Line #11 Literature/EscardyGap


1	[[quoteright:676:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/escardy_gap_cov_01.jpg]]
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3	->''"Good gravy! I do believe the circus has come to town!”''
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5	''Escardy Gap'' is an UrbanFantasy novel written by Peter Crowther and James Lovegrove, first published in 1996.
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7	In New York City, a washed-up author struggles with writer's block. A glimmer of an idea occurs to him, and for the first time in months, he begins to write, spurred by the image of train tracks in the desert...
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9	The story he weaves is of the tiny, Midwestern town of Escardy Gap, population less-than-eight-hundred, a perfect slice of small-town [[The50s 1950's]] Americana. Into this peaceful burg, a giant, black-and-silver steam train arrives, bearing a colorful group of supposed circus performers who call themselves "The Company". Declaring themselves there to put on a once-in-a-lifetime show for the townspeople and taking advantage of small-town hospitality, they ingratiate themselves into the homes of Escardy Gap's residents. Which is when the true, earth-shattering horror starts to begin...
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11	It quickly becomes clear that the town is the target of a systematic elimination as the members of the Company begin to reveal their true natures and start slaughtering the townsfolk en mass. It's up to the town's Mayor - a washed-up ex-Hollywood actor - and a twelve-year-old boy to try and stop the Company's brutal plans. Just as it seems things are at their darkest, they suddenly find themselves encountering a surprising new ally, who may have the power to save Escardy Gap single-handedly...
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14	!!This novel contains examples of the following tropes:
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16	* AddedAlliterativeAppeal: Neville N. Nolan's gimmick of the gab, which he wields with wit and flagrently flaunts with furious fervor.
17	* AnArmAndALeg: [[spoiler:Doc loses his arm when he puts it through the barrier around the town, thinking that it’s harmless, and discovering that it’s [[DeadlyForceField anything but]].]]
18	* AmbiguousSituation: [[spoiler:Did the author really create an entire world with his story? Were Mayor and Josh really in his home in New York following their escape? And, most of all, will venturing down that sewer grate really lead him to Escardy Gap and Sara Sienkiewicz as he believes? Or has he simply gone completely insane? The fact that his friends and cat are all confirmed to be figments of his imagination that he likely created to overcome his loneliness leans heavily into the latter theory, but then there was the encounter that he, Josh and Mayor had with the street hoodlums that suggests that they may indeed have manifested for real (providing that this wasn't a case of UnreliableNarrator, of course...).]]
19	* AuthorAvatar: [[spoiler:An unusual InUniverse example. The novel opens from the perspective of an unnamed author suffering writer's block, until the idea for a story hits him. The rest of the novel is the result, with the tale dipping back to the author to see how he's handling the writing. It just seems like a slightly-odd framing device... until Josh and Mayor escape from Escardy Gap, and the author ''meets them in a sewer grate'', resulting in much freaking out at being confronted by his own literary creations interacting with him in real life. He believes that he simply might be losing his mind and imagining them, but eventually realizes that, whether they're actually real or not, he needs to finish the story in order to save them.]]
20	* BittersweetEnding: [[spoiler: Within the story of Escardy Gap itself, Josh manages to kill the Train, causing the rest of the Company to collapse into dust. Unfortunately, they're so good at what they do that by the time he's managed this, practically ''everyone else'' in the town is dead (with the sole exception of Sara Sienkiewicz), including Mayor, leaving Josh alone to survive in the slaughtered husk of Escardy Gap. Outside of the story, the author has finally managed to finish his novel, but believes that, if he goes down the same tunnel he found Mayor and Josh in, he'll find his way to Escardy Gap and save Sara himself. Given his mental state at this point, it's strongly implied that this will ultimately be a complete fruitless quest, but he's still more determined to see it through than he has been about anything else in years.]]
21	* BizarreHumanBiology: It seems like the Company recruits heavily from those who have this. Most every member has some kind of unusual biological aberration, some more subtle than others. Easily one of the most memorable examples are [[spoiler:the Man-eaters, who have secondary eyes in their breasts, secondary noses in their navels, and secondary mouths in... well, [[VaginaDentata you can figure that out]].]]
22	* BlondeBrunetteRedhead: The Man-eaters. They’re also described as being so equally alluring that any preference one might have regarding hair color goes right out the window.
23	* BodyHorror: Lord, where to begin? Between Mr. Olesqui’s magical tobacco that turns the smoker into a (barely) living puddle of grey goop, the [[GagPenis stupendously “over-endowed”]] Agnes Destiny, the Boy using his RealityWarper hands to literally deconstruct Tommy Finkelbaum, the Man-eaters in general… the Company as a whole makes this their stock-in-trade, and they’re all the more terrifying because of it.
24	* CardCarryingVillain: While the rest of the Company simply go about their murderous ways without much in the way of explanation or gloating, Rackstraw ''gleefully'' revels in telling people about how evil he and his cohorts are, to the point that he can't help but give Mayor a massive MotiveRant about it that ultimately galvanises the old man into trying to stop them.
25	* CircusOfFear: The Company fits the bill pretty well, except for the odd subversion that we never see them actually put on a show - they basically show up, and then start killing everybody.
26	* CompellingVoice: A rare non-verbal example, ironically wielded by the most talkative character in the book: Rackstraw, who can make people do whatever he wants by simply giving them instructions and then tracing the most relevant part of said instruction on their forehead (ie, getting a barber to [[spoiler:cut himself to pieces with his own razor]] by simply writing "Cut"). Naturally, he pretty much exclusively uses this power to make people kill themselves.
