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Oregon Coast / Seavy Village
Facade
A stranger who resembles a character Thomas once played drives the popular actor to madness as he roams the moonlit beaches near Thomas' home, butchering innocent victims
386 pages, Mass Market Paperback
First published February 2, 1993
1 person is currently reading
99 people want to read
About the author
Kristine Kathryn Rusch
1,382 books724 followersKristine Kathryn Rusch is an award-winning mystery, romance, science fiction, and fantasy writer. She has written many novels under various names, including Kristine Grayson for romance, and Kris Nelscott for mystery. Her novels have made the bestseller lists –even in London– and have been published in 14 countries and 13 different languages.
Her awards range from the Ellery Queen Readers Choice Award to the John W. Campbell Award. In the past year, she has been nominated for the Hugo, the Shamus, and the Anthony Award. She is the only person in the history of the science fiction field to have won a Hugo award for editing and a Hugo award for fiction.
In addition, she's written a number of nonfiction articles over the years, with her latest being the book "A Freelancer's Survival Guide".
She has also published as:
Sandy Schofield (collaborations with husband Dean Wesley Smith)
Kristine Grayson - romances
Kathryn Wesley (collaborations with husband Dean Wesley Smith)
Kris Nelscott - mysteries
Kris Rusch - historical fiction
Kris DeLake - romances
Her awards range from the Ellery Queen Readers Choice Award to the John W. Campbell Award. In the past year, she has been nominated for the Hugo, the Shamus, and the Anthony Award. She is the only person in the history of the science fiction field to have won a Hugo award for editing and a Hugo award for fiction.
In addition, she's written a number of nonfiction articles over the years, with her latest being the book "A Freelancer's Survival Guide".
She has also published as:
Sandy Schofield (collaborations with husband Dean Wesley Smith)
Kristine Grayson - romances
Kathryn Wesley (collaborations with husband Dean Wesley Smith)
Kris Nelscott - mysteries
Kris Rusch - historical fiction
Kris DeLake - romances
Ratings & Reviews
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Displaying 1 - 10 of 11 reviews
March 22, 2019
Abyss #27
This is my first time reading Rusch's work. I've admired her as an editor since discovering Pulphouse in the mid-'90s, but I had never sat down with one of her books. Reading the Abyss books gave me a good excuse to finally do so.
Facade is ... not great. It's compelling, and I like Rusch's style, but the story itself doesn't resonate. It doesn't help that the premise is one that's been used over and over again in horror fiction (even long before this book's publication), or that the ending is embarrassingly sudden and unsatisfying. The main character is male, and I was surprised to find that the female character who served as the love interest was poorly drawn. Her character was distinct, but she didn't have a lot of agency, and how she acted around the main character didn't make sense to me, nor did it strike me as consistent. I expected more from the character, because Rusch as an editor had to eschew those kinds of tropes in the stories she purchased; why include one in her own book?
Oddly, I expect I'll remember a lot of the imagery from the book years from now, but that's mostly due to how Rusch presented her scenes, not that they made a lot of sense once the story came to its conclusion. I'm eager to see if her other books published by Abyss show some improvement. If so, I can see myself reading much more of Rusch's fiction.
This is my first time reading Rusch's work. I've admired her as an editor since discovering Pulphouse in the mid-'90s, but I had never sat down with one of her books. Reading the Abyss books gave me a good excuse to finally do so.
Facade is ... not great. It's compelling, and I like Rusch's style, but the story itself doesn't resonate. It doesn't help that the premise is one that's been used over and over again in horror fiction (even long before this book's publication), or that the ending is embarrassingly sudden and unsatisfying. The main character is male, and I was surprised to find that the female character who served as the love interest was poorly drawn. Her character was distinct, but she didn't have a lot of agency, and how she acted around the main character didn't make sense to me, nor did it strike me as consistent. I expected more from the character, because Rusch as an editor had to eschew those kinds of tropes in the stories she purchased; why include one in her own book?
Oddly, I expect I'll remember a lot of the imagery from the book years from now, but that's mostly due to how Rusch presented her scenes, not that they made a lot of sense once the story came to its conclusion. I'm eager to see if her other books published by Abyss show some improvement. If so, I can see myself reading much more of Rusch's fiction.
July 23, 2021
The Dell 'Abyss' line famously touted itself as introducing new takes on the horror genre and avoiding gothic tropes. Author Kristine Kathryn Rusch's interesting 1993 title FACADE does this by inventing a new genre- call it "cozy psychological horror".
