom, Headshot!: Frequently, particularly Mohawk.
- Brother–Sister Incest: Rika and Saxon Hyde. It started when they were teenagers, and Saxon was trying to molest their other sister, Debra. Also, allegedly, Elena and Enoch, Saxon and Rika's mentally ill parents.
- Buried Alive: Saxon.
- Bury Your Gays: Jack Ohm's MO, stemming from extreme homophobia. He bombs an HIV support group and a gay bath house.
- Chekhov's Gun: Cleavage, of all things.
- Dark and Troubled Past: Most of the characters, but particularly Deborah and Zinc.
- Deadly Gas: Jack Ohm attempts to kill everyone in a theatre with this trope, which he planned to generate by incinerating a whole lot of PFOA-laden Teflon.
- Driven to Suicide: Roland Fletcher. Elena, although she had good reason.
- The Dung Ages: Discussed. A section of background about London notes that sewage used to be thrown in a trench in the middle of the road. Workers known as "rakers" were paid to push the slop around, and one unfortunate fellow drowned in his own shit. The novel also helpfully points out that the expression "going to the loo" came from the cry of "Gardy-loo!" (translated from "gardez-l'eau") as one emptied the chamber pot out the window- probably a myth, since the term "loo" dates to the 1920s earliest, and the origin remains uncertain. The tradition of the man walking on the outside also came from this, as he'd be more likely to be hit by falling excrement.
- Eldritch Abomination: Both the Ghoul and the creatures that are trying to "break through".
- Eye Scream: One of the killers makes use of a pair of eye-stabbing binoculars.
- Freudian Excuse: Saxon. And how. Also Deborah and, to an extent, Zinc.
- Hollywood Acid: One of the murder victims is disposed of in a bathtub full of sulphuric acid, leaving only the victim's gallstones behind (for some reason). This is possibly a reference to John Haigh, a real-life killer that used acid to dispose of bodies and who was only tied to the murder of one suspect because of the few bodily parts not even the strongest acid can dissolve: teeth and gallstones.
- The Informant: Jennie Copp. It ends badly.
- Our Vampires Are Different: Elaine Teeze. She's one of Saxon's personalities, representing the disease he thinks he has.
- Police Procedural: Combined with a Serial Killer mystery/thriller.
- Prison Rape: Happens to Hengler.
- Serial Killer: Several, all of which turn out to be the same person, suffering from Dissociative Identity Disorder.
- Sex, Drugs, and Rock & Roll: Lots of each, as some of the characters are in a rock band.
- Shout-Out: To Alice Cooper, Alfred Hitchcock, H. P. Lovecraft, Alice in Wonderland, and many horror films and books.
- Split Personality: Saxon Hyde comes from an "old money" family where madness runs in the genes. The villain's DID is the result of childhood sexual abuse — however, upon another traumatic event, the villain suffers a complete break with reality, and it becomes full-blown paranoid schizophrenia. A veritable grab-bag of crazies, all in one character.
- Split-Personality Takeover: This happens to a teenager named Saxon Hyde at the beginning of the novel. This is especially unfortunate because Saxon is the only one of this young man's personalities that isn't a serial killer.
- Stage Name: Erika Zann (Rika) and Axel Crypt (Saxon).
- Sunglasses at Night: Sid Jinks, at the club.
- Twincest: Rika and Saxon Hyde engage in twincest as teens. To amp up the squick, they're the product of Brother–Sister Incest themselves.
- The Vamp: Rika Hyde, Rosanna Keate, and Deborah's romance-author alter-ego, Corinne Grey.