Slugs Books in Order

The Slugs series is where Hutson’s reputation as the so called “Godfather of Gore” really took hold. It takes a creature that is usually just a garden nuisance and turns it into a full blown horror engine, then pushes the idea as far as it will go.

In Slugs the quiet English town of Merton is hit by a heatwave. The warmth brings out a new strain of slug that has mutated into something carnivorous and unnervingly aggressive. They swarm through gardens, crawl into basements and seep into any damp, dark place they can find. Before long people are dying in ways that are both inventive and disgusting, from being stripped to the bone in their own homes to suffering gruesome internal infestations after eating contaminated food.

The main resistance comes from Mike Brady, a local health inspector who gradually pieces together the pattern of deaths, and a small group of allies who believe him. Of course the authorities are slow to accept that slugs could be responsible for human corpses, which gives the creatures plenty of time to multiply. Much of the book’s tension comes from ordinary settings turning hostile, and from Hutson’s relish in describing each new body.

Breeding Ground follows on from the original, moving the action to London and expanding the scale. The surviving mutant slugs have colonised the capital’s sewer system, where they are not only feeding on human waste and carrion but also spreading a new form of infection that triggers insanity and murderous behaviour in anyone they contaminate. Dr Alan Finch becomes the key figure here, trying to understand both the biology of the slugs and the psychological fallout while the city tips toward chaos.

If Slugs is about the shock of discovering what is slithering under your feet, Breeding Ground is about what happens when the infestation gets into a major population centre and the usual methods of control fail. Evacuations, military responses and grimly improvised plans to wipe out the creatures all come into play, and Hutson does not shy away from collateral damage.

Taken together, the Slugs books offer pure creature feature horror. The science is sketchy, the characters are often there to be chewed up, and the appeal lies in the escalation of set pieces and the sheer nastiness of the deaths. Fans who enjoy grisly, unapologetic paperback horror will find these two novels a concise and very slimy mini series.