FACADE tells the story of a TV star recovering with a broken leg after a nasty fall. His beachfront home on the Oregon coast has a history of brutal murders that he's determined to solve, and there's a small town full of the usual suspicious characters. If this sounds dated to you, like a 70's made for TV movie, it is. It could have been called "How Terrible About Thomas". While some efforts were made to update this for release in the 90's, the manuscript clearly spent 10 years or more in a drawer before it was dusted off for publication in the horror paperback boom. Even in 1983 you couldn't have bought a secluded oceanfront home for $25,000, as Thomas does in the opening pages.
Over almost 400 pages, this thin story takes on so much padding, as it slowly gets to the point, that it turns into a 'cozy mystery'. How cozy? There are nine scenes of Thomas enjoying his velvet robe. We learn this robe keeps his thighs warm and protects them from the cold sea air. Also there are thirteen scenes of our hero making hot tea, or warming up with a mug of cocoa or coffee. We learn he does not care for coffee much. We learn he has a favorite mug. I am not even counting all the times he or other characters enjoy Coke, wine, beer, or water. Or tuna casserole. He loves some casserole! But, back to beverages. We are meant to believe Thomas spent decades flooding his scarred system with cocaine, booze and "junk," but also that he wakes at night to reflect on the comparative advantages of different soft drinks:
p.55 "He slipped on the robe he had flung over his chair on the way to the bed. The velvet felt good against his skin. He filled the tea kettle, holding it properly so that it didn't spray him, and set it on the stove. Diet Coke was the wrong thing for the middle of the night. It was a daytime drink, filled with sparkle and energy. He would make hot chocolate and savor it until he felt sleepy again."
To get out of the house, and away from the tea kettle, the actor decides to get to the bottom of his daughter's murder. Above I used the word 'determined', but really he's just sort of slowly considering it. Perhaps he is afraid of what he might learn. He won't read the investigative reports he paid two different detective agencies to prepare. Instead he has an affair with a local reporter and gives her the reports to read. Eventually we do discover the truth. (I will warn you that I found the answer underwhelming.)
All this coziness begs the question, how is this a horror story? Apparently teenage girls kissing posters of stars on their bedroom walls at night have a powerful jealousy, perhaps even an implicit death wish against anyone close to their celebrity crushes. The next time you see teenage girls asking someone for an autograph, know that their passionate youthful obsession is putting the star's family and loved ones in terrible danger:
p.248 "In all the years he had been signing autographs and dodging fans, he had never thought of them, wondering what they were feeling, wondering what their dreams were. He had always seen them as parasites, as people without lives who impinged on his. But Donna had had a life, boyfriends, and she seemed quite content with it all. Except when she faced her poster just before she turned out the light."
I am giving this book a bonus star for its interesting location and especially for mentioning the Oregon Rajneeshees doing their part to degrade the reputation of salad bars everywhere. Of course, years after the Baghwan fled, the Cliven Bundy cult chose Oregon as the perfect place to squat in a Federal office building. This story does not involve a cult, unless you count teenage girls obsessing over a star, but there's clearly 'something in the water' out there.
Appendix:
An odd quirk about FACADE is that it features the word 'sparkle' more than any other book I have ever read. In addition to the example above, here are two more appearances out of many:
p.89 "Medium-size waves, perhaps as tall as he was, sprayed droplets into the air and the sun caught them, making them sparkle."
p.302 "When the sun returned it kissed the beach, adding sparkle to the grains of sand. He had seen sparkling beaches before, knew that it was a trick of the light reflecting off tiny clear stones in the sand, but he had never seen a sparkling beach this far north."
FACADE tells the story of a TV star recovering with a broken leg after a nasty fall. His beachfront home on the Oregon coast has a history of brutal murders that he's determined to solve, and there's a small town full of the usual suspicious characters. If this sounds dated to you, like a 70's made for TV movie, it is. It could have been called "How Terrible About Thomas". While some efforts were made to update this for release in the 90's, the manuscript clearly spent 10 years or more in a drawer before it was dusted off for publication in the horror paperback boom. Even in 1983 you couldn't have bought a secluded oceanfront home for $25,000, as Thomas does in the opening pages.
Over almost 400 pages, this thin story takes on so much padding, as it slowly gets to the point, that it turns into a 'cozy mystery'. How cozy? There are nine scenes of Thomas enjoying his velvet robe. We learn this robe keeps his thighs warm and protects them from the cold sea air. Also there are thirteen scenes of our hero making hot tea, or warming up with a mug of cocoa or coffee. We learn he does not care for coffee much. We learn he has a favorite mug. I am not even counting all the times he or other characters enjoy Coke, wine, beer, or water. Or tuna casserole. He loves some casserole! But, back to beverages. We are meant to believe Thomas spent decades flooding his scarred system with cocaine, booze and "junk," but also that he wakes at night to reflect on the comparative advantages of different soft drinks:
p.55 "He slipped on the robe he had flung over his chair on the way to the bed. The velvet felt good against his skin. He filled the tea kettle, holding it properly so that it didn't spray him, and set it on the stove. Diet Coke was the wrong thing for the middle of the night. It was a daytime drink, filled with sparkle and energy. He would make hot chocolate and savor it until he felt sleepy again."
