Done: "The Keep" by F. Paul WIlson

Done: The Keep by F. Paul Wilson, 1981, 0688006264.

Okay, but not my taste.  Wilson sat at the same lunch table as I (me?) at Murder and Mayhem in Muskego a couple years ago.  Wilson is a good dude and I recall him saying this is the only novel of his to always stay in print.  Or maybe that was another novel.  Spoilers and long summary cometh.

SS Officer gets plum assignment to design, build, and run new concentration camps in Ploesti, Romania.  First, he has to solve a little problem at an outpost (out, out, outpost) in rural Romania.  Career German Officer, a Captain, had arrived a few days ago to a narrow valley that could act as a attack route by the Ruskies.  Captain and his troops billet themselves in a small.fortified structure overlooking the valley.  The structure is mysterious.  The structure's stone walls and round keep are inlaid with hundreds of brass and metal crosses.  One soldier thinks the brass is gold.  Soldier pulls out a stone and releases something evil.

Evil thing starts killing Krauts.  Evil appears as a light sucking darkness.  Captain calls for help.  SS Officer shows up.  SS Officer wants to follow usual SS procedure and just kill the locals until morale improves and problem is resolved.  Local Keep caretaker is beaten and says a Professor may know how to stop the trouble.

University Professor and Hot Daughter live in Bucahrest.  Professor and Daughter are both scholars but Daughter had been caretaker to the wheelchair bound Professor.  Professor and Daughter had studied the Keep for years.  They are Jews and under the gun.  SS show up and haul them to the Keep.  Professor told by SS Officer to fix the problem or he'll get fixed.

Meanwhile, mysterious redhead travels from Portugal to Romania.  Professor kept at keep.  Evil manifests into corporeal form.  I know it is corporeal because I checked the dictionary.  Evil tricks Professor.  Daughter sent to village.  Daughter meets Redhead.  Spinster Daughter has wet spot for Redheaded Dude.

More things happen.  Too many in the 347 pages to recap.  All ends well except for some dead Romanians who go evil from the evilness of the Evil Guy's evil. 

Comments:
1.  I think the middle part of the novel lagged.  Things picked up once the Hot Daughter gets boinked by Redhead and I did not have to read about her 30-year-old spinsterishness.
2.  Nice paper in this 1981 copy.
3.  Wilson is popular with gun nerds because of the gun details in his Repairman Jack novels.
4.  When going to Muskego my main goal is to get in the lunch line early so I do not have to wait to eat.  If your goal is to suck-up to authors you should wait a bit until they are seated and then swoop in and harass them with questions.  Where do you get your ideas?  Will you read my manuscript?  When does the movie come out?  How much do you make?  Have you ever met George Clooney?