The Happy Man

Eric C. Higgs’s “The Happy Man: A Tale of Horror” is a terrifying story that takes place in a chic San Diego suburb. Charles Ripley, the main character, is an engineer who seems to have it all until Ruskin Marsh moves in next door. Ripley becomes aware of the lack of enthusiasm in his own life through Marsh’s colorful life. Nevertheless, a string of unsettling incidents coincides with Marsh’s arrival: local girls begin going missing,

violent marriage dissolutions occur, and disfigured corpses are discovered. Captured in this maelstrom of drugs, sex, violence, and gruesome rituals, Ripley starts to realize how beautiful life is. The Gothic horror legacy of Roald Dahl and Edgar Allan Poe is masterfully echoed in this book.