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Hellstone
Is the legend of the Loch Ness Monster a paganistic secret or just a cautionary bedtime story? It all depends on who you ask. For skeptic and playboy newsman, Johnathan Gant, Nessie is nothing more than an old wives’ tale. But his engineering friend, Jonas Honig, would beg to differ. In fact, he has something up his sleeve that may finally help convince Gant and the rest of the world that Nessie is no mere bedtime story.
Enamored by the legend and determined to prove the public wrong, the innovative Honig creates a prototype camera sophisticated enough to capture what lies beneath the impenetrable loch waters. However, producing photographic proof is only half the battle. He and his wife, Sandra, also need their confidant along for the ride, for Gant will be the one to break the story to the world. A skeptic he may be, but Gant can’t pass up the prospect of helping his dear old friend — even if it’s a choice he’ll soon regret.
With their crew in tow, including a local guide and expanded science team, Gant, Honig, and Sandra embark on the seafaring Banshee for the first of many trips to test the camera rig. However, the ship and crew are continually hampered by mysterious and unexplainable events that delay their efforts, including sabotage to the ship’s hull. But it’s the floating corpse — a man last seen alive arguing with Gant — that’s now garnered the constabulary’s attention.
The evidence points to Gant, but it’s a frame job nonetheless. And complicating matters is Honig’s revelation that someone has been after the high-tech camera since before their trip began. But why risk its destruction with sabotage?
It’s only when Gant and Sandra take a deep dive into the loch and discover a centuries-old stone tablet that they begin to understand the enormity of their circumstances. And its significance is bigger than even the legend of Nessie would suggest.
Enamored by the legend and determined to prove the public wrong, the innovative Honig creates a prototype camera sophisticated enough to capture what lies beneath the impenetrable loch waters. However, producing photographic proof is only half the battle. He and his wife, Sandra, also need their confidant along for the ride, for Gant will be the one to break the story to the world. A skeptic he may be, but Gant can’t pass up the prospect of helping his dear old friend — even if it’s a choice he’ll soon regret.
With their crew in tow, including a local guide and expanded science team, Gant, Honig, and Sandra embark on the seafaring Banshee for the first of many trips to test the camera rig. However, the ship and crew are continually hampered by mysterious and unexplainable events that delay their efforts, including sabotage to the ship’s hull. But it’s the floating corpse — a man last seen alive arguing with Gant — that’s now garnered the constabulary’s attention.
The evidence points to Gant, but it’s a frame job nonetheless. And complicating matters is Honig’s revelation that someone has been after the high-tech camera since before their trip began. But why risk its destruction with sabotage?
It’s only when Gant and Sandra take a deep dive into the loch and discover a centuries-old stone tablet that they begin to understand the enormity of their circumstances. And its significance is bigger than even the legend of Nessie would suggest.
478 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1980
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Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews
September 23, 2023
Playboy Paperbacks published an eclectic mix of books in the 70s/80s, including horror, science fiction, erotica to just plain weird. Hellstone is marketed on the spine as 'occult' and that just about fits. While we know from the backflap that this novel will have something to do with the Loch Ness monster, this is much more than a creature feature.
Our main protagonist, one Jonathan Gant, works as a self-employed newsman and started his career in Vietnam (this was first published in 1980). One day an old friend, Dr. Honig, calls him to discuss an expedition to Scotland to seek out old Nessie. Dr. Honig has been obsessed over Nessie for years, but thinks he finally found a way to find the beast. He just developed a new type of camera that, with computer controls, can basically see through the impediments found in water; it uses some crazy tech to isolate and eliminate 'noise'. Finally! A way to see underwater in the peat-stained Loch Ness!
Sounds like a creature feature for sure, but Spruill decided to mix things up a bit by adding in a band (coven?) of druids in Scotland that have some sort of ties to Nessie, and some ruthless corporation who wants the camera tech and will do just about anything to get it. If such a camera was, say, placed on a satellite, it could 'see' through camo netting, fog and such. What government would not pay a bundle for that! So, besides our expedition members, we have some modern druids running around trying to stop the expedition to save Nessie, and some hired thugs out to steal the camera.
If all this is not enough to get you interested, Spruill adds in the titular Hellstone. It seems back in the time of Nero's Roman empire, some Druids pissed off the mad emperor and he set a legion to track them down and kill them. The druid leader carved a stele and left it on the bank of Loch Ness. 1000 years later, some intrepid Vikings also fought a battle on the shores of Loch Ness, and used the stone of the stele to carve their own tidings. It should be noted that the original druids and the Vikings were not for long in the world. What does this have to do with the story? You will have to read it to find out. Also, expect some erotica here; this should come as no surprise given the publisher. Jonathan Gant has the big time hots for Dr. Honig's beautiful young wife Sandra.
