The Venus Complex Read online

  Praise for The Venus Complex

  "Wilde...is one of the finest purveyors of erotically charged horror around."

  —Fangoria Magazine #320

  "The Venus Complex is a delicious collision of noir thriller and visceral horror. Whip-smart devious and jolting!"

  —Jonathan Maberry, Multiple Bram Stoker Award Winner and New York Times best-selling author of Code Zero and V-War

  "As intelligent and cultured as Hannibal, easily as disturbing as American Psycho and infinitely less reassuring than Dexter, this is a sexually-charged real life horror story that will definitely stay with you."

  —Paul Kane, award-winning horror and fantasy writer

  "Wilde's most recent offering is the wryly comic but no less grotesque thriller The Venus Complex (Comet Press), the sordid tale of mentally unbalanced art history professor Michael Friday, who moonlights as a sexual killer. The book has been garnering great reviews, firmly confirming the literary course that is now defining Wilde's life. Damaged people, ultraviolence, murder and explicit sex—what's not to love about her work?...She has developed a remarkable flair for the perverse and the poetic that echoes her mentor Clive Barker, but offers tales of inner hell and body terror told from a ferociously feminine point of view."

  —Chris Alexander, Editor-in-Chief Fangoria Magazine, Issue #321

  "The Venus Complex is an epistolary portrait of psychopathy as razor sharp as Jim Thompson's The Killer Inside Me or Hubert Selby Jr.'s The Demon. Disturbing, erotic and powerful."

  —Jovanka Vuckovic, Filmmaker (The Captured Bird, The Guest, Jacqueline Ess)

  "A novel by a female Cenobite that gives the world a smart, artistic, cynical, cultured serial killer who could give Hannibal Lecter a run for his money. On top of that, this is a poignant, funny, sexually-charged, hardcore critique of popular culture and a deconstruction of relationships, academia, and art."

  —Gabino Iglesias, HorrorTalk

  "Wilde expertly charts Michael's diabolical descent into voyeurism, stalking and murder in a transgressive tale that would make Patrick Bateman blush."

  —Alan Kelly, Hell's Shelves, Rue Morgue Online

  "Written in journal entry format, The Venus Complex is a quick, dirty little high-speed read, tense and shamefully exciting and almost impossible to put down. Imagine the hottest, horniest fuckbook in the Black Lace library spliced in with a Quantico serial killer profile report and you've got The Venus Complex. Read it and try NOT to squirm, either in ecstasy or horror. It simply cannot be done."

  —Annie Riordan, Brutal As Hell

  "I love dark crime, and this is by far the darkest story I've ever read. I felt guilty for enjoying it so much. The Venus Complex is tense and fast-paced, dizzying in its bold perversion. But like a serial killer obsessed with his next victim, I could not turn away...Barbie Wilde follows the tradition of Ellis's American Psycho and Oates's Zombie yet breaks new ground in the field of sadistic crime fiction. If you like the lurid and shocking, you'll love The Venus Complex. It's Dexter, without a moral code."

  —Lee Howard, Midwest Book Review

  "The Venus Complex is a deftly plotted and calculated work of terror. Like the painted masterworks Michael Friday draws from to inspire his blood-fest, each verbal brushstroke falls on the page at the precise spot Barbie Wilde wants it."

  —Blood E. Bastard, Horror News Network

  "The Venus Complex, as the title suggests, is an erotically charged novel, and there are some passages that give the likes of Anais Nin and Alina Reyes a run for their money...Hitchcockian in its portrayal of murderous obsession."

  —Jon Towlson, Starburst Magazine

  "This is not a novel for the faint of heart and definitely NSFPT (Not Safe For Public Transport), but the skill with which it is written means that some of the darker imagery will haunt the reader long after they turn the final page."

  —British Fantasy Society

  "Welcome to the world of Michael Friday, an art historian turned serial killer who lays out the dark recesses of his soul for all to see in Barbie Wilde's deliciously dark erotic crime novel The Venus Complex. Those are some pretty major demons Michael is harbouring as we join him in his downward spiral via the musings of his private journal. Michael is not your every day killer though, which gives The Venus Complex a delightful and refreshing edge. The culture of Hannibal Lecter, the forward planning of Dexter, and the wry wit of Holden Caulfield, Michael is all of this and more."

