BOOK REVIEW: MR CABLES BY RONALD MALFI

A welcome rerelease for Ron Malfi’s outstanding novella ‘Mr Cables’

When the small press Dark Fuse disappeared a few years ago a lot of excellent fiction sadly vanished from print and with copyright undoubtedly returned to the authors, thankfully, some are beginning to resurface. I never read Ronald Malfi’s excellent Mr Cables first time around and was delighted when I heard JournalStone were releasing a new edition. It is relatively short, about 75 minutes of reading, and is a snip to buy for your Kindle or e-reader directly from JournalStone, whether such a slight book is worth a pricy paperback or hardback if for your pocket to decide. Malfi completists will undoubtedly be investing in one of the neat looking physical options.


Considering Malfi has been writing to a very high standard since 2000 and has published 17 novels, several novellas, and a single author collection he really deserves to be more widely read beyond the hardcore horror community and should be adorning the shelves of mainstream bookshops with the big names of the genre. Mr Cables is a great example of a short work which many non-horror readers would definitely enjoy if they ever had the opportunity to pick it up, as it is beautifully crafted and an outstanding example of what can be achieved over a hundred pages. It is as polished a product as anything you will see being trumped up in literary magazines which will be devoured in a single sitting. This is no surprise, as Malfi is an outstanding writer of short fiction and much of his best work is included in his collection We Should Have Felt Well Enough Alone (2017) which I would highly recommend and even features a story which connects with Mr Cables.


If you have never tried Malfi Mr Cables is an excellent entry point, but if you are after a novel, he has many to recommend. Since 2015 he was been on an outstanding run of form with Little Girls (2015) an ambiguous and psychological haunted house story, The Night Parade (2016) an apocalyptic tale about a disease called ‘wanderer’s Folly’ and the terrifying Bone White (2017) which will put you off ever wanting to travel to Alaska. The Floating Staircase (2010) is slightly older, but another outstanding haunted house (and lake) story which is a firm favourite with fans.


Mr Cables has a genuinely outstanding and very original cool hook: bestselling horror author Wilson Paventeau is at a book signing when a woman in the queue presents him with a book to sign called ‘Mr Cables’, Wilson is surprised as he has never written a book of this name. The woman claims to have bought the copy in a yard-sale some years earlier and is genuinely surprised when Wilson tells her he did not write it. She also says it is the scariest of all his fiction! Intrigued he swops the oddity for his latest novel and takes it home with him. Thinking it is some sort of elaborate hoax, he begins to research into it and discovers the publisher does not exist. Finally, he decides to read the book, and finds it incredibly boring…. He then gives a section to his agent to read and she has a very different opinion, and very quickly the mystery begins to thicken.


To say much more about the plot would ruin the fun and Mr Cables easily ranks amongst the strongest horror novellas of the last few years, which is no mean feat considering the incredibly high standard in the horror genre at the moment. It had me thinking of novels about horror novelists, or books within books, with Stephen King’s The Dark Half springing to mind, but Ronald Malfi has a lot of fun with the concept before expertly reeling the reader in for the cool climax.


Written in the first person, Wilson Paventeau is a great narrator, and even though he is not a genuine unreliable narrator, he is slightly selective in what he reveals to the reader and that is one of the major strengths of Mr Cables.  Sometimes books which are built around one single great concept, or hook, ultimately disappoint as the ending never matches the hook, that is not the case with this novella which keeps it going until the end and has a couple of moving scenes thrown into the plot, which is nicely balanced with the tension. I also loved the contrast of reactions when Paventeau reads the book (and finds it tedious) compared to the two other characters who read sections (and it scares the crap out of them), this is nicely played and has the reader on edge in figuring out what is really going on.


Ronald Malfi is a genuine literary class act, and I am looking forward to reading his 2021 novel Come With Me which is being published as the first part of a new two book deal with Titan who, in recent times, have been releasing outstanding fiction, so it is no surprise they have snared Ron! Also, five of Malfi’s older and out-of-print novels, Cradle Cake, December Park, Snow, The Ascent and The Floating Staircase are being republished by Open Road Media in January. This author has an outstanding back-catalogue and Mr Cables is a brilliant place to start the coolest of journeys!
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Tony Jones

​For bestselling horror novelist Wilson Paventeau, the scariest novel of his career is one he didn't write. It bears his name on the dust jacket and contains his bio near the end, but this enigmatic tome is not part of his oeuvre. And the most frightening thing about it may not be the tale between the covers, but the reason for its mysterious appearance in Paventeau's life.

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