Sunday, June 21, 2020

THE TERROR ABOVE US by Malcom Kent











Quickie cash-in on the Betty and Barney Hill abductions reads like an amalgamation of existing cases before it, with a dedicated psychiatrist and hypnotic regression a la the Hills, plus a sexy synthetic woman like the Antonio Villas Boas escapade. Abductees "Jason and Robert Steiner" are supposed pseudonyms, as is Dr. Brant and the author himself! Some googling reveals the following:
While most of those "in the know" claim the book was written by a "George Houk," it turns out that Houk is a pseudonym, too! Recent inquiry has brought to light that both "Malcom Kent" and "George Houk" may have both been used by John A. Keel, the most widely known ufologist of the time. All three of them roll off the tongue in the same way, and the location (in upstate NY, where Keel grew up) and details (a "freelance writer for 10 years") seem to match with Keel, along with the writing style. Since Keel spoke of having helped "several of his friends" write such pseudonymous UFO books, we might also consider the possibility that Keel was helped on this book by his good friend, psychiatrist Berthold Eric Schwarz, and by Gray Barker, who is described in the book as "Lex" Barker. 
The author claims that brother "Robert" is active in UFO circles and likely soon to go public with the case. Of course, no such exposure ever came about. For a final suggestive touch, the blobby cover photo is credited to NASA.

Tower Books, 1967

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