By Michael McDowell
1981 Avon
Paperback, 292 pages
McDowell strikes again with
another fascinating, impeccably written gem of a horror book. While perhaps not
on the level of the previous year’s Cold Moon Over Babylon (but then,
what is?) this is a brilliant slice of Southern Gothic with quirky characters,
unnerving tension and a sandy, haunted house.
The Savages and the McCrays are
two rich white families, joined by marriage, in southern Alabama who share a
vacation property called Beldame out on a sandspit on the Gulf of Mexico. Yes,
the Gulf of MEXICO. Each family has their own Victorian summer house there and
a third house stands unoccupied, being consumed by a sand dune. After the
Savage matriarch dies, the families take a June holiday to the property. Luker McCray
and his daughter India come down from New York, joining his mother Big Barbara and
his sister Leigh, who is married to Dauphin, the deceased woman’s son. Everyone
has been to Beldame many times over the years except India; this is her first
time. Also on hand is Odessa, the longtime housekeeper for the families.
India gets very interested in
the third house and finds that members of both families have a fear of it. This
makes her even more obsessed and when she starts seeing things like doors
closing and apparitions crawling through the sand, she is determined to learn
more despite her own fear. Her photos show things that weren’t there when she
took them. She finds out more from Odessa and between the two of them, they try
to stop the Elementals, the force that is trying to take them over from the
third house.
McDowell’s characterization and
dialogue is pure perfection, with a cast of mostly selfish, yet somehow likeable
people. Everyone calls their parents by their first names, Luker and 13 year
old India skinny-dip together, and Big Barbara finds everything easier to deal
with being inebriated. Not your typical family gathering, but they are all
fairly tight and when the supernatural starts acting up, their plight is all
the more terrifying because of that. Odessa is easily the most grounded
character. Sadly, McDowell points out countless times that she is “black”, like
we wouldn’t remember that from the other dozens of times it was mentioned. That
does fit the rich white folk narrative, however.
The book is a slow burn, meeting
and getting to know the families and their history along with the history of Beldame
and that third house. When the horrors start taking over, it is pure McDowell
mastery, with flowing sand and banging doors and many things going bump in the
night. Despite a few things that might not have aged well, it’s impossible not
to recommend this book. Nobody wrote horror better than McDowell.