Crossword Genius

Horror story and awful gripe about messenger (7,6)

Ross

I believe the answer is:

carrier pigeon

I'm a little stuck... Click here to teach me more about this clue!

'messenger' is the definition.
(I've seen this before)

'horror story and awful gripe about' is the wordplay.
'horror story' becomes 'carrie' (I can't explain this - if you can you should believe this answer much more).
'and' says to put letters next to each other.
'awful' indicates an anagram.
'about' becomes 'on' (a book about x is on x).
'gripe' anagrammed gives 'rpige'.
'carrie'+'rpige'+'on'='CARRIER-PIGEON'

Can you help me to learn more?

(Other definitions for carrier pigeon that I've seen before include "Avian messenger" , "Bird with message" , "Bird taking messages" , "Bird used for communication" , "Aerial messenger" .)

I've seen this clue in The Telegraph.
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