Customer Reviews

Coffin County (Leisure Fiction)

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

This being my second time reading Braunbeck I would have expected to be used to his lyrical and poetic style of writing but it still shakes me. His writing is different, more philosophical than your average horror stories; his thinking dissects ideas to the core and reaches deeper levels of emotion while still giving the reader a fantasy like story where the reality blurs with magic.

Cedar Hill, Ohio is the fictional place all his books take place in. A place that has murders, terror and non stop violence mixed in with a heavy duty dose of the supernatural, now call me crazy but I don't know how this place still has any residents. They are sitting ducks waiting to be taken out by their own family members and neighbors in this novel, a new twists that the author ads for a new measure of terror. In Coffin Country mass murders take stage and the killer seems nonchalant about it, informing the police about his actions, playing with their minds and planting a seed of destruction in randomly - or so it seems - people to do his bidding. When a police officer who lost his family to a random act of violence feels the murders are starting to get personal his life reaches levels of hell no one could have imagined possible. The hunt is on to find the killer who finger prints defy logic and sanity. I won't say anymore because the real beauty of any book is finding the juicy bits on your own. But be prepared to be mad and outraged at the ease with which gruesome acts happen, as if it really was another layer of life and part of our existence which we can't escape and are destined to experience.

The only thing that bothered me about the book was the drawn out police procedures, at one point, Stanley - the finger print guru - gets to involved in explaining how tracking of criminals is done that it was throwing my concentration off and forcing my brain to adapt to new terms that were lightly explained yet they spanned some good amount of pages. There was too much technical info on the procedures of different sorts and it slowed me down to the point where it took me longer than usual to get through the book. And the book is short, 270 pages yet it felt extra long.

The best part was the ending, totally crazy and shocking, it made me say "No way!" when I got to it, I can see how it made some readers mad, it was pretty arrogant and selfish of a certain character, almost unbelievable in why he would act in that way with his background but it ended the book with a bang and earned it's 4th star in my review. If you want a creepy story that touches on human madness and it's repercussions of trying to save man kind in the wrong way then this is it, a heavy book with a bite.

- Kasia S.

...and thought the ending was very well done (and yes, I know my religion and history). When you read as many horror novels a year as I do (which is over 50), COFFIN COUNTY stands out like a shining blade among the crowd. Whenever the fantastic comes into play, a suspension of belief is going to be required sooner or later. If anyone feels "insulted" by this ending, perhaps you're forgetting this is FICTION, and a temporary escape from reality (at least its supposed to be).

This is a complex tale spanning about 200 years worth of history in Braunbeck's oft revisited, fictional locale of Cedar Hill, Ohio. The epigraph page invokes the tragic shootings at University of Texas, San Ysidro, Columbine, and Virginia Tech alongside several passages about madness, selflessness and love... This novel is an attempt to understand chaos and the sort of violence committed at those four locales (among others) by introducing similar acts to large town/small city Cedar Hill... While the actual violence is, for the most part, kept off stage, the work does not shy away from the aftermath.

At turns startling, depressing, provocative, stomach churning, thoughtful, and reprehensible, the book communicates its grim meditations in beautiful prose. I find myself conflicted. Part of me absolutely despises the work's cosmological conceit (which I feel runs the dangerous line of trivializing the aforementioned tragedies), and yet the book has done what Kafka tells us books should do. It got my mind turning, even as it horrified me; this horror is not the simplistic "Boo!" or "Ewww, Gross!" or creepy atmosphere, but something far less enjoyable, something that hit me on a deeper level. While it did not quite make me nauseous (as the amoral underpinning of David J. Schow's "Bad Guy Hats" did, when I first read it; BGH is the only piece of fiction that brought me close to actually puking), Coffin County certainly shook me up. There were times I seriously wanted to throw the book against the wall for what it had to say about violence and those who perform it, yet I read through to the end. I doubt I will ever read this one again, and yet I will keep it