The Elementals by Michael McDowell

 

(pb; 1981)

From the back cover

“After a bizarre and disturbing incident at the funeral of matriarch Marian Savage, the McCray and Savage families look forward to a restful and relaxing summer at Beldame, on Alabama’s Gulf Coast, where three Victorian houses rise above the shimmering beach. Two of the houses are habitable, while the third is slowly and mysteriously being buried beneath an enormous dune of blindingly white sand. But though long uninhabited, the third house is not empty. Inside, something deadly lies in wait. Something that has terrified Dauphin Savage and Luker McCray since they were boys, and which still haunts their nightmares. Something horrific that may be responsible for several and unexplained deaths earlier—and now is ready to kill again.”

 

Review

 Elementals is a masterful, immediately immersive novel, one whose pacing, thick-with-thematic-atmosphere and striking, sometimes fun characters makes it stand out in the best way possible in a genre glutted with less-than-stellar/standard spookhouse works. (It’s a thin line between lag-time writing in serious need of editing and well-foreshadowed/low-key events and chills, and McDowell’s best work falls on the side of the latter approach).

If it ends in a non-surprising, quiet way—it has character-based twists, so I wouldn’t call it predictable—it’s because I got to know the characters and locations well enough to get a sense of their personalities. This is one of my all-time favorite spookhouse reads, one worth owning and keeping beyond its initial reading.

Cold Moon Over Babylon by Michael McDowell

(pb; 1980)

From the back cover

“Welcome to Babylon, a typical sleepy small town, where years earlier the Larkin family suffered a tragedy. Now they are about to endure another: fourteen-year-old Margaret Larkin will be robbed of her innocence and her life by a killer who is beyond the reach of the law.

“But something strange is happening in Babylon: traffic lights flash an eerie blue, a ghostly hand slithers from the drain of a kitchen sink, graves erupt from the local cemetery in an implacable march of terror. . . And beneath the murky surface of the river, a shifting, almost human shape slowly takes form. Night after night it will pursue the murderer. And when the full moon rises over Babylon, it will seek a terrible vengeance.”

Review

Cold is an excellent, character-rich and steady-build horror/revenge tale, unrushed in its cinematic-vivid, unfolding terrors, truths and consequences. Its arc and ending are not unpredictable but, in this case, it is the atmospheric, masterfully wrought journey that matters, cherry-topped with a deliciously low-key but devastating end-line. Worth reading and owning, this.

The Amulet by Michael McDowell

(pb; 1979)

From the back cover

“When a rifle range accident leaves Dean Howell disfigured and in a vegetative state, his wife Sarah finds her dreary life in Pine Cone, Alabama made even worse. After long and tedious days on the assembly line, she returns home to care for her corpselike husband while enduring her loathsome and hateful mother-in-law, Jo. Jo blames the entire town for her son’s mishap, and when she gives a strange piece of jewelry to the man she believes most responsible, a series of gruesome deaths is set in motion. Sarah thinks the amulet has something to do with the rising body count, but no one will listen to her. As the inexplicable murders continue, Sarah and her friend Becca Blair have no choice but to track down the amulet themselves, before it’s too late.”

Review

Amulet is a good, playful, bleakly funny and sometimes gory read, one that fans of slasher films might especially enjoy, in a Final Destination “accidental death” way. McDowell, to his credit, imbues his familiar storyline with creative kill variations and even, briefly, a sense of mystery within its familiar storyline. He also keeps the tone lively and fast-moving, making for a book that─despite its occasional chatty characters─is largely entertaining, with a finish that is stunning in its simply put, mini-twist impact.

Gilded Needles by Michael McDowell

(pb; 1980)

From the back cover

“Welcome to the Black Triangle, New York’s decadent district of opium dens, gambling casinos, drunken sailors, gaudy hookers, and back room abortions. The queen of this unsavory neighborhood is Black Lena Shanks, whose family leads a ring of female criminals─women skilled in the art of cruelty.

