Lupe

by Gene Thompson

Book Overview

Emily Blake has begun to hear stranger disembodies voices calling to her in her home. This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Mass Market Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0345275616
• ISBN13: 9780345275615
• Release Date: July 1978
• Publisher: Ballantine Books
• Length: 304 Pages
• Weight: 0.40 lbs.

Customer Reviews

Lousy title...damn good story

It's a shame that this novel is out of print. Gene Thompson has written a very good mystery/horror novel whose subject matter resonates even in the first decade of the twenty first century. Unfortunately "Lupe" is a bit too disjointed in parts to garner 5 stars as the reader is left wondering "What just happened" due to Thompson's sparse scene description and over the top character development. Emily Blake and her physician husband David live in San Francisco and are the prototypical seventies couple. The eeriness starts occurring when Emily and her friend Marianne visit a hispanic fortune teller boy named Lupe who tells Emily that her husband is cheating on her and promises to take care of the problem if she engages in a certain practice with him (you get my drift). Anyway, she eventually discovers the adultery and begins to become obsessed by the boy, doing what he says in order to obtain what he needs from the husband's lover. After a graphic and disturbing scene, the deal is made and the lover is found dead sitting in a chair, her body burned beyond recognition. A further complication, the boy purportedly "advising" Emily Blake has been dead for weeks... Emily is then arrested for murder by supernatural means and personally tried by the ambitious DA who sees this case as advancing his career. Emily is represented by a retired lawyer/friend of the family who has a fear that Emily is not exhausted or eccentric like her family and friends believe, but that there may be some thing to the supernatural element. Another thing, Emily discovers that she is pregnant during her trial. This is an eerie, atmospheric book that works on most every level. Unfortunately, the characterization is too blatant to be believed as the characters almost assume cartoonish traits. The husband remains self centered and selfish, Emily remains a haunted ditz, Marianne remains almost hyper friendly throughout. The reader can guess which characters are "good guys" and which are "bad guys". Thompson redeems this flaw with a great O. Henry/Twilight Zone ending with a last paragraph punchline that rivals the last sentence of Richard Matheson's "Hell House". Too bad this hasn't been filmed. This would make a good movie. "Lupe" is also the only novel Thompson wrote in the occult genre as he has concentrated on writing very good mysteries since then. I believe that he has recently passed although I hope that this is not true as he is a good author who can write truly horrible scenes in a calm and conversational tone that makes the reader believe.

pretty cool devil/court book

This story was different from what the back cover read. It sort of deals more with the trial of a woman for allegedly being a witch rather then the title character, but when he does make appearances we see he is one evil little boy... great book though, it kept my attention and was hard to put down at times.