STINGER.

by Robert McCammon.

OVERVIEW: In the remote Texas town of Inferno, a creature of evil beyond anything the world has ever encountered descends. He traps the town and ravages the land with grisly executions and horrible mutations . . . until the people rise up in a final, desperate battle. From the award-winning author of Swan Song.

REVIEW:

The "stinger" is an alien bounty hunter that remains ominously hidden for most of the book, but appears to be an enormous wicked mixture of centipede and scorpion. The bounty it's after is the "good guy" of the tale--a waif-like being who invades the mind of a small girl to make its presence known. They both arrive in a hot, desolate West Texas town surrounded by the alkali dust and sagebrush of a flatland between mountains. And the battle begins. An unpretentious horror novel with memorable imagery, Stinger is this reviewer's favorite of Robert McCammon's. It has appealing characters. It has feuding motorcycle gangs. It even has a bit of a West Side Story romance between Anglo guy and Hispanic girl. Sure, it's a B-movie romp, but McCammon is earnest--he doesn't play it for laughs. The action is scary and horrifying, making for a long, satisfying read. - Publshers Weekly.

1988 Pocket paperback. 538 pages.