To get out of the house, and away from the tea kettle, the actor decides to get to the bottom of his daughter's murder. Above I used the word 'determined', but really he's just sort of slowly considering it. Perhaps he is afraid of what he might learn. He won't read the investigative reports he paid two different detective agencies to prepare. Instead he has an affair with a local reporter and gives her the reports to read. Eventually we do discover the truth. (I will warn you that I found the answer underwhelming.)
All this coziness begs the question, how is this a horror story? Apparently teenage girls kissing posters of stars on their bedroom walls at night have a powerful jealousy, perhaps even an implicit death wish against anyone close to their celebrity crushes. The next time you see teenage girls asking someone for an autograph, know that their passionate youthful obsession is putting the star's family and loved ones in terrible danger:
p.248 "In all the years he had been signing autographs and dodging fans, he had never thought of them, wondering what they were feeling, wondering what their dreams were. He had always seen them as parasites, as people without lives who impinged on his. But Donna had had a life, boyfriends, and she seemed quite content with it all. Except when she faced her poster just before she turned out the light."
I am giving this book a bonus star for its interesting location and especially for mentioning the Oregon Rajneeshees doing their part to degrade the reputation of salad bars everywhere. Of course, years after the Baghwan fled, the Cliven Bundy cult chose Oregon as the perfect place to squat in a Federal office building. This story does not involve a cult, unless you count teenage girls obsessing over a star, but there's clearly 'something in the water' out there.
Appendix:
An odd quirk about FACADE is that it features the word 'sparkle' more than any other book I have ever read. In addition to the example above, here are two more appearances out of many:
p.89 "Medium-size waves, perhaps as tall as he was, sprayed droplets into the air and the sun caught them, making them sparkle."
p.302 "When the sun returned it kissed the beach, adding sparkle to the grains of sand. He had seen sparkling beaches before, knew that it was a trick of the light reflecting off tiny clear stones in the sand, but he had never seen a sparkling beach this far north."
Want to read
July 21, 2011Stephen King endorsed the entire Dell Abyss Horror line. Here is his blurb:
"Thank you for introducing me to the remarkable line of novels currently being issued under Dell's Abyss imprint. I have given a great many blurbs over the last twelve years or so, but this one marks two firsts: first unsolicited blurb (I called you) and the first time I have blurbed a whole line of books. In terms of quality, production, and plain old story-telling reliability (that's the bottom line, isn't it), Dell's new line is amazingly satisfying...a rare and wonderful bargain for readers. I hope to be looking into the Abyss for a long time to come."
"Thank you for introducing me to the remarkable line of novels currently being issued under Dell's Abyss imprint. I have given a great many blurbs over the last twelve years or so, but this one marks two firsts: first unsolicited blurb (I called you) and the first time I have blurbed a whole line of books. In terms of quality, production, and plain old story-telling reliability (that's the bottom line, isn't it), Dell's new line is amazingly satisfying...a rare and wonderful bargain for readers. I hope to be looking into the Abyss for a long time to come."
August 5, 2015
A well-known actor's daughter is kidnapped and her body found years later,part of a pattern of murders going back to the late 70s. Thomas is determined to find out what happened to her, despite the fact that he's always been considered a suspect. His broken leg (the result of a poorly executed scene for the tv show stars in) only slows him down enough to develop a relationship with the town reporter, and make him the target of local star-seekers. When another girl turns up dead, however, things take a turn for the worse.
August 23, 2012
This book was first published in 1993 by Dell Abyss Books. It begins as though it was written as a movie script. Then it changes style to become a traditional story narrative. The story seems to be some sort of synthesis between crime/murder on one hand, and a type of horror on the other. The technique didn't work very well for me. Loose ends abound, and the main character is not very likeable. The ending is very abrupt and leaves a plethora of unanswered questions.
October 15, 2014
I rarely review books I don't finish, but I stuck with this one past the halfway point, so I figured I'd go ahead and write something.
The main character is unlikeable. The plot rambles and could have been cut. The idea is intriguing, but the execution leaves much to be desired.
The main character is unlikeable. The plot rambles and could have been cut. The idea is intriguing, but the execution leaves much to be desired.
Read
June 21, 2009Horror
Want to read
September 10, 2010*note to self. Copy from A.
August 7, 2015
Definitely still thinking about it, but the book itself felt incomplete. The focalization wasn't super helpful for instilling the kind of claustrophobic paranoia it seemed to want to instill.
January 18, 2016
Very readable, and has some great atmosphere, but I knocked it down a point for the horrible ending.
Displaying 1 - 10 of 11 reviews