Helltracks, by William F. Nolan

I'm almost surprised to realize that William F. Nolan, beloved favorite of classic genre fans everywhere, only wrote one full-length horror novel. He wrote dozens of short stories in the genre. He wrote screenplays and teleplays. Nolan wrote mystery and science fiction novels. He wrote nonfiction.

Helltracks is the sole horror novel from Grandmaster William F. Nolan. Sadly, it never got the recognition or the exposure it deserved. Nolan sold the book to Avon in 1990. It was a promising deal, but the boom was collapsing and the publisher shut down its horror line shortly after. Helltracks was unceremoniously dumped into oblivion. I never even saw a copy on the shelf at Walden or the other bookstores frequented. I eventually got a paperback copy at a supermarket. It had a punched hole in the cover and cost me a dollar or so. Nolan made nothing from the book.

Years later in 2000 Richard Chizmar came to the rescue and published Helltracks in a five-hundred copy signed and limited hardcover edition. It has a stunning Alan M. Clark cover. That was nice, but it still isn't what Nolan deserved.

I read the Avon edition in the early nineties, and I liked it. I didn't purchase the hardcover, but I happened upon an ex-library copy a while back and I just re-read it.

Helltracks is a good book. The writing is clear and precise, as with any William F. Nolan piece. Still, I will reiterate what I've said numerous times about him: Nolan was vastly superior in the short form. Helltracks is all over the place. I partially enjoyed the unconventional structure of the novel, but I was also a little frustrated.

There are two running plotlines which could, and probably should, have been two entirely separate works. A farmer in Montana is searching for his missing daughter, who left to find a new life in the big city. There's a mysterious train that haunts the man's dreams. He is certain something unnatural is going on.

At the same time a serial killer is prowling the highways of the Northwest. His story is told in epistolary entries in a diary.

The two elements collide at the end of Helltracks, but it is inconsequential by that point. There's also a subplot about a mining company despoiling the environment of the farmer's hometown. This added little to the story of the demonic train or to the serial killer and his murders.

I feel that Avon's editor should have worked with Nolan and banged out a more cohesive narrative to Helltracks. He or she probably saw the writing on the wall and just went through the motions. I get why Chimzar didn't mess with the book. It was previously published and Cemetery Dance was doing it as a lost work by a legendary writer.

I don't mean to be too down on Helltracks. It's a decent book, and reading it was a swift and effortless joy. Anyone even remotely interesting in the history of the genre should look for a copy. Or, at the very least, seek out one of his collections.

There will never be another like William F. Nolan. Sure, there will be great writers, and some even more talented than him. Nolan, Bradbury, Matheson, Beaumont, all members of a fabled group of Southern California writers of the fifties and sixties, were special. They were the first real media writers. They were alive when the movies were brand new. They were part of the Golden Age of Television. These fine gentlemen brought visual elements to their fiction that was never seen before.

They're all gone now, but their works live on forever.

Written by Mark Sieber