Off the Shelf: 'Creepers'

'Creepers'

David Morrell

A little-known subculture is obsessed with infiltrating old, abandoned buildings.

The slang term for them is "creepers," and they're experts at penetrating supposedly impregnable buildings.

David Morrell's novel "Creepers" opens with Balenger, a reporter who wants to observe these people in action. He meets with a group of four - a history professor and three of his former students.

The five of them sneak through a drainage system to get into the Paragon Hotel, which was built in 1901 and abandoned in 1971. When it first opened, it was a luxury resort in Asbury Park.

But Asbury Park declined, as did the clientele of the hotel. During the introduction, the owner/designer of the place is also described - an agoraphobic man who wanted to observe people without having to interact with them.

The scene descriptions are creepy, but not at all different from the many other books like this one at the airport newsstand. There are lots of rats, lots of cobwebs, and, of course, the lighting is poor.

As the group progresses in their exploration of the eerie building, Balenger's character is revealed as an obvious rip-off of MacGyver, sans the mullet. He manages to work out all sorts of inventive-yet-predictable solutions to evade danger, all while revealing only bits of his troubled past.

Of course, the group's reliance on this newcomer to rescue them over and over seems odd. After all, they are experienced at this "creeping" stuff, so it seems strange that they aren't better at solving/preparing for the different dangers encountered. Of course, none of the group is a hero playing by his own rules, so it doesn't matter what they know.

To keep the story from diverging at all from the usual thriller plotline, three toughs who want loot also enter the scene. They are typical typecast, one-dimensional characters complete with tattoos and buzz cuts.

The plot moves along with very artificial dialogue that attempts to fill in gaping holes in the story. Cliffhanger after trite cliffhanger occurs, yet at no point do the characters display any growth to make the reader care what happens to them.

"Creepers" has an interesting concept behind it, but it never achieves being a decent novel. It might be worth picking up if someone else abandoned it at a bus stop, but talking to the person next to you will probably be more entertaining.

krussell@unews.com