 | In Coldheart Canyon acclaimed horror writer Clive Barker takes us to the dirty secret of ageless sexual power and half-understood contracts with evil that lies at the heart of Hollywood. In the 1920s, magnate Zeffer buys his mistress Katya a room decorated with Boschian mosaics of sex and violence and in the 1990s, Todd Pickett decides he needs a face-lift to save his career; both do not know that they have made a decision which risks their lives and their souls. And somehow, sooner or later, everyone from Tammy, the overweight, obsessive, good president of Todd's fan club, to Micky, a dying former child star with a life full of secrets, ends up in the rich cloying jungle that the gardens of Coldheart Canyon have become, finding out things they never wanted to know about sex, madness, courage and generosity. Barker has always been brilliant at showing us just how bad things can get--the games of sexual power, the corrupting metamorphoses; here he adds something: a genuine conviction of the possibility of human goodness and kindness that saves people. --Roz Kaveney |
