PUBLISHERS WEEKLY -- Writer Bunn (<i>The Sixth
Gun</i>) milks the “hick horror” genre for all its worth in this
tale set in Spider Creek, Mo., where the locals mostly keep to themselves and
adhere to arcane ways scoffed at by more “citified” types, while the
forces of darkness run rampant with dire results. Good ol' boy protagonist R.F.
Coven and his friends must contend with the uncontrolled horrors unleashed by
the Whatleys, who are in a long-running feud with another family, the Stubbs.
The Whatleys are spoken of only in whispers, and the rumors of their allegiance
with less-than-holy entities prove true when they unleash a hideous plague of
vampires to take out their enemies once and for all, unwittingly dooming the
entire town. Rendered in a cartoonish style by Moss and Filardi that offers the
perfect visual counterpoint to the story's horrific set pieces, this is a
welcome alternative in a market glutted with zombies.<br /><br /><br />