Next up on the Black Hill Books reprint list is 'Killer Crabs', the second in Guy N. Smith's famous (or infamous) 'Crabs' series, as part of their admirable quest to bring this series and the rest of Smith's work back into print. This one's long overdue because, unlike its predecessor, 'Night of the Crabs', which has seen twelve prior reprints in the English language alone, it's languished in the shadows. New English Library only ever published one edition in the UK, back in 1978, while both Signet and Dell released it Stateside, albeit not since 1989. After thirty-six years, fans can finally pick it up for a reasonable price again.

And they should, because, while this is something of an anomaly within the series, it's always an interesting one. As Anthony O'Connor suggests in this edition's foreword, it "may be the Guy N. Smithiest of Guy N. Smith's oeuvre." That's because it's as much thriller as it is horror and there are liberal doses of soft porn thrown in for good measure. As I've mentioned in many reviews of his books, especially from the seventies, he never set out to be a horror writer. It's merely what sold and so, however much he wanted to write other genres, Smith was stuck for a long time in a pigeonhole carved from his own success.

I've reviewed this one before at the Nameless Zine, so don't need to dive in deep a second time, but I must say that it's highly appropriate that O'Connor write the foreword to this book, being Australian himself and a horror novelist, one who apparently mentions Smith in his debut novel, 'Straya', a post-apocalyptic romp in the sunburnt remnants of Australia. The hero of that book, a young mutant named Franga considers Smith a murder poet of class, up there with Dickens and Austen. Clearly I need to get hold of that book.

Most of Smith's books were set in the UK, with England, Scotland and Wales all being frequently used locations. In fact, the 'Crabs' series began in Wales with 'Night of the Crabs' and, after this anomalous sojourn down under, shifted up to Scotland for the prequel, 'The Origin of the Crabs', then expanded all across the UK in the appropriately titled 'Crabs on the Rampage'. In fact, this setting wasn't only an anomaly in the 'Crabs' series but in Smith's work in general. He wouldn't set another book entirely outside the UK until 'Cannibal Cult', the third 'Mark Sabat' novel, no fewer than nineteen books on.

Not only is this the 'Crabs' novel that's set on the other side of the globe, on Hayman Island, off the coast, it's the one that's effectively a thriller with added crabs, the MacGuffin in play being a suitcase containing £20,000 in stolen cash that changes hands frequently in the background as the crabs invade the island in the foreground. It's also the one with Caroline du Brunner, one of the most legendary nymphomaniacs in Smith's bibliography. At this point, only Jenny Lawson in 'The Sucking Pit' was remotely comparable and it would take a long time for another character to join them. O'Connor happily calls out the sex scene in which she bicycles her legs in ecstasy.

As with the other Black Hill Books reprints, the foreword isn't the only thing that's new. Every one of them has been given a new layout, which is consistently elegant, with appropriate fonts and generous line spacing, presented in a trade paperback format. It's clean and effective and all the better for us not necessarily acknowledging how good it is. There's the same biography and bibliography for those new to Guy N. Smith who want to see which other delicacies will be salvaged from unjust obscurity at some point to be given tasty new flesh and bones.

And there's new cover art. As I mentioned with the latest reprint of 'Night of the Crabs', I'm not particularly fond of Neal Thomas's crabs paintings in general, not least the poses that he gives both the giant crab and the scared beachgoer on that book. This one, however, I believe works rather well, its giant crab in silhouette lording it over the rest of us from the high ground, but trapped behind a raging fire that flavours the colour palette, only the green jacket of whoever stands defiant in the foreground, maybe Cliff Davenport or maybe Klin the local fisherman. It's not my favourite Guy N. Smith cover, but it's easily my favourite of the 'Crabs' reprints thus far.

This has been out of print too long. Huge kudos to Tara and Black Hill Books for bringing it back from the dead. Now, a new generation can experience the diversity of what Smith was writing in the seventies, not just the horror for which he's rightly known, but horror draped over a thriller with copious amounts of sex. As O'Connor aptly concludes, "May your legs ever bicycle upwards in reading pleasure." ~~ Hal C F Astell

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