Books like The Totem

David Morrell is known best as the author of thrillers but he is, in fact, a multi-genre writer. His oeuvre includes western, historical, horror, and science fiction novels, as well as nonfiction books. In fact, despite the many Morrell thrillers I've enjoyed, it is his sci-fi novel, The Shimmer, that I consider my favorite. After reading Morrell's horror novel, The Totem, I rank it up there with The Shimmer.The Totem was originally published in 1979 to much acclaim. That book, however, was much shorter than the version the author originally wrote. Republished in the 1990 in its entirety, this version is twice as long as the original and includes a different beginning and ending. To be honest, I can't imagine this book in its shorter version; every chapter and scene seems integral to its simmering horror and suspense.Nathan Slaughter is the police chief of a small rural community where he took refuge to escape the nightmares of his former job as a Detroit police officer. Slaughter initially assumes a growing number of cattle mutilations are the work of wild dogs that have come down from the mountains to hunt after a particularly harsh winter. But when the mutilated corpse of a human is found, Slaughter begins to worry the problem may be far worse than he first thought. The Totem reminds me of Richard Matheson's Shadow on the Sun. Both are set in rural environments—Matheson's in the Old West, Morrell's in the cattle community of Potter's Field, Wyoming. In both, the elements of terror and horror build slowly until the final climatic endings reveal the truth behind each plot. Both are also psychological studies of the people in a small township. In The Totem, Morrell deftly and subtly contrasts the psychopathic actions of the killers to the sociopathic actions of the town's nearly dictatorial mayor. Whether you are a connoisseur of horror novels or thrillers, The Totem will satisfy your appetite.