I’ll admit that when I first saw the title, THE JIGSAW MAN, I thought I was going to dwell into a land that coincided with the SAW movies. I really thought it was going to be a book that dwelled in the unoriginal void of horror book and films that we’re all used to reading and seeing. What I got however was quite different than I have ever expected, I got a Frankenstein like tale for the ages and one of the best horror novels I’ve had the pleasure or reading in the past five years.
THE JIGSAW MAN is about a homeless man named Michael Fox, a man who has lost everything and is dwelling with the idea of killing himself. However as fate would have it, he would be approached by an associate of a very wealthy doctor who would like to make a proposal to him. A proposal that will make Mike very wealthy. Two million dollars for his right arm. Mike dwells on it for a day or so and decides that it’s worth it. So off he goes to the great doctor Marshall’s castle. All is well when he gets there he meets other people who are also trading in a limb to become rich, and all are treated like kings with great meals and nice living quarters fit for a king. However this story takes a dark twist and all is not as it seems as Mike is about to find out that the good doctor is actually a mad one, hell bent on doing he can to progress his research.
I am almost speechless, this is by far one of the best books I have ever read. This is not really Gord Rollo’s first book, but it is his first book to get a major push by Leisure Fiction. It’s a story that not only brings the reader into a world that is full of many horror’s but it’s also a book that touches on the issues of organ harvesting, genetic research and the morality that issues that are bought up about it, as well as the issue of the importance of life, and although it’s not mentioned you really know that there are other issues like stem cell research and the likes, are all presented within the story. It seems to me that not only is Gord Rollo a writer who has the talent to scare, but also can add social issues into his writing and give the reader a look at the evils of the real world and where science begins to take the place of God, and the people who conduct such experiments play the role of a creator. I found that while reading THE JIGSAW MAN I was not only being entertained and scared by the story, but that I was actually being presented with these issues and the questions as to whether or not that man has gone to far when it comes to such issues. It’s a book that plays with your mind in more ways than one, not only are you terrified for the character of Michael Fox in the book, as a reader you become him, feel his thoughts, his pain and his suffering. It’s just that good, and I personally think it is one of the best books I’ve read to date.
Overall, I loved this book, it scared the living hell out of me, but yet I wanted more. I found myself up until four in the morning one night just reading away. Needless to say it took me about two days to read it, and I usually am a very slow reader. None the less, I can’t praise this book anymore than I already have, and Gord Rollo is a talent of horrific proportions, not since I read Brian Keene’s THE RISING have I felt so enthusiastic about a book. Gord Rollo really knows how to keep suck a reader into his books and make them become part of the story. Gord Rollo, with one book has earned my respect as one of the best horror writers out there today. And thanks to the people at Leisure press, we get a sneak book at his next book Crimson, which will be released in paperback next spring, and from what I’ve read so far it looks like were in for another great book from Rollo. If THE JIGSAW MAN does not win the Stoker award for best book this coming year, than I’ll be very surprised. Rollo, in my mind is a new voice for horror.
– Horror Bob
- Interview with J.R. Bookwalter - January 22, 2015
- Interview with Andrew J. Rausch - January 22, 2015
- Interview with Rick Popko and Dan West - January 22, 2015
- Interview with Director Stevan Mena (Malevolence) - January 22, 2015
- Interview with Screenwriter Jeffery Reddick (Day of the Dead 2007) - January 22, 2015
- Teleconference interview with Mick Garris (Masters of Horror) - January 22, 2015
- A Day at the Morgue with Corri English (Unrest) - January 22, 2015
- Interview with Writer/Director Nacho Cerda (The Abandoned, Aftermath) - January 22, 2015
- Interview with Actress Thora Birch (Dark Corners, The Hole, American Beauty) - January 22, 2015
- Interview with Actor Jason Behr, Plus Skinwalkers Press Coverage - January 22, 2015
