Tuesday, March 15, 2011

They're Tearing Down Joe Finn's Arena

Tales From The Cemetery On The Hill is a murky collection of short horror tales set in Sugarcreek, Ohio which is a few miles form where I live. A sadistic murderer known as The Sin Killer cuts out the hearts of people he believes to be doing evil and leaving these organs on chuirch doorsteps. IN the book, he visits the grave site of his most recent victim, only to be confronted by a creepy caretaker, who informs him the cemetery is cursed and people buried here tended to die violently. He also informs him they have stories to tell and by leading him to selected graves, he hears their voices in the wind,

An American bullfighter brought home to Ohio for burial, speaks from beyond the tomb, recalling how he  ended  up fatally gored in the bullring in Peru,  but his spirit failed to  realize he was dead. A drunken man is sucked into the movie screen of a spaghetti western. A magician reveals the secret of his magic remains more than just a set of tricks. A horny single man engages in a relationship with a woman he learns to be a succubus. You get the drift?

They're Tearing Down Joe Finn's Arena us a gloomy wrestling story abotu a wrestler who killed a man in the ring, going aback to the dilapidated arena where the tragedy happened. Upon hearing the building condemned, he breaks into the place, to find the lights mysteriously turned on where there should be no power and a cast of ghosts awaiting his arrival.

The despondent grappler then rehashes his past and the events leading up to the in-ring disaster, unfolding a grim tale that makes The Wrestler look like a Disney cartoon. In the end, he learns what the spirits want.

"There's always a spot for you, kid,"  the ghost of Finn, the promoter, informs him. 

And indeed there is....

The wrestlers are all composite characters that are based on no one in particular. Though set in Canton, Ohio, Joe Finn's Arena was drawn much from the destruction of the Phoenix Madison Square Garden.

In a moment of offbeat humor, our key wrestler ends up leaving Ohio and doing a brief wrestling stint in Phoenix.

Tales From The Cemetery On The Hill may be ordered in book or e book form from http://www.lulu.com/content/5099181

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