DEVILS IN CANDY HOUSES by William Wall

PUBLISHER: Papillon Books, 1974
GENRE: Fiction/Suspense/Horror
SETTING: Possibly Michigan, USA
PURCHASE: link
MY GRADE: B

FROM PUBLISHER: Gwendolyn and Charles Karfax were a gentle old couple, serenely sweet and touchingly in love. For amusement, they toasted marshmallows over burning pages of the Bible and practiced sadism. Soon, their attention focused on Kevin and Pam, two children in the neighborhood, for whom, along with the little girl's young mother, they had frightening plans...

MY THOUGHTS: This was a very odd 192 page book that I saw listed on GoodReads. Gwen and Charles are an older couple. His age is sixty but her's is never given. They both have white hair and dentures. They're both described as being "pink and white" with light blue eyes. They look enough alike to be siblings, according to Charles. We aren't told how long they've been married but they have a sexless marriage. I'm under the impression they've never had sex with each other, and she's never had it with anyone. They think of themselves as actual children.

Charles is a rapist of multiple women, only one of which takes place in the book. He has plans of some sort for Kevin, an almost thirteen-year-old boy in the neighborhood, and I never got the sense that it was sexual. Based on something that happened, I think he just wants to do bodily harm to him. Charles tries hard to be a 'gentleman', considers himself one, but I can't see how he could think that.

Gwen has thoughts of pedophilia towards almost-ten-year old Pam, the little blonde girl across the street who's new in town, and wants to see her "without clothing." Charles has nefarious plans for her mother, Patricia. Gwen, I think, is made out to be the crazier one in this relationship. She's got a penchant for castration, of both cats (which arouses Charles sexually) and stuffed animals.

I like the ending with Charles and Gwen but I'd have liked some reasoning/explanation for why it happened and why then and not at some later date. What happened to make them decide to do what they did? I do not like what happens with Kevin and Pam. Looks like it was a set-up for a sequel.

The one complaint I have for this book is that it was too short and we didn't get any backstory on Charles and Gwen and I definitely needed some. I need to know how these two nuts found each other. I also thought the burning of pages out of the Bible to be odd, random, and unexplained.

The title of the book comes from Charles thinking their house looks like a house made of candy, like the witch's house in Hansel and Gretel.

I cannot find any information on this author no matter how hard I Google. This doesn't appear to the the Irish William Wall, which is the only one by that name that shows up. If you know who this one is, please let me know!