  —The Gore-Splattered Corner

  "Wilde's great triumph here is that she goes all the way with her man Friday, allowing his nasty flights of fancy full reign...But I think what I like most about this news story is that she kicked my ass so hard with her first novel. Turns out Barbie Wilde is even scarier than we thought. And that is a terrible, beautiful thing."

  —John Skipp (New York Times best-selling author for Fangoria Online)

  "Shocking and explicit, Barbie Wilde's The Venus Complex is an intimate tour of Michael Friday's mind as he morphs from a misogynistic, hyper-intelligent university professor into a sexually-charged, calculating serial killer. Written in journal form, Friday reveals his most gory necrophilic fantasies, and then makes them a reality. Not for sensitive readers; after finishing this book you might never feel clean again."

  —Jessa Sobczuk, The Grim Reader, Rue Morgue Magazine

  "The Venus Complex is a compelling read and Barbie Wilde's confidence in the material shines—there are no first novel nerves here. Through her expertly controlled pacing, Michael's journey from nobody to serial killer is both believable and frightening. By allowing us to see aspects of ourselves in Michael, Barbie also shows us that his extreme fantasies may only be a couple of steps removed from our own, and that's the most frightening thing of all."

  —Tom Elliot, Scream Magazine

  "Entry by entry, Wilde guides the reader into Friday's world as he evolves not just into a stone cold killer, but one who is highly charged, sexually. The scenes of eroticism begin as fantasies, but quickly sink into depraved vignettes that ignite the character and charge him further in his mission. What could easily be considered gratuitous is saved by Wilde's keen eye for detail of what excites the human libido and darker mote hidden in our vision...As Michael travels from victim to victim, seeking his transformation and his freedom from both society's constraints and his own, the reader will find him or herself eagerly following, in a voyeuristic journey into a world of darkness that might just make one smirk in delight as he or she can almost feel him whisper his journals in an ear...A definitely different book but one which will undoubtedly find a big audience for those who are ready to cut open the ordinary and dig deeper...Recommended for adult readers of serial killer narratives, explicit violence, and erotic horror."

  —The Monster Librarian

  What Readers Are Saying

  Extracts from Goodreads Reviews:

  "A taut, gripping work. Oozing with sinister brilliance."

  "Shameless. Sexy. Frightful. Gorgeous."

  "Barbie Wilde has broken new ground in the field of dark crime fiction."

  Extracts from Amazon Reviews:

  "...thrilling, erotic and intelligent."

  "...sickeningly brilliant."

  "A wondrous and twisted tale through a psychopathic delusional mind. Barbie Wilde has created a world worthy of the great masters of horror."

  "The whole thing is so graphically visual, Ms Wilde should have film-makers knocking on her door any day now."

  "...thought-provoking and sexy piece of work."

  "Gruesomely graphic and sexually explicit, The Venus Complex is the very definition of a page-turner."

  "Smolders with sex and crackles with eerie imagery and terrifying action. The Venus Complex remains with
me, and I fear it always will."

  Other Works by Barbie Wilde

  "Sister Cilice"

  (From the Hellbound Hearts Anthology, 2009,

  edited by Paul Kane and Marie O'Regan)

  "Barbie Wilde's 'Sister Cilice' is devastatingly haunting, piercingly erotic and is one of the true stand-out stories of the anthology."

  —All Things Horror

  "Sick, but in delicious ways!"

  —Doug "Pinhead" Bradley, www.dougbradley.com

  "U for Uranophobia"

  (From the Phobophobia Anthology, 2011, edited by Dean M. Drinkel)

  "Gaia's story is both powerful and deeply shocking. This tale of latent revenge and pent-up anger was a joy to read."

  —Ginger Nuts of Horror

  "A very arty, grim, character study... a slow, steady drift into a heart of darkness climaxing with a buckling level of sex and violence and shock...It's like Von Trier's Antichrist and when reading it, I saw Charlotte Gainsbourg as Gaia..."

