The Auctioneer unfolds slowly, with the tiniest hint of menace, with the seeds of destruction sown in the very first pages. Simply and strongly told, it's the kind of book you don't want to stop reading because there is such a sense of place and time and character and most of all, story. He realizes he may have more to give than he'd ever thought. And the accidents always somehow get mentioned when John Moore tells Dunsmore and his deputies that no, this time is the last time, he has nothing left to give. And those in Harlowe that don't give freely? Certain accidents start being reported. And they don't take castoff items anymore but property that has meaning and value to the Moores. This just could prove to be one of the top thrillers of the year.Because, of course, after awhile some of those deputies - men the Moores have known all their lives - start showing up for castoff items. Add a powerful twist at the end and you have a total novel that takes hold of the reader on Page One and never lets go until the finish. a powerful book from a powerful writer.”- The Grand Rapids Press Samson has written a suspenseful, engrossing novel with the most gripping and violent ending we’ve encountered for some time.”- Newsday For all their talk, the author seems to be saying, men will permit their souls to be carried away bit by bit and auctioned off to the highest bidder. there is no way to stop reading it, once you’ve started!” – Baltimore Sun

With echoes of Shirley Jackson’s “The Lottery” and Stephen King’s Needful Things, Samson’s novel returns to print at last in this long-awaited new edition, which features an introduction by Grady Hendrix ( Horrorstör, Paperbacks from Hell). Ī chilling masterpiece of terror whose sense of creeping menace and dread increases page by page, Joan Samson’s The Auctioneer (1975) is a rediscovered classic of 20th-century fiction.

As the auctioneer carries out his terrible, inscrutable plan, the Moores and their neighbors will find themselves gradually but inexorably stripped of their possessions, their freedom, and perhaps even their lives. But from the moment the charismatic Perly Dunsmore arrives in town and starts soliciting donations for his auctions, things begin slowly and insidiously to change in Harlowe. In the isolated farming community of Harlowe, New Hampshire, where life has changed little over the past several decades, John Moore and his wife Mim work the land that has been in his family for generations.

One of the finest and best-selling horror novels of the 1970s returns at last to chill a new generation of readers

Auctioneer by Joan Samson