27	* CreepyChild: Among the Company's number is the Boy, a mysterious lad who speaks in an infantile manner and wears creepy gloves hiding the fact that he doesn't have physical hands, but entirely invisible, eldritch ones that seem to be capable of [[RealityWarper distorting reality]]. He's so creepy (and, presumably, powerful) that even ''Rackstraw'' is cowed in his presence.
28	* DeadlyForceField: The Company (or, more probably, [[spoiler:the Train]]) erects one around Escardy Gap shortly after they arrive. It’s not so much a “force field” in the sense of being a physical barrier ''stopping'' anyone from crossing it; you can walk through it just fine… it’s just that, whatever goes through, appears to be instantaneously ''vaporized''.
29	* DrivenToSuicide: [[spoiler:The town's priest hangs himself in the aftermath of discovering Tommy Finkelbaum's horrifically mangled body strewn around Century Cedar. Rackstraw, [[KickTheDog naturally]], can't resist the opportunity to comment on a priest committing one of the major cardinal sins when he discovers the body.]]
30	* EldritchAbomination: [[spoiler:The Train. It's actually an ancient living being that inhabits the shell of a locomotive, but exactly ''what'' it is isn't revealed at all. Rackstraw refers to it as "our Angel", but beyond this vague descriptor, we're not given any other insights to its true nature, beyond it being utterly evil.]]
31	* EveryoneCallsHimBarkeep: Mayor's name is Douglas B. Raymond, but to the people of Escardy Gap, he's just "Mayor".
32	* FanDisservice: The Man-eaters are described as being inhumanly beautiful and alluring, to the point that ''no'' man can resist their wiles. Unfortunately, they cross the line into this once their true physical natures are revealed...
33	* FauxAffablyEvil: Most of The Company act this way until their true natures come out, but Jeremiah Rackstraw embodies this trope far more than the others, at least, until Josh and Mayor's [[spoiler:escape]] drives him to dispense with all pleasantries and enter full-on business mode.
34	* FirstPersonPerspective: The author's chapters are all written from this perspective.
35	* ForTheEvulz: Pretty much the only reason that the Company do what they do, and why [[spoiler:the Train]] demands that they do it. Rackstraw sums it up pretty well in his MotiveRant to Mayor:
36	--->'''Rackstraw:''' ''Because we must. Because that's all we do. Because that's all we ever do... Because... when we see Goodness and Wholesomeness and Innocence and Integrity, we know we have to stamp them out. Because we are the people of the shadows… Because we are imperious, impenetrable, deadly, and you cannot argue with us and you cannot plead with us and you cannot compete with us. And because we hold true to only one thing - our own natures.''
37	* TheFriendNobodyLikes: Rackstraw may be the mouthpiece of the Company, and may present himself as their pseudo-"Leader", but more than one member makes it abundantly clear that the Company as a whole merely tolerates him at best, due to his "role" being necessary in ingratiating the Company with their victims, and if they had the opportunity, they'd kill him in a heartbeat. He knows this, too, and really doesn't care.
38	* HeroicSacrifice: [[spoiler:Mayor gives himself to the Man-eaters in order to keep the Company's attention off Josh long enough for the boy to break open the Train and kill it from the inside.]]
39	* KidHero: 12-year-old Josh Knight, who ultimately becomes the one responsible for stopping the Company in their tracks.
40	* MethodActing: InUniverse, Mayor was known as a method character actor. One of his odd quirks is that he's ''still'' doing this in his day-to-day life, despite having left Hollywood decades earlier and become the mayor of Escardy Gap, and adopts personas as easily (and, seemingly, unconsciously) as others change shoes.
41	* NothingExcitingEverHappensHere: Deliberately invoked with Escardy Gap itself, which is presented as being a bland, picture-perfect slice of small-town rural America so as to contrast against the unspeakable horrors inflicted upon it.
42	* OOCIsSeriousBusiness: A quite-literal example with Mayor; everyone is so used to him playing a "character" all the time, that neither he (nor anyone else) seem to realize at first that, after the killings start, he drops the whole "character" thing and is just.. himself. It takes Doc pointing it out to even make him aware of it.
43	* TheParanoiac: Bob Tremaine more than qualifies, being a devout believer of the RedScare, but he manages to keep it in check enough that it doesn't affect his day-to-day life or stop him from being a loving family man. Once he discovers the DeadlyForceField erected around Escardy Gap, however, he [[DrivenToMadness sails off the deep end]] and becomes convinced that America has been bombed out of existence by Russia, the Company are actually a troop of Russian spies, and everyone else in town are Russian [[DeepCoverAgent sleeper agents]] that replaced the townspeople, leading him to immediately kill anyone he encounters, [[spoiler:including his own wife and daughter.]]
44	* SesquipedalianLoquaciousness: Dear ''God'', if there was only one way to describe Rackstraw, it's that he's this ''personified''. It's commented upon by numerous characters (and even the story's narration) as being one of his most annoying characteristics.
45	* SexEqualsDeath: ''Literally'' in the case of the Man-eaters, wielders of VaginaDentata who devour their victims while simultaneously having sex with them. Rackstraw describes the experience and pain as so intense and dizzying that it's "all but indistinguishable from an orgasm".
46	* {{Shapeshifting}}: Clarence, who can turn into practically any living thing, regardless of size.
47	* UnrequitedTragicMaiden: Ingrid Ohlsson to Walt Donaldson. [[spoiler:Walt eventually figures it out… as the two are dying following being attacked by Clarence.]]
48	* VirginSacrifice: Rackstraw's ultimate plan for Sara Sienkiewicz is to deflower and kill her himself. Thankfully for Sara, he never gets the chance to carry this plan out.

Context Literature / EscardyGap