  —Chris Alexander, editor-in-chief, Fangoria Magazine

  "Polyp"

  (From The Mammoth Book of Body Horror Anthology, 2012, edited by Paul Kane and Marie O'Regan)

  "Barbie has created a brilliant twist on the creature feature genre. I really enjoyed how the tale went from being a very personal story into an apocalyptic cliff hanger."

  —Ginger Nuts of Horror

  "Z is for Zulu Zombies"

  From the Bestiarum Vocabulum Anthology and Gorezone #29, 2013, edited by Dean M. Drinkel

  "Zulu Zombies is pure Barbie Wilde; eccentric, bizarre, dark and frightening but laced with a inimitable, irreverent punk rock exuberance. It was an honor to reprint the tale in the blood-stained pages of Gorezone Magazine..."

  —Chris Alexander, Editor-in-Chief, Fangoria and Gorezone, Filmmaker: Blood for Irina, Queen of Blood

  "Expect Zulu Zombie mayhem, undead rape, witch doctor rituals, vomiting and plenty of bloodshed. Cram it all into one hell of an adrenaline pumping read—and you've got a strange I Am Legend (1954) meets Zulu (1964) meets Horror Express (1972) maddening ride."

  —Chris Hall, DLS Reviews

  A Comet Press Book

  Comet Press Electronic Edition November 2012

  The Venus Complex copyright © 2012

  by Barbie Wilde

  All Rights Reserved.

  Cover painting copyright © 2012

  by Daniele Serra

  This book is a work of fiction. People, places, events, and situations are the product of the author’s imagination. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental.

  No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including photocopying, recording or by any information storage and retrieval system, without the written permission of the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

  Also available in print: Trade paperback ISBN 13: 978-1-936964-44-4

  Visit Comet Press on the web at: www.cometpress.us

  About The Author

  Barbie Wilde is best known as the Female Cenobite in Clive Barker’s classic cult horror movie Hellbound: Hellraiser II. She has performed in cabaret in Bangkok, Thailand, robotically danced in the Bollywood blockbuster, Janbazz, played a vicious mugger in the vigilante thriller Death Wish III, appeared as a drummer for an electronica band in the so-called “Holy Grail of unfinished and unreleased 80’s horror” Grizzly II: The Predator, AKA Grizzly II: The Concert, which starred a then unknown George Clooney, and was a founder member of the mime/dance/music group, SHOCK, which supported such artists as Gary Numan, Ultravox, Depeche Mode and Adam & the Ants in the 1980s.

  Barbie presented and wrote eight different music and film review TV programs in the UK in the 1980s and 1990s. She interviewed such pop personalities as Cliff Richard, Iggy Pop, John Lydon (AKA the Sex Pistol’s Johnny Rotten), The Sisters of Mercy, Roger Taylor of Queen, Pepsi & Shirley, The B52’s, Lisa Stansfield, Jimmy Sommerville and Black, as well as actors Nicolas Cage and Hugh Grant.

  In 2009, Barbie contributed a well-received short story, entitled “Sister Cilice”, to the Hellbound Hearts Anthology, edited by Paul Kane and Marie O’Regan. The stories in Hellbound Hearts were based on Clive Barker’s mythology from his novella The Hellbound Heart, the basis for the Hellraiser film franchise. In 2011-12, Barbie contributed three more short stories to three different horror anthologies: “U for Uranophobia” for Phobophobia, “American Mutant: Hands of Dominion” for Mutation Nation and “Polyp” for The Mammoth Book of Body Horror.

  Barbie is now co-writing the book for a musical with composer-lyricist Georg Kajanus and screenwriter-playwright Roberto Trippini called Sailor, which contains a unique perspective on life, violence and love. Sailor is not only a romantic voyage, it also depicts the brutality of war and life on the fringes of society. Sailor has been conceived as both a stage and film musical.

  www.barbiewilde.com

  ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

  Thanks to Eva, Paul Kane, Marie O’Regan, Tim Dry and Georg.

  And thanks to author Colin Wilson for his books on serial killers, especially Order of Assassins: The Psychology of Murder and A Criminal History of Mankind.

