Product Description

Sometimes horror is in the mind. And sometimes it's real. Telling the difference isn't always easy.

It wasn't for Joe Creed. He'd just photographed the unreal. Now he had to pay the price. Because he always thought that demons were just a joke.But the joke was on him.And it wasn't very funny. It was deadly . . .

'Chilling event follows chilling event . . . The plot thickens. Your head spins' Daily Mail

'He is one of the few writers taking forward the tradition of the great supernatural storytellers - and being innovative' Evening Standard

'A streamlined racehorse of a book, pulsing with energy, CREED will delight Herbert fans, and surely astonish them' Fear Magazine

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #16189 in Books
• Published on: 2001-07-06
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 200 pages

Review
"'Chilling event follows chilling event... The plot thickens. Your head spins' Daily Mail; 'He is one of the few writers taking forward the tradition of the great supernatural storytellers - and being innovative' Evening Standard; 'A streamlined racehorse of a book, pulsing with energy, Creed will delight Herbert fans, and surely astonish them' Fear Magazine"

About the Author
James Herbert is not just Britain's No. 1 bestselling writer of chiller fiction, a position he has held ever since publication of his first novel, but is one of our greatest popular novelists, whose books are sold in thirty-three foreign languages, including Russian and Chinese. Widely imitated and hugely influential, his nineteen novels have sold more than forty-eight million copies worldwide.

Customer Reviews

Ghoulish fun
James Herbert's 15th novel continues the high standard of Haunted, albeit in a completely different style. The cover copy probably overstates the case - "You'll Be Afraid to Laugh" runs the tagline - as Creed is by no means an outright comedy, but it does have it's rotting tongue in cheek on more than one occasion. This isn't quite the knowing post-modernism of Wes Craven's Scream, but it certainly comes close on occasion. What makes the book a success is that these flashes of blackest humour derive from the voice of the main character - Joe Creed - a cynical member of the despised tabloid paparazzi, a slob whose only real interest is himself, and with no belief in anything supernatural. Just watching Creed struggle through his career is entertaining enough, and the fact that he isn't some flawless hero makes his reactions to the supernatural more believable. Add in an unwanted child dumped on him by his estranged wife and his delicate balancing of doing the right thing and earning money makes for some great drama. While there are moments of black comedy however, Creed for the most part works as a successful horror novel, in fact this novel contains some of Herbert's most chilling material, with Creed being harassed by a bizarre nocturnal visitor and doubting his own sanity. If there is a criticism here then the ending feels a little rushed, but with it's winning combination of chills, black humour, and an intriguing lead character Creed is never less than entertaining reading, and one of Herbert's best books.

A clever, engrossing book. A great read.
Herbert is on top form with this novel. I love this book. It is very well written and has a clever, engrossing plot which makes the book hard to put down. From the first chapter (a bizarre funeral sequence) the pace never slackens. James Herbert is not afraid to take new directions in his writing and this is very evident with 'Creed'. What seperates this from many of his earlier novels is the emphasis on dark humour (in one instance Herbert sends up the 'rats' books). Alongside this however are some very scary and unnerving moments. Poor Joe Creed experiences some terrorfiying encounters. I would consider 'Creed' to be the best of Herbert's more recent books. This is an unusual novel and is a great deal of fun to read. I would wholly recommend this novel.

This is ok, but not great.
I felt reading this that I could see the joins in the plot - rather like a Dan Brown novel - you can see the thought process governing the book's structure, and that for me was a let down.

The lead character is great, though. A slimy, smarmy photographer - with, of course, a bad boy's charm - plying his trade in London Town.

The main problem with the book is that it doesn't seem to know what it is exactly. Is it a Horror novel? A thriller? Or maybe even a Comedy? All the elements are there for it to have been anyone of those.

For example: The lead character's son gets kidnapped, then the kid's mother comes to pick him up, so his dad - Joe Creed, the novel's main man - has to come up with an excuse for the kid not being there, right? So he tells his estranged wife that their son has joined the scouts and gone off to camp - this he has to make up on the spot, and gets into a flap when the ex-wife says she'll go and pick him up. This whole scene seems to have been added purely for laughs, but it hardly seemed appropriate under the circumstances, and therefore seemed forced and contrived.

Creed - the character - is well written, and we know just exactly what he's like, but in my little opinion, Herbert makes a huge mistake. Creed is a smoker, and Herbert decides that he will smoke Roll-ups, using Brown licorice fag papers. Sorry - NO WAY! I thought that was wrong from the first time we see Creed doing it, and couldn't work out what was going on. Joe Creed should be smoking Marlboros, and sparking them up with a tatty Zippo - no question.

I think it's a testament to how convincing the character is that this minor detail bothered me so much.

All in all, the book's okay, not my favourite Herbert novel, but the first I have bothered to review.

I think Haunted is the best of his that I've read, by the way.