First Blood is an under-statement. This book is better called Everyone’s Blood because basically everyone dies a really gruesome death in this story. The basic plot is that Rambo, a disturbed, homeless Vietnam vet decides he’s sick of being pushed from town to town, and decides to stand his ground against a stubborn Chief of Police. Of course, much violence ensues, which leads to even more violence, etc. I haven’t ever seen a Rambo movie, so I don’t know how the plot of the book compares with the movies. Morrell’s signature highly-trained, survivalist main character is present in Rambo, but there’s none of the espionage or horror elements that his more recent books have included.

A “creeper” is someone who enjoys illegally sneaking into old boarded-up buildings to discover more about that building’s history. Apparently, there are actually real people who do this on a regular basis. It sounds wretched to me, but David Morrell actually took up the hobby himself when he was a young child, and thus began the inspiration for this book.

Creepers tells the story of 5 creepers who spent 8 hours in an abandoned hotel. As you might imagine, these 8 hours weren’t spent peacefully admiring old woodwork. Sinister secrets lurked in the old hotel, waiting to be relased. If you’re familiar with Morrell’s books, you know that he always has a “survivalist” for a main character, and this book was no different. While I wouldn’t call the book a classic by any means, the story was intense, the bad guys were evil, and I stayed up quite late to finish reading.