The Auctioneer

Valancourt 20th Century Classics

By: Joan Samson

Narrated by: Matt Godfrey

One of the finest and best-selling horror novels of the 1970s returns at last to chill a new generation.

In the isolated farming community of Harlowe, New Hampshire, where life has changed little over the past several decades, John Moore and his wife, Mim, work the land that has been in his family for generations. But from the moment the charismatic Perly Dinsmore arrives in town and starts soliciting donations for his auctions, things begin slowly and insidiously to change in Harlowe. As the auctioneer carries out his terrible, inscrutable plan, the Moores and their neighbors will find themselves gradually but inexorably stripped of their freedom, their possessions, and perhaps even their lives....

A chilling masterpiece of terror whose sense of creeping menace and dread increases throughout, Joan Samson's The Auctioneer (1975) is a rediscovered classic of 20th-century fiction. With echoes of Shirley Jackson's "The Lottery" and Stephen King's Needful Things, Samson's novel returns at last in this long-awaited new edition.

©1975, 2018 Joan Samson (P)2018 Valancourt Books, LLC

nice.

Suspenseful, engaging, and easy to keep up with. Characters and community work well together to create an unbelievable tale.

Better than I expected

While this wasn't necessarily a horror by my standards, it was a pretty interesting story. I had a hard time understanding what time period they were in which is definitely me problem, so that caused me some confusion in the beginning but other than that it was really well written and extremely interesting.

Well done

Once I started listening it was hard to take pauses. Great characters. By the end of the book many of them start to feel like family

It's scary cause it's true

Amazing book. "The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.”

Not sure why this is considered horror.

Very slow paced and I could understand the gist of the story after about an hour. The narrator does a great job though.

Not a horror story as I was led to believe

Early on I realized it was not a horror story, but a con story, I will need to take care of some internet recommendations. It is well written, just not happy about it being described as horror

The Horror At Hand

The silver tongued stranger who charms the weak & the gullible & arms thugs to do his bidding and enforce his will. A powerful book for alarming current times. The way it builds like slowly boiling a frog is phenomenal.

Does not belong in the "horror" section

While I was, at first, intrigued by the story and the characters, the book lost me about half way through. I did manage to finish the book, but was frustrated by the lack of common sense and backbone displayed by the small town people. Not believable. Not to mention that there are hardly any sences in the book that could actually be labeled as horror. disappointing

Interesting plot!

Inventive story! Kept my attention but the author didn’t address WHY the members of the community most harassed were not banding together long before horrible things were happening! And just because their guns were taken away doesn’t explain why they didn’t formulate other ways to retaliate. THAT made it so unbelievable & hard to swallow.

Unbelievable

The writing is good, and Matt Godfrey is an outstanding narrator. The premise of the book is hard to believe. One person convincing an entire town to "give" him all their belongings and sometimes children? The town's people finally stand up for themselves but not until they've lost everything. I find it hard to believe that an entire town would simply lay down while one person extorts everything from them. They do nothing when the guy shows up week after week taking everything from butter churns to their live stock and anything they may use to protect themselves. These people are farm families that work hard and fight for their very existence but do nothing at all to stop this guy. I know the book fiction, but, sorry, I don't buy it.