The Desecration of Susan Browning by Russell Martin

A while back I wrote a post about the blurb on the front right cover of this old horror Playboy Paperback from 1981. The reason for that post was simple; I had never before seen a book blurb from Victor Miller, the screenwriter behind the original Friday the 13th movie. “Scary as Hell!” was his claim, and while seeing that wasn’t the reason for my buying this book (I randomly ordered this book online without even knowing about the blurb because I was simply curious to see what kind of horror novels Playboy had published back in the golden age of horror), it was enough for me to put the book next up on my reading list. I’m also wanted to find out if the book truly was ‘Scary as Hell!’ or if Victor Miller had just been in a generous mood at the time, my reasoning behind this being that I thought Friday the 13th was pretty scary when I first saw it, therefore I wanted to see what, if anything, had the ability to scare the creator. A bit silly, I know, but I honestly thought about this. Deep down inside a part of me was probably also hoping for a few moments of terror, a craving, which, sadly, has not been fulfilled too often in the last eleven years.

Susan and Marty Browning are a happy Hollywood couple, one that has seen moderate success in the film industry, she as a actress, he as an assistant director and actor. All this changes one night after Marty rescues a woman named Wanda Carmichael from a would-be rapist outside of a movie theater. Suddenly infatuated with Wanda for reason he can’t understand, and despite his continuing love and desire to be with Susan, Marty quickly divorces his wife and moves in with Wanda. Things get even more bizarre when Susan confronts Marty and realizes something isn’t right about his attraction to Wanda. Marty further cements Susan’s suspicions when he pleads with her to just forget him because, as he puts it, “I’ll kill you with my own hands if she asks me to.” Startled by this, Susan leaves, and soon begins to understand why Marty is acting the way he is when she too suddenly falls madly in love for a man she met at Wanda’s house. His name is Maxwell Webster and her unwanted desire to be with him is like a prison she can’t escape from, one whose walls are created by her unquenchable need to please him and the fear of mistakenly displeasing him. Thankfully Susan is able to break free of this overwhelming infatuation, all due to a chance encounter with a priest who brings her inside a church. After that the priest will do anything he can to help her, because it seems to him that there are powers at play that science can’t explain, powers that just might be the tools of Satan. The question is will he be able to help Susan break whatever spell Wanda Carmichael is using to control her former husband? Also will he be able to protect Susan from becoming a victim of Wanda’s rage, which has been boiling over ever since Susan hired a private investigator to uncover some dirt on the woman and had it published in the tabloids? The answer to this comes during a dark Satanic ceremony inside Wanda Carmichael mansion, one that will leave plenty of bodies behind before the night is over.

While The Desecration of Susan Browning didn’t scare me the way I had hoped it would, it did prove to be an enjoyable read, one that I would recommend to horror fans if they are in the mood for a fast and easy read from the early golden days of the genre. Of course, this isn’t to say the book should be labeled a ‘must have’ classic from that time period, just that it is readable enough, and twisted enough to entertain a reader for a few days. It also managed to catch me off guard a couple of times with the unexpected events that unfolded, the biggest one being the secret behind Wanda Carmichael’s identity. The ending was a bit of a surprise too, and while I wish it had been drawn out a little more rather than simply racing by, it still was solid enough to provide a satisfying conclusion to the tale. Actually, the only real negative aspect to the book, aside from a few underdeveloped characters, was the cliché satanic element. And now, the question I know many are interested in given that this was published by a company called Playboy. Was the book filled with sex? The answer: it had several sex scenes in it, but the book itself didn’t stand out as being brimming with sex scenes, nor did it seem like that was focus of the book. Instead this was just simply a middle of the road horror paperback original of the times, one that isn’t a masterpiece by any means, but still sits above many of the ‘horror’ novels that out there whose only redeeming quality is the ability to soak up cat urine in the bottom of a litter box.