If you look at the cover of Nightcrawlers by Tim Curran, see the oddly manicured female hands and the kitchy font of the title, you might be forgiven for expecting the literary equivalent of the type of movie shown by the Horror Channel at 3am: exploitative, all gore and no characterisation. Well, I hate to disappoint you but this book is far, far better than the cover suggests.
More than 200 years ago something came to Clavitt Fields from the skies. Some years later the village was burned to the ground to rid the world of the evil that seemed to have infected the village’s inhabitants. But when bodies with evidence of human bite marks on them start to turn up and two local cops disappear, people quickly realise that the evil in Clavitt Fields is still alive. And hungry.
The author takes us on a gut churning journey through the underground world, ramping up the tension nicely, making us care for the men involved in the hunt for their colleagues. In the best Scooby Doo tradition, the men split up and we are flung from crisis to crisis as we spend time with them in turn.
Without giving any spoilers, the motivation for the “thing”*** is new to the genre for me and I found that a refreshing change. I genuinely liked the main characters, especially 94 year old Elena for whom I felt a lot of sympathy and respect.
All in all, if horror is your game you could do a lot worse than choose this enjoyable book. Recommended.
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