Woman
By Richard Matheson
Gauntlet Press, 2005
Reviewed by William I. Lengeman III
(First published in Apex Digest)

Readers who need to be introduced to Richard Matheson – frequently cited as a key influence on Stephen King, among others – should sally forth to the nearest university and register for Horror 101. The rest of us are aware of his impressive achievements in the field, so I’ll forego listing them and get right down to it.

The first thing you notice about the trade paperback version of Woman is how slim a volume it is. A mere 125 pages, it hearkens back to the day when the average novel was not sufficiently weighty to be used as either doorstop or bludgeon.

After a brief prelude, the story kicks in. A distraught young woman – Ganine – shows up at Dr. David Harper’s door and demands his help – Harper is a popular radio talk show psychologist. With a little help from his imperious wife Liz, Harper manages to shoo Ganine away.

She reappears as Liz’s coworkers begin to arrive at the apartment. They all work on a popular sitcom – Country Boy - and are gathering at the Harper’s before heading off to an awards show.

Matheson sets much of his story at this pre-show gathering, where assorted and sundry tensions between various members of the group rear their ugly heads and it gradually became apparent that Ganine is something more than just a distraught young woman.

To tell much more would be to tell too much, so I’ll tread carefully. Matheson does a great job of building suspense throughout, though readers may be reminded, in places, of a certain influential novel by Matheson’s most famous student.

Though the book is slim, it could easily have been a bit slimmer. Matheson lays it on a bit thick with the sniping between characters and devotes perhaps a bit too much time to some fairly cerebral – and show stopping – battle of the sexes type debating.

And then there’s the ending. Once again, I’m not going to go into specifics, but I will say that it seemed to come out of left field and I’m still trying to figure out if it works or if it’s just plain flaky.

All in all, I’ll venture to say that Woman is worthy of the reader’s time and hard-earned dollars, especially since it will consume a relatively modest amount of each. Though it’s not without flaws, Matheson’s way with a scary yarn generally manages to balance out any of these shortcomings.

Copyright 2007 – William I. Lengeman III