Saul's Old Black Magick Will Hold You in Its Spell

I don't normally read horror fiction, but I always make an exception for John Saul's novels. He has a rare talent for decanting the old stereotypic conventions of the genre into engrossingly new American Gothic bottles that always somehow manage to transcend the melodramatics and cliched limitations of his chosen subject area. His latest highly-complex, beautifully-crafted chiller kept me glued to my chair until its gory lightening-and-thunderbolt-from-the-blue denouement shocked me back shuddering into the relative sanity of the real world.

Coupled with an offer of employment for her ne'er-do-well, drunken husband Marty, devoutly-religious Myra Sullivan sees her wealthy, realtor sister Joni Fletcher's encouragement to buy a badly run-down, old house in Roundtree, an historic New England community, as a sign from heaven offering a fresh start for her troubled family. Unfortunately, the Sullivan's bright daughter Angel's hopes that a new school in a new environment will transform her life are soon dashed. Once again, she's a total misfit within her peer group: her only friends, her classmate and fellow pariah, Seth Baker, and a mysterious, Cheshire-like cat that apparently comes with her new home whom she names Houdini. Fighting a losing battle against terror and harassment on all sides, what happens to Angel and Seth after John Saul juxtaposes the influence of the Sullivan house with its tragedy-haunted past upon its desperately, dysfunctional modern inhabitants is magical storytelling at its suspenseful best. I should actually say 'MagicK' because...once Houdini leads them to a witch's grimmoire hidden away for more than three hundred years in the Sullivan's basement and then to a safe hideaway where they can practice its teachings...that's what his desperate young protagonists eventually turn to as their only defense against a world where neither their parents nor their peers offer them any welcome, acceptance or personal security. The horrific results of their steadily increasing involvement with Old Magick are literally and completely spellbinding.

There are so many strengths to "Black Creek Crossing". Most horror novels require tremendous leaps of the imagination in order to accept their premises. Here, the utterly realistic characterizations...the beautifully-detailed backstory...and the utter 'logic' of the youngsters' actions given the pressures of their situation all combine to create a moving and thoroughly compelling reading experience.

THIS WAS SO GOOD!!!

I don't normally give 5 stars. But this one deserves it. It was a wonderful mixture of horror and drama. Saul has the ability to scare the daylights out of me - in broad daylight!!!

Enough people have given a synopsis of this book, so I will skip that, BUT I will say that YOU MUST READ THIS!!!!

I have been reading this author for a long time. However, at some point (right after the Guardian) I felt he had lost his touch. However, the Manhattan Hunt Club (ALSO EXCELLENT AND A MUST READ) made me re-discover him all over again.

Once again, I HIGHLY RECOMMEND you buy, rent, borrow or beg Black Creek Crossing.

Black Creek Crossing or Story Line Missing?

There seems to be a trend among successful page turner authors to short change their readers once they have made it. This is a terrific example. I began reading this book, and became engrossed early on. Unfortunately, Saul gets us interested in the story without doing much to develop the characters or make us care much about them. There are numerous loose ends in the book, and the story ends without much resolution. It's almost as if the author did a page count and decided it was time to end the story, whether it made sense or not. Why were the kid's parents the way they were? What happened to the other two bullies? Why did the two main character kids do what they did? What's the deal with the roundtree in the cemetary? This book reads more like a draft than a finished product. My condolences to the author, to the readers who pay good money for the book, and shame on the editor for allowing a half-done book to be published under the guise of a finished product.