The Chosen by Edward Lee

Restaurant manager Vera Abbot has come to The Inn to embark on the job of her dreams. But from the day she arrives, her dream turns into a harrowing nightmare. She hears strange footsteps, sees faceless figures in the dead of night…and is tormented by erotic dreams in which a hideous stranger makes love to her.

The past never dies. It only sleeps, waiting to unleash a new cycle of bloodshed and terror. For The Inn is a breeding ground for unspeakable atrocities. And now the time has come for Vera to be initiated into its secret world of depravity and horror—whether she wants to or not!

Inexplicably retitled THE CHOSEN--Lee’s title was THE INN, because, well, that’s what it’s about--this gory neo-Gothic was the first of a 3-book deal Lee signed with Zebra in 1992 (and the first novel he didn’t write on a typewriter; for this he used a $400 Smith-Corona word processor). Lee’s obsession with all things culinary stomps all through this story, such that you might want to imagine the Food Network with demons instead of Emeril. Restaurant manager Vera Abbot jumps at the chance to split from her cheating, drug-snorting boyfriend and go to work at a four-star dining room in a secluded country inn. Splatter, perverted sex, and a female demon with a penis highlight the ensuing outrageous shenanigens. As for the secondary character suspiciously named “Lee,” the author admits: “When I was 17, I worked as a dishwasher in a seafood restaurant. So I took the liberty of injecting that aspect of myself into this carnal fantasy. And, of course, I kill myself." Lee’s gross-out fans seem to love this book; Lee himself does not, blaming the forced positive ending and too much indulgence on his own part (example: the painstaking accuracy regarding brand-names of commercial-grade kitchen equipment!) Feel free to make the determination as to whether or not horror fiction and cuisine go well together (along with sutured labias and kniting needles through the ears).