“Only a few blocks away, amdist the elegant mansions and lily-white reputations of Gramercy Park and Washington Square, lives Judge James Stallworth. On a crusade to crush Lena’s evil empire, the judge has sentenced three of her family members to death. And now she wants revenge.

“One Sunday, all the Stallworths receive invitations─to their own funerals. Can even the wealth and power of the Stallworth family protect them from Lena’s lust for vengeance?”

Review

Gilded is one of the best books I’ve read this year. It is an intense, cinematic-vivid, character-rich, slow burn of a period piece thriller, one that was near-impossible to set down from its first page to its last. It is worth not only worth reading and owning.

The Blackwater serial novels by Michael McDowell

(pb; 1983: six-part novel)

1.) Blackwater: I - The Flood

From the back cover

"Elinor Dammert was rescued from her room in the flood-isolated hotel. What strange mission brought her there? How did she survive her isolation? Why was she in the Alabama town of Perdido that Easter morning in 1919?

"These questions would never be answered because larger and even more terrifying ones would be asked. She soon would become a strange presence in the wealthy Caskey family and their town. Horrors, virtually unspeakable and nearly indescribable, follow."



2.) Blackwater: II - The Levee

From the back cover

"Elinor Dammert abandoned her first-born child in a bargain with Mary-Love Caskey of Perdido, Alabama, and set in motion a series of strange familial entanglements. Her goals: power, money, her way.

"In her way, she would begin to suck power from the weaknesses of the family she had entered through marriage. Her power would be felt again and again even if it meant murder -- or a horrifying ancient ritual death.

"Elinor Dammer must win."


3.) Blackwater: III - The House

From the back cover

"The Depression came hard to most people in Perdido, Alabama, but the town's first family weathered the storm under the guidance of the indomitable Mary-Love Caskey and the increasing influence of her daughter-in-law, Elinor.

"Strange and malevolent were the ways of Elinor to those who stood in her way. Those she loved would prosper. Those she disliked would die hideously. No court could call it murder because her manner was not human."



4.) Blackwater: IV - The War

From the back cover

"Wartime in Perdido jolted the sleepy little Alabama town as new people entered the community. Outsiders would invade the comfort of the wealthy Caskeys and take their daughters.

"This, though, was part of the master plan of Elinor Caskey, who would see the family flourish amidst the destruction and death she administered in a fashion more awesome than the war itself."



5.) Blackwater: V - The Fortune

From the back cover

"Under Elinor's guidance, the Caskey family prospered after the war, not knowing that a dark infernal force was growing in their midst. And Frances, Elinor's favorite daughter, never understood her yearning for the Perdido River. . . until the day her babies were born.

"Elinor presided over the secret birth, the triumph of her life. And the blood red water of the Perdido continued to claim its own -- both humans and demons -- some in grisly death, some in exquisite surrender."


6.) Blackwater: VI - Rain

From the back cover

"As the Caskey family and their town of Perdido rode the crest of prosperity in the '60s, matriarch Elinor had good reason to be proud of her domain. But slowly, silently, unimaginable horrors were creeping into their midst.

"At the height of revelry, at the peak of chaos, in the fearful silence of blackest night, preternatural horror pounced upon the Caskeys. But still Elinor reigned, until her solemn vow of death came true -- in the final hour."


Review

Solid, character-rich narrative, spanning six decades, about the wealthy Caskey family, and a strange woman (Elinor Dammert) who marries into it. Over the course of six decades, through her quiet, smart and supernatural manipulations, Elinor furthers the family's social and financial positions.

The spookiness and horror, aside from a few gory brutal and brief instances, is more prevalent in the family's circumstances and increased wealth, and in the occasional disappearances of Perdido citizens -- often after the unreported sightings of a startling river monster.

Sublime, genre-mixed, hard-to-put-down original serial novel series, this. The history- and character-punctuated horrors mount well, culminating in a satisfactory story- and mood-consistent denouement that dovetails not-so-nicely (in a horrific way) with the beginning of the story.

Own this.