Karl Edward Wagner’s 13 Best Supernatural Horror Novels Ranked

By Will Oliver

Karl Edward Wagner published his famous list of 13 Best Supernatural Horror Novels in Rod Serling’s Twilight Zone Magazine in the May-June 1983 issue. There is no indication that he rank ordered these stories. I decided to read all 13 for myself, rank order them, and provide both Wagner’s short review along with my own.

1. Burn Witch Burn by A. Merritt

KEW: “Best known for his lost-race fantasy novels, this time Merritt is equally brilliant at modern horror, in a tale of murderous dolls animated by the souls of their human counterparts. Filmed as The Devil-Doll.”

WO: Merritt takes first place in my ranking, and deservedly so. A fantastic read by the man who influenced all the greats. Highly recommended. Not to mention, The Devil-Doll, staring two great actors, Lionel Barrymore and Maureen O’Sullivan, is an excellent adaptation of Merritt’s novel. Also highly recommended.

2. Maker of Shadows by Jack Mann

KEW: “The best of Mann’s ‘Gees’ series, most of which are very good indeed. Gees was a private investigator whose cases often involved the supernatural—in this case, pre-Druidic magic and an immortal sorcerer.”

WO: An excellent “modern” sequel to Robert E. Howard’s “Worms of the Earth,” featuring the offspring of that one night quid pro quo between Bran Mak Morn and the witch. Look for the many Easter eggs tying the novel back to the father of sword-and-sorcery. Highly recommended.

3. Dark Sanctuary by H.B. Gregory

KEW: “This begins routinely enough—an occult investigator is called in to slay an ancestral ghost in a gloomy castle—then takes off to become a 1930s version of Blish’s Black Easter. Perhaps the best of the British thrillers.”

WO: British Thriller is right! The book does begin like a Seabury Quinn occult investigation yarn, but take on the intense atmosphere of a Lovecraftian horror in the hands of the master himself. Highly recommended.

4. Hell! Said the Duchess by Michael Arlen

KEW: “An unexpectedly chilling tale of demonic possession from this charming author.”

WO: The short novel starts off as a police procedural with a strong undercurrent of British humor (think Monty Python). This makes the transition to horror all the more shocking, and despite the many tropes for which we are familiar today, it is still a fun read. Well recommended.

5. The Burning Court by John Dickson Carr

KEW: “Carr liked to introduce elements of the supernatural into his detective novels, usually with terrifying effect. Made into a fil, but I haven’t seen it.”

WO: This starts as a typical Carr novel with a set up that has you hooked from the very first pages. And just like a typical Carr novel, it bogs down with detail in the middle, painstakingly setting up the reveal, which turns the supernatural into the natural a la Scooby-doo. The last chapter, however, is very unlike Carr in that the ending surprisingly calls the natural into question. Well recommended.

6. The Yellow Mistletoe by Walter S. Masterman

KEW: “A wild one. Masterman was another of those detective writers who at times broke away from formula. This one reads like a cross between Monk Lewis and Sax Rohmer.”

WO: An accidental death turns into a murder mystery, which leads to an adventure worthy of H. Rider Haggard when a trip into the Bulgarian Mountains yields the discovery of a lost race. Recommended.

 

7. Medusa by E. H. Visiak

KEW: “If David Lindsay had written Treasure Island in the throes of a peyote-induced religion experience . . . Well, if Coleridge had given Melville a hand on Moby Dick after a few pipes of opium . . .”

WO: KEW’s review is about right. This book is all over the place and changes direction throughout. I would say it starts with Salinger’s The Catcher in the Rye, moves to Dana’s Two Years Before the Mast, and ends with Lovecraft’s The Call of Cthulhu. Recommended

 

8. Fingers of Fear by J.U. Nicolson

KEW: “The one has it all: lycanthropy, vampirism, family curse, patricide, incest, infanticide, hauntings, the works. Supposedly it was marketed as straight detective fiction. Must have freaked out the Agatha Christie fans.”

WO: It freaked me out and I like to read horror. The payoff, however, only comes after a long and convoluted slog. So, recommended, but remember, you were warned.

 

9. Melmoth the Wanderer by Charles Robert Maurin

KEW: “The greatest of the Gothic novels, proving that gothic and psychological horrors are doubly effective when combined.”

WO: While enjoying the premise, the execution is typical 19^th century style writing, which makes for ponderous reading. However, the insights into KEW’s immortal character Kane are worth the price of admission, at least for us Wagner fans. Recommended.

10. Falling Angel by William Hjortsberg

KEW: “This Chandleresque private eye novel may well be the finest American horror novel of this century.”

WO: The novel starts as good as a Philip Marlowe yarn, but bogs down in the middle with a lot of repetition. Just when I was wondering if it was going to ever move forward, WHAM! I was not expecting the horror that unfolded and it was absolutely jarring. Recommended (but only if you have strong stomach for some seriously disturbing scenes).

11. Alraune by Hanns Heinz Ewers

KEW: “The second of the Frank Braun trilogy, this one concerning the creation of a soulless woman whose birth parallels the legend of the mandrake.”

WO: The protagonists set out to create the most evil woman in the world and author Ewers succeeds wonderfully. Part Frankenstein, part mandrake legend, part incredibly manipulative woman (not really the word I was going to use), it was this last aspect that truly creeped me out. Recommended.

12. Doctors Wear Scarlet by Simon Raven

KEW: “Is it vampirism or is it neurotic obsession? Ask the dead. Superb modern vampire novel was filmed as Incense for the Damned (aka Bloodsuckers).”

WO: I didn’t care what it was and I am left wondering what KEW was thinking. Maybe the movie was better than the novel, but I didn’t care enough to even track that down. Not recommended.

13. Echo of a Curse by R.R. Ryan

KEW: “Undeservedly forgotten, Ms. Ryan was the best of the British thriller writers—a group who wrote popular fiction for the lending libraries, roughly parallel to the pulp writers in America between the world wars. This novel of lycanthropy and vampirism rates with Fingers of Fear as one of the best.”

WO: I really wanted to like this book, as it sounded so good from its description, but I found it a tedious read and the supernatural fell flat. I limped to the finished line. Not recommended.

Keith:

Thanks, Will.

I recently read Burn, Witch, Burn! and loved it. I also really enjoyed Melmoth. I may have read Echo of  Curse. I’ll have to check if it’s the book I’m thinking of, and that book is where I can’t easily get to it.

So, have any of you read any of these titles, and if so, what did you think?