Hexes

Hexes takes place in the town of Summerfell. Only in a horror or a romance novel would you run across a town named Summerfell. This one takes place in horror Summerfell.

Piccirilli does not locate Summerfell, but it appears to be on the east coast. This is the geography he offers: a Potters Field, the mental hospital named Panecraft, a roadside diner namer Krunch Burger, a boarding house (since Summerfell is too small to support a decent hotel or motel), various municipal buildings, a mansion straight out of a Roger Corman Edgar Allen Poe adaption, and a lighthouse. And what is under the lighthouse, which is something very bad.

Matthew Galen, who for some reason, all is life, has allowed his friends to call him Mattie, returns to Summerfell after a five year absence. During those five years he has become a successful playwright, a meteoric success that may have to do with magical abilities, abilities he learned from grimoires and books of ancient magic he picked up in local used bookstores. Who knew those things really worked? He can even speak Enochian. This was all in high school that he and his friend A.G. practiced their magic and got possibly a little to good at it. Mattie must constantly cast hexes to protect himself and those around him from demonic attacks. A.G. is currently in the Panecraft ward for the criminally insane. He has been accused of a rash of disappearances among the young women of Summerfell, desecrating infant graves for their bones, and putting the paper boy into a catatonic coma. A G. might also be the creep setting the local cats on fire.

If none of this is making much sense, and you cannot pull together any idea of what the novel might actually be about, then welcome to the world of Tom Piccirilli. This is the second Piccirilli novel I have read, and I have to say he makes it work. There is the basic mystery plot. There are old friends and old enemies meeting up like at a high school reunion in some outer circle of hell. There are demon attacks. There are frequent flashbacks to Mattie and three high school friends making an ill-advised trip to the caves beneath the lighthouse. Disembowelment, memories of hot teenage sex, a dog so ugly he's cute,, and many other things I am leaving out. Piccirilli offers few explanations, especially when it comes to the timeline of past events. He gives the reader credit for being able to keep up, and I have to confess that in the case of this particular reader at times that faith was misplaced.

There is a grand guignol finale at that mansion mentioned earlier. (I've got to say something else about the names in this book. The richest man in town, the party giver, is named Bosco Bob. His son is Jello Joe and his overweight daughter is Jelly Jane. No one finds any of this odd. Or perhaps those who found not only the namimg habits but the frequent suicides and slides into insanity that marked Summerfell have all relocated to the nearby berg of Gallows.) Heavy drinking and drugs makes this literally Bosco Bob's party to end all parties. Demonic possessions wreak havoc with the festivities. I think my favorite detail is the image of the man raping a girl whose lower lip has been nailed to the bannister of the central staircase. (Thanks for that one. Tom.) There is also a reality check in the final chapter that strikes me as entirely believable. Nearly everyone who survived that night stayed in town despite the horror.

A wild and literate ride. I almost said a "surprisingly literate" ride, revealing the snob's attitude towards horror novels. But I have several more Piccirilli's in the "to read" pile. I might start one tonight.