  For Georg

  INTRODUCTION

  By Paul Kane

  I first met Barbie Wilde back in December 2006. I was having a launch for my book The Hellraiser Films and Their Legacy at a British Fantasy Society Open Night at Ye Olde Cock Tavern in London. I’d invited as many people associated with the mythos as possible, in particular the four Cenobites themselves: Doug “Pinhead” Bradley, Nick “Chatterer” Vince, Simon “Butterball” Bamford (who couldn’t make it that time, but who I met later on) and, of course, Female Cenobite from Hellbound: Hellraiser II, Barbie, who brought her partner Georg along too. All thoroughly nice people and about as far from demonic sadomasochists as you can get.

  I remember it being a fantastic event, a bit of a dream come true for this Hellraiser fan actually. And, during the course of the evening, as the drink flowed, I got chatting to Barbie. Of course I knew her as an accomplished actress, TV presenter and dancer (she was one of the founder members of SHOCK), but what I didn’t know was that, like Nick Vince, she also wrote fiction.

  Not long after that, Barbie sent me some samples of her work, which I happily read and was bowled over by. It led directly to myself and my wife Marie using her for the Hellraiser-inspired anthology from Simon & Schuster, Hellbound Hearts (for which she delivered one of the most popular and controversial entries, “Sister Cilice”) and, more recently, The Mammoth Book of Body Horror from Constable & Robinson (her tale “Polyp” is a perfect example of the sub-genre, described by one reviewer as “a wonderfully disgusting story that’s a brilliant twist on the creature feature genre”; Clive Barker would be very proud, I think). She has also gone on to appear in other anthologies, such as Phobophobia and Mutation Nation, steadily building a name for herself in the writing world.

  I’m proud to say I was one of the first people to get a preview of this, her debut novel: The Venus Complex. Proud and very lucky … Because, when I sat down to read what had popped into my inbox, I had no idea what ride it would take me on. Like so many other examples these days—Mo Hayder springs to mind—Barbie blurs the genre lines between crime and horror, but also delivers a serial killer thriller that stands out from the crowd. She does what the best exponents of this field also do, she gets inside the head of the killer … and “encourages” us to enter it as well.

  His fixations and the way he selects his victims are—without giving too much away—unique. Delivered in first person, all his intimate moments are recorded in journal form. And the most frightening thing about him is what surely disturbs us about the serial killer in general: he hides in plain sight. He could be your neighbour, your friend, your lover … Like Thomas Harris’ Lecter—before his capture, obviously—Professor Michael Friday might even be teaching your
kids at University. Yet, like Jeff Lindsay’s creation, Dexter, he has his own dark side. Perhaps the darkest of them all; one that compels him to act out his warped fantasies. At the same time, Michael just wants to be someone, not a “nobody”. He’s the perfect dichotomy, in fact. Trying to find his place in the world, experiencing conflicting emotions. At one point he agonisingly comments: “It’s a miracle that I am as sane as I am,” then asks us: “I am sane, aren’t I?” It’s the kind of thing an actor might do as an aside in a Shakespearean tragedy …

  Barbie effortlessly puts herself in Michael’s position, so effortlessly that within the first few pages—the first few paragraphs—you forget that you’re reading fiction at all. This could happen, this could be real. And isn’t that at the heart of good horror and crime writing? That’s not to say the writing isn’t top notch; quite the opposite, actually. It’s incredibly skilled. Barbie manages to pull off something that’s very rare in fiction; she delivers poetic and lyrical lines, deep hidden meanings, that we appreciate even more fully on repeated readings, without once throwing us out of the narrative. On the contrary, we’re compelled to read more, to find out what Michael’s up to next.

  Like Bret Easton Ellis in American Psycho, Barbie also offers up a commentary on contemporary life, which touches on everything from MTV attention spans to apathy about sexual partners. There’s also black humour to be found here, as evidenced when Michael’s watching a report about a serial killer who got caught: “My advice to him would have been: don’t take up a new profession unless you decide that you’re going to do it properly … What a jerk.”

  But I’ll say no more about the book you hold in your hands and are probably now desperate to read. As desperate as I was when Barbie originally sent it to me … and I wasn’t disappointed. I’ll just end by saying, like Lecter, Bateman, Dexter, I feel certain that Michael Friday will soon be added to the list of famous fictional serial killers we all seem to be simultaneous terrified of and fascinated by, perhaps because it’s the “safe” way of touching that darkness I was talking about earlier.