"Good gravy! I do believe the circus has come to town!”
Escardy Gap is an Urban Fantasy novel written by Peter Crowther and James Lovegrove, first published in 1996.
In New York City, a washed-up author struggles with writer's block. A glimmer of an idea occurs to him, and for the first time in months, he begins to write, spurred by the image of train tracks in the desert...
The story he weaves is of the tiny, Midwestern town of Escardy Gap, population less-than-eight-hundred, a perfect slice of small-town 1950's Americana. Into this peaceful burg, a giant, black-and-silver steam train arrives, bearing a colorful group of supposed circus performers who call themselves "The Company". Declaring themselves there to put on a once-in-a-lifetime show for the townspeople and taking advantage of small-town hospitality, they ingratiate themselves into the homes of Escardy Gap's residents. Which is when the true, earth-shattering horror starts to begin...
It quickly becomes clear that the town is the target of a systematic elimination as the members of the Company begin to reveal their true natures and start slaughtering the townsfolk en mass. It's up to the town's Mayor - a washed-up ex-Hollywood actor - and a twelve-year-old boy to try and stop the Company's brutal plans. Just as it seems things are at their darkest, they suddenly find themselves encountering a surprising new ally, who may have the power to save Escardy Gap single-handedly...
This novel contains examples of the following tropes:
- Added Alliterative Appeal: Neville N. Nolan's gimmick of the gab, which he wields with wit and flagrently flaunts with furious fervor.
- An Arm and a Leg: Doc loses his arm when he puts it through the barrier around the town, thinking that it’s harmless, and discovering that it’s anything but.
- Ambiguous Situation: Did the author really create an entire world with his story? Were Mayor and Josh really in his home in New York following their escape? And, most of all, will venturing down that sewer grate really lead him to Escardy Gap and Sara Sienkiewicz as he believes? Or has he simply gone completely insane? The fact that his friends and cat are all confirmed to be figments of his imagination that he likely created to overcome his loneliness leans heavily into the latter theory, but then there was the encounter that he, Josh and Mayor had with the street hoodlums that suggests that they may indeed have manifested for real (providing that this wasn't a case of Unreliable Narrator, of course...).
- Author Avatar: An unusual In-Universe example. The novel opens from the perspective of an unnamed author suffering writer's block, until the idea for a story hits him. The rest of the novel is the result, with the tale dipping back to the author to see how he's handling the writing. It just seems like a slightly-odd framing device... until Josh and Mayor escape from Escardy Gap, and the author meets them in a sewer grate, resulting in much freaking out at being confronted by his own literary creations interacting with him in real life. He believes that he simply might be losing his mind and imagining them, but eventually realizes that, whether they're actually real or not, he needs to finish the story in order to save them.
- Bittersweet Ending: Within the story of Escardy Gap itself, Josh manages to kill the Train, causing the rest of the Company to collapse into dust. Unfortunately, they're so good at what they do that by the time he's managed this, practically everyone else in the town is dead (with the sole exception of Sara Sienkiewicz), including Mayor, leaving Josh alone to survive in the slaughtered husk of Escardy Gap. Outside of the story, the author has finally managed to finish his novel, but believes that, if he goes down the same tunnel he found Mayor and Josh in, he'll find his way to Escardy Gap and save Sara himself. Given his mental state at this point, it's strongly implied that this will ultimately be a complete fruitless quest, but he's still more determined to see it through than he has been about anything else in years.
- Bizarre Human Biology: It seems like the Company recruits heavily from those who have this. Most every member has some kind of unusual biological aberration, some more subtle than others. Easily one of the most memorable examples are the Man-eaters, who have secondary eyes in their breasts, secondary noses in their navels, and secondary mouths in... well, you can figure that out.
- Blonde, Brunette, Redhead: The Man-eaters. They’re also described as being so equally alluring that any preference one might have regarding hair color goes right out the window.
- Body Horror: Lord, where to begin? Between Mr. Olesqui’s magical tobacco that turns the smoker into a (barely) living puddle of grey goop, the stupendously “over-endowed” Agnes Destiny, the Boy using his Reality Warper hands to literally deconstruct Tommy Finkelbaum, the Man-eaters in general… the Company as a whole makes this their stock-in-trade, and they’re all the more terrifying because of it.
- Card-Carrying Villain: While the rest of the Company simply go about their murderous ways without much in the way of explanation or gloating, Rackstraw gleefully revels in telling people about how evil he and his cohorts are, to the point that he can't help but give Mayor a massive Motive Rant about it that ultimately galvanises the old man into trying to stop them.
- Circus of Fear: The Company fits the bill pretty well, except for the odd subversion that we never see them actually put on a show - they basically show up, and then start killing everybody.
- Compelling Voice: A rare non-verbal example, ironically wielded by the most talkative character in the book: Rackstraw, who can make people do whatever he wants by simply giving them instructions and then tracing the most relevant part of said instruction on their forehead (ie, getting a barber to cut himself to pieces with his own razor by simply writing "Cut"). Naturally, he pretty much exclusively uses this power to make people kill themselves.
- Creepy Child: Among the Company's number is the Boy, a mysterious lad who speaks in an infantile manner and wears creepy gloves hiding the fact that he doesn't have physical hands, but entirely invisible, eldritch ones that seem to be capable of distorting reality. He's so creepy (and, presumably, powerful) that even Rackstraw is cowed in his presence.
- Deadly Force Field: The Company (or, more probably, the Train) erects one around Escardy Gap shortly after they arrive. It’s not so much a “force field” in the sense of being a physical barrier stopping anyone from crossing it; you can walk through it just fine… it’s just that, whatever goes through, appears to be instantaneously vaporized.
- Driven to Suicide: The town's priest hangs himself in the aftermath of discovering Tommy Finkelbaum's horrifically mangled body strewn around Century Cedar. Rackstraw, naturally, can't resist the opportunity to comment on a priest committing one of the major cardinal sins when he discovers the body.
- Eldritch Abomination: The Train. It's actually an ancient living being that inhabits the shell of a locomotive, but exactly what it is isn't revealed at all. Rackstraw refers to it as "our Angel", but beyond this vague descriptor, we're not given any other insights to its true nature, beyond it being utterly evil.
- Everyone Calls Him "Barkeep": Mayor's name is Douglas B. Raymond, but to the people of Escardy Gap, he's just "Mayor".
- Fan Disservice: The Man-eaters are described as being inhumanly beautiful and alluring, to the point that no man can resist their wiles. Unfortunately, they cross the line into this once their true physical natures are revealed...
- Faux Affably Evil: Most of The Company act this way until their true natures come out, but Jeremiah Rackstraw embodies this trope far more than the others, at least, until Josh and Mayor's escape drives him to dispense with all pleasantries and enter full-on business mode.
- First-Person Perspective: The author's chapters are all written from this perspective.
- For the Evulz: Pretty much the only reason that the Company do what they do, and why the Train demands that they do it. Rackstraw sums it up pretty well in his Motive Rant to Mayor:
- Rackstraw: Because we must. Because that's all we do. Because that's all we ever do... Because... when we see Goodness and Wholesomeness and Innocence and Integrity, we know we have to stamp them out. Because we are the people of the shadows… Because we are imperious, impenetrable, deadly, and you cannot argue with us and you cannot plead with us and you cannot compete with us. And because we hold true to only one thing - our own natures.
- The Friend Nobody Likes: Rackstraw may be the mouthpiece of the Company, and may present himself as their pseudo-"Leader", but more than one member makes it abundantly clear that the Company as a whole merely tolerates him at best, due to his "role" being necessary in ingratiating the Company with their victims, and if they had the opportunity, they'd kill him in a heartbeat. He knows this, too, and really doesn't care.
- Heroic Sacrifice: Mayor gives himself to the Man-eaters in order to keep the Company's attention off Josh long enough for the boy to break open the Train and kill it from the inside.
- Kid Hero: 12-year-old Josh Knight, who ultimately becomes the one responsible for stopping the Company in their tracks.
- Method Acting: In-Universe, Mayor was known as a method character actor. One of his odd quirks is that he's still doing this in his day-to-day life, despite having left Hollywood decades earlier and become the mayor of Escardy Gap, and adopts personas as easily (and, seemingly, unconsciously) as others change shoes.
- Nothing Exciting Ever Happens Here: Deliberately invoked with Escardy Gap itself, which is presented as being a bland, picture-perfect slice of small-town rural America so as to contrast against the unspeakable horrors inflicted upon it.
- O.O.C. Is Serious Business: A quite-literal example with Mayor; everyone is so used to him playing a "character" all the time, that neither he (nor anyone else) seem to realize at first that, after the killings start, he drops the whole "character" thing and is just.. himself. It takes Doc pointing it out to even make him aware of it.
- The Paranoiac: Bob Tremaine more than qualifies, being a devout believer of the Red Scare, but he manages to keep it in check enough that it doesn't affect his day-to-day life or stop him from being a loving family man. Once he discovers the Deadly Force Field erected around Escardy Gap, however, he sails off the deep end and becomes convinced that America has been bombed out of existence by Russia, the Company are actually a troop of Russian spies, and everyone else in town are Russian sleeper agents that replaced the townspeople, leading him to immediately kill anyone he encounters, including his own wife and daughter.
- Sesquipedalian Loquaciousness: Dear God, if there was only one way to describe Rackstraw, it's that he's this personified. It's commented upon by numerous characters (and even the story's narration) as being one of his most annoying characteristics.
- Sex Equals Death: Literally in the case of the Man-eaters, wielders of Vagina Dentata who devour their victims while simultaneously having sex with them. Rackstraw describes the experience and pain as so intense and dizzying that it's "all but indistinguishable from an orgasm".
- Shapeshifting: Clarence, who can turn into practically any living thing, regardless of size.
- Unrequited Tragic Maiden: Ingrid Ohlsson to Walt Donaldson. Walt eventually figures it out… as the two are dying following being attacked by Clarence.
- Virgin Sacrifice: Rackstraw's ultimate plan for Sara Sienkiewicz is to deflower and kill her himself. Thankfully for Sara, he never gets the chance to carry this plan out.
- Would Hurt a Child: In fact, the Company would hurt anyone, man, woman or child, but they announce their true intentions to the town through the horrific murder of Tommy Finkelbaum.
