Rating: 2 1/2 stars

Flesh starts off with a quick go. A van driving down a back country road at night comes across a young female bicyclist; the driver admiring her body as he closes in. Smiling as he speeds the van up, it’s time to take out the rider.

Hearing the quickly approaching vehicle, Celia makes a last minute swerve and crashes hard. When she comes to, the van is in flames after crashing into a bridge after narrowly missing its prey.

Jake, a small town cop and his partner are the officers on scene. Disgusted by what they see--the driver burnt to a crisp in the front seat and a badly bruised and shaken college student, Celia, they start their investigation in the accident. Jake notices the back of the van open and sees a trail of blood that runs from the van into the surrounding weeds. After losing the trail of blood in the weeds--and possibly the second occupant of the vehicle--Jake decides to check out the restaurant that has been closed for renovations. Jake finds the couple who are renovating the place; the woman he met only hours before is laying on the floor, while her husband is chewing on her dead body. Jake shoots him.

Back at the morgue it's discovered that there is more to the situation than just a man losing his sanity and eating his wife; something was inside of him and escaped after he was shot. Jake is on a mission to find the mysterious entity that occupied not only the husband’s body, but the driver of the van as well.

Enter Dana who has no love for fellow student and her boyfriend’s roommate, Roland. Dana despises everything Roland stands for, especially his Mr. Tough guy act. Roland dresses like a freak and draws attention to himself pretending to be someone that he's not. On a dare Dana gets Roland to spend the night in the restaurant where the murders have just taken place. The foreign entity is looking for a host and Roland is in the right place at the right time. The mysterious creature and Roland seem to be the perfect combination, Roland providing the home and the creature the strength to do what Roland has only imagined doing; Kill and Mutilate.

Overall story lacks imagination and originality, but makes up for it in descriptive narrative. I was quickly reminded of a rewritten version of Invasion of the Invasion of the Body Snatchers crossed with Dream Catcher. Maybe it is just me, but I expected more out of an author who is hailed as one of the masters of horror and violence. Flesh isn't something I would recommend to someone who likes to be kept in a story without knowing what is going to take place in the next paragraph before getting there.
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Mass Market Paperback: 355 pages
Publisher: Leisure Books; Reprint edition (August 25, 2009)
ISBN-13: 978-0843961393