Take a create feature, stir in some druids (with wicked mind powers I might add), a handful of ruthless 'contractors' engaged in corporate espionage and dump it on the shores of Loch Ness. Fun read, although at times it became a little difficult to follow all the different characters. 4 OTT stars!
Our main protagonist, one Jonathan Gant, works as a self-employed newsman and started his career in Vietnam (this was first published in 1980). One day an old friend, Dr. Honig, calls him to discuss an expedition to Scotland to seek out old Nessie. Dr. Honig has been obsessed over Nessie for years, but thinks he finally found a way to find the beast. He just developed a new type of camera that, with computer controls, can basically see through the impediments found in water; it uses some crazy tech to isolate and eliminate 'noise'. Finally! A way to see underwater in the peat-stained Loch Ness!
Sounds like a creature feature for sure, but Spruill decided to mix things up a bit by adding in a band (coven?) of druids in Scotland that have some sort of ties to Nessie, and some ruthless corporation who wants the camera tech and will do just about anything to get it. If such a camera was, say, placed on a satellite, it could 'see' through camo netting, fog and such. What government would not pay a bundle for that! So, besides our expedition members, we have some modern druids running around trying to stop the expedition to save Nessie, and some hired thugs out to steal the camera.
If all this is not enough to get you interested, Spruill adds in the titular Hellstone. It seems back in the time of Nero's Roman empire, some Druids pissed off the mad emperor and he set a legion to track them down and kill them. The druid leader carved a stele and left it on the bank of Loch Ness. 1000 years later, some intrepid Vikings also fought a battle on the shores of Loch Ness, and used the stone of the stele to carve their own tidings. It should be noted that the original druids and the Vikings were not for long in the world. What does this have to do with the story? You will have to read it to find out. Also, expect some erotica here; this should come as no surprise given the publisher. Jonathan Gant has the big time hots for Dr. Honig's beautiful young wife Sandra.
Take a create feature, stir in some druids (with wicked mind powers I might add), a handful of ruthless 'contractors' engaged in corporate espionage and dump it on the shores of Loch Ness. Fun read, although at times it became a little difficult to follow all the different characters. 4 OTT stars!
April 2, 2025
Extremely disappointed because I’ve been eager to read this for so long: pretty much since the publication of Paperbacks From Hell. The plot was much too convoluted. Spanning from Roman vignettes to a mystery centered around Loch Ness then into a spy thriller set in the 70s and finally into a quasi corporate espionage story. The ending was straight stupid and ridiculous. There was a nonsensical love story. And much of the middle was dead boring. Overly descriptive with unrealistic dialogue and much too long.
November 12, 2024
A 1980 Playboy Press occult/horror novel that went through one printing before going OOP as the market made room for newer horror titles.
Overly complex plot about an expedition to uncover the secrets of the Loch Ness monster is bolstered by extensive reasearch and dense, muscular prose that creates a suspenseful and terrifying atmosphere of dread and mystery throughout. Trying to untangle the various subplots can become wearisome after a time, but the patient reader is rewarded with a satisfying and unnerving finale. A winner that never got a chance to leave its mark on horror fiction in the 1980s.
Thank you to Jerad Walters of Centipede Press for resurrecting this gem, even in a limited release.
Centipede Press 2024
Signed/Limited ed. #247/500
Signed by Steven Spruill (author), David Ho (artist), F. Paul Wilson (introduction)
Overly complex plot about an expedition to uncover the secrets of the Loch Ness monster is bolstered by extensive reasearch and dense, muscular prose that creates a suspenseful and terrifying atmosphere of dread and mystery throughout. Trying to untangle the various subplots can become wearisome after a time, but the patient reader is rewarded with a satisfying and unnerving finale. A winner that never got a chance to leave its mark on horror fiction in the 1980s.
Thank you to Jerad Walters of Centipede Press for resurrecting this gem, even in a limited release.
Centipede Press 2024
Signed/Limited ed. #247/500
Signed by Steven Spruill (author), David Ho (artist), F. Paul Wilson (introduction)
October 6, 2023
Wow. This one was PAINFULLY Eighties. Druids, Vikings, murderous cultists, equally murderous industrial spies, cheating spouses, psychics, and, oh yes, the Loch Ness Monster. 2.5 stars.
September 23, 2010
Giving to si cotic
October 25, 2013
A rather different, yet entertaining fictional account of the "horror" of the Loch Ness Monster...
May 19, 2016
Brilliant and poignant take on Nessie!
October 4, 2023
I never would have thought a novel from Playboy Paperbacks about espionage, Druids, psychic powers, and the Loch Monster could be boring, but my god this thing was a slog to get through. Even the sex scenes are uninspired and dull. It probably didn't help that the book is advertised on the cover as being a creature-feature horror novel involving a "key to hell". Nothing could be farther from the actual story. The ending left me slack-jawed and not in a good way. I kept repeating "What. The. Eff. did I just read?"
Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews