A review by ladyeremite
The Auctioneer by Joan Samson

4.0

As someone relatively well-acquainted with both literary fiction and horror, I was surprised I hadn't heard of a book of this quality before. I bought it because I had a credit on Audible and it was offered as part of a 2-for-1 sale, and I am very glad I did. The tale that transpires is a parable of small town evil a la Shirley Jackson's The Lottery. In the auctioneer Pearly Dunsmore, Samson successfully transforms the old figure of the devil into a capitalist demagogue, with uncanny parallels to the modern American political landscape. Written without a touch of flab and infused with a terror remarkably clean of gratuitous gore but no less chilling for its absence, this book will stay with me for a while.