Robert Rick McCammon (born July 17, 1952) is an American novelist, best known for his early horror novels, although he branched out in later works.
Works by Robert R. McCammon include:
- Blue World: A collection of short stories. "Nightcrawlers" was adapted into a segment of The Twilight Zone in 1986.
- Boy's Life
- The Further Adventures of Batman: Contributed "On A Beautiful Summers Day He Was"
- Swan Song: A post-apocalyptic novel, set during the "nuclear winter".
- Stinger
- They Thirst: Modern vampires take over L.A.
Works by Robert R. McCammon include examples of:
- Baby-Doll Baby: In the suspense novel Mine, a character, prior to kidnapping a baby, has a few of these. Which she names for members of The Doors...and melts on the stove when they won't "behave."
- Big Damn Heroes: Train and Arden arriving in a swiftboat just in time to save Dan’s bacon in Gone South. It is truly a stand-up-and-cheer moment.
- Conjoined Twins: Flint Murtaugh, a bounty hunter from Gone South, has a parasitic twin (Clint) embedded in his torso.
- Elvis Impersonator: In Gone South, a bounty hunter is unwillingly partnered with an apprentice who dresses like Elvis.
- Eye Scream: A particularly memorable story in Blue World. The title is "Pin", which gives you some idea.
- A Fête Worse than Death: In "He'll Come Knocking On Your Door", residents of a certain small town are all prosperous and successful. But a few days before Hallowe'en they receive a list from the Devil, requesting various treats from each house. A few of the treats are small pieces of their bodies, toes and the like. Refuse to provide them, and he'll come knocking...
- Ghostapo: The Night Boat features a U-boat full of very angry, very hungry Nazi zombies created by Hollywood Voodoo.
- Inn of No Return: In Speaks the Nightbird.
- Most Writers Are Writers: Laura from Mine is a journalist.
- Multi-Armed and Dangerous: Flint Murtaugh from Gone South is a bounty hunter with three arms: his own, and the single undersized limb of his parasitic twin, Clint. Clint is near-mindless, blind, and embedded in Flint's torso, yet has been trained by his brother to point a small pistol as a hold-out surprise. Subverted in that Clint can't aim or fire it properly, but Flint's quarry seldom realizes this.
- Our Werewolves Are Different: In The Wolf's Hour, the werewolves mainly follow the standard man-into-full-wolf pattern and can shift at will. The main difference is that the werewolves age as wolves while in wolf form, so it avoids the issue of everything being solved by turning into a wolf.
- Shell-Shocked Veteran: In the short story "Nightcrawlers", the main character is a Vietnam vet. The kicker: his nightmares have come to life and stalk him at a truck stop.
- Southern Gothic: Many of his stories are set in the American South or Southwest (Stinger), and McCammon himself is from Alabama. This includes tropes such as redemption, family secrets, creepy places, and so on.
- This Was His True Form: In The Wolf's Hour, the body of a werewolf spasms at death, becoming a mishmash of wolf and human parts.
- Traintop Battle: The Wolf's Hour has the protagonist forced to fight his way from one end to the other of a train in Nazi Germany that has been rebuilt as a rolling death trap while the Egomaniac Hunter stalks him from behind.
- Tuckerization: "Something Passed By" is set in a small town whose streets and landmarks are named for several contemporary horror authors.It floated over Grant Street, where the statues of town fathers stood, past the Victorian houses at the end of King's Lane that had burned with such beautiful flames, past the empty playground at the silent Bloch School, over Bradbury Park where paint flaked off the grinning carousel horses, down Koontz Street where the businesses used to thrive, over Ellison Field where no bat would smack another softball.
