THE DEVIL TAKE YOUR STEREO

There's a fine line between genius and madness, but Anthony Keetch has absolutely no idea where it's located.

Earlier this week, Robert Dick sent me a download of Keetch's THE DEVIL TAKE YOUR STEREO: A SATANIC CHILLER BY DESMOND STIRLING, what appeared from a distance to be a fairly typical horror tale. I knew something was askew about five minutes in. The cover art suggested this story was supposed to be scary ... so why was I LOLing and whatnot? What the fuck was I listening to?

Here's the short version: THE DEVIL TAKE YOUR STEREO is a 70+ minute recording of author Sir Desmond Stirling dictating his 243rd novel while simultaneously dealing with/avoiding a host of personal problems. Stirling is a prissy conservative who is blissfully unaware of his own sexual hangups, a bit of a racist and thoroughly insufferable. His novel involves zombies, a demon baby and a "Yellow Peril" stereotype named Cunilinga.

None of that really matters, though. The "novel" serves only as a peek inside Sterling's bizarre, entitled psyche ... and its hilarious. It reminded me a bit of the work of Douglas Adams: Not because it's British (though it's very definitely that) but because the "story" is just a thin conveyance for Keetch's ideas.

And he's got a lot of ideas. So many, in fact, that they've spilled out into print. A companion piece, titled "The Devil Take the Hindmost," is available for Kindle and represents a biography of sorts for Sir Desemond Stirling. I'm still making my way through it, but it's available as a "free" lender with an Amazon Prime subscription.

Note: David Darlington is the producer of THE DEVIL TAKE YOUR STEREO. You might recognize the name from his work with Big Finish's line of DARK SHADOWS audiodramas.

Stand and Deliver!