Walkers

In Masterton's latest, quite effective horror novel, Jack Reed, who runs a muffler shop, comes upon a ``castle'' that serves as the setting for this gruesome horror story. Jack decides to turn the abandoned mansion into a resort--not that he really knows how. He knows even less about the Druid magic that allowed the recent occupants, dangerous mental patients, to ``escape'' into the building's walls. Led by a vicious brute, Quintus, the ``earth walkers'' kidnap Jack's son, Randy, and demand the return of the priest who had trapped them in 1926. The priest is ``persuaded'' to free them from the confinement of the castle's grounds, but they will not be freed from the earth until each has killed 800 people as sacrifices to the gods. Wasting no time, the tribe ``walks off'' for a murderous orgy of killing, dragging their screaming victims into the ``underworld''--where Randy is still a captive. Readers who fancy unrestrained terror won't mind indulging in the wild suspension of disbelief that Masterton (Mirror) demands. (Oct.)