Shadoweyes By Kathryn Ptacek

Shadoweyes
By Kathryn Ptacek
1984 Tor
Paperback, 314 pages

                Gila! is one of my all-time favorite books so when I found out that the book’s author Les Simons was actually Kathryn Ptacek, I decided to keep an eye out for more of her work. This is the first one that I encountered and I picked it up. While not as satisfying for me as Gila!, there is much to enjoy in this one despite a few drawbacks.

 

                Chato Del-Klinne is an Apache who gave up shaman tribal studies as a teen, gave up being a college teacher as an adult and has returned to Albuquerque, New Mexico to find himself. While killing time before an interview, he stumbles on a grisly murder scene in the mountains, people have been massacred and mutilated. He sees a shadowy presence in the bushes. Other mutilations have taken place as well. Chato also gets attacked by ball lightning while searching the hills. The only person who will believe his story about the shadowy evil is reporter Laura Rainey.

 

                Meanwhile, the city preps for a Hot Air Balloon festival where the Mayor will hand over a (stolen) Native American fetish statue to the Senator to give to the Smithsonian. Both men and the local monsignor have used the fetish to gain power. What could possibly go wrong at such a huge gathering of important people and local New Mexicans ready to have a good time? Let me introduce you to the Shadoweyes… glowing golden eyes, sharp teeth and talons in a nondescript, shadowy body with a thirst for bloody revenge. I must confess that I pictured them as a kind of McDonald’s Fry Guy Goblin, but with more teeth and vengeance. Your take might be a bit more horrific; descriptions remain… shadowy.

 

                Chato was a character in my beloved Gila! and he would also return in 1990’s Ghost Dance. They say men have trouble writing female characters but Ptacek has no problem writing men. Chato forms a relationship with Laura, they have sex, he decides she’s really not his type, he rescues a woman (from the monastery) who survived a Shadoweyes attack, fucks her in Laura’s apartment with Laura in the next room (after she survives a harrowing Shadoweyes attack) and shows no guilt. This is our hero. But putting his thinking-with-the-wrong-head aside, he is a capable protagonist who must recall his younger  days, his spiritual teachings to try to defeat the monsters. To be fair, most of the characters are quite flawed, but that is not a problem in a horror novel.

                Naturally, the Hot Air Balloon picnic is the highlight, when a balloon returns to the ground filled with Shadoweyes. Between the creatures and a massive fire as one balloon burns, there is a great deal of action. Sadly, things slow down towards the ending but it’s all worth it for an explosive climax. This was Ptacek’s first novel published under her own name and she later changed over to Kathryn Grant, adopting her husband’s (the late “quiet” horror author Charles L. Grant) surname. Recommended reading.