The Slicker Man

by Josh Hancock

1989. In a coastal town in Northern California, single mother Wendy Gonzalez unknowingly opens a portal to the supernatural. Invisible footsteps stomp throughout her home. Strange lights flicker in every room. Inexplicable events escalate into nightly ordeals as a vengeful spirit Wendy calls the Slicker Man emerges from the shadows to claim the modest property as his own.

As the spectral attacks intensify and Wendy struggles to protect herself and her twin daughters, her life begins to unravel. Desperate for answers, she seeks the help of a team of paranormal investigators who agree to take on her case. But when the investigators start probing the Slicker Man's mysterious origins, they unwittingly awaken a wrathful and embittered force.

As the team faces a nightmarish battle against the entity, Wendy must confront the horrifying truth about the Slicker Man and her own tragic past. In this gripping tale inspired by film classics such as The Haunting and Poltergeist, every creaking floorboard, chilling breeze, and ghostly wail carries the weight of long-buried betrayal and pain. Will Wendy and the investigators clear the Gonzalez house of evil before the woeful spirit claims more than just their sanity?

Composed as a real-life ghost story — including transcripts, interviews, and documentation from multiple eyewitnesses — The Slicker Man tells the otherworldly tale of a brave woman’s attempt to survive an ancient malevolence.

Brace yourself for a haunting journey into the unknown — where the sins of the past return with a vengeance.

241 pages, Kindle Edition

Published April 21, 2024

About the author

Josh Hancock is a teacher and author. His first novel, THE GIRLS OF OCTOBER (Burning Bulb Publishing), is inspired by his love of all things horror–especially Tobe Hooper’s The Texas Chain Saw Massacre, William Friedkin’s The Exorcist, and John Carpenter’s Halloween. His second novel, THE DEVIL AND MY DAUGHTER, will be released in the spring of 2016, also by Burning Bulb.

Reviews

[Karen · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5 Stars


This story feels weird, and I'm pretty sure it's because of the tone/style the book is written.


This haunted house story is told to us by one of the paranormal investigators. However the way in which he tells us the story I think might be off putting to some readers. The narrator tells us the events in a very detached and clinical way. I believe he tells us this way because of how quick people are to dismiss the paranormal especially if it feels overzealous or scripted. So by telling us the facts without drawing a ton of attention to each event he's hoping it will come across more believable to people.

So, I think/feel that I get way the book was written the way it was, but it does cause it to come across pretty dry. Almost textbook like due to the lack of (very little) emotion. If you can get past the tone/style it was an enjoyable story. Although I was left wanting more. I wanted the crazy intense haunting. (Which it was there it was just toned-down by our narrator)


As an aside: (ie my 2 cents):

This is a detour from the format Hancock has used in past books. (The previous ones being told through different media formats). And knowing that the multimedia form is also probably and acquired taste, I feel like this form if done just right would have added more intensity and fear to the story. Only because you could have had each person's feelings/emotions come across "genuinely" instead of being filtered through a third party. And then articles/input from "skeptics" (or other individuals) could have been thrown in to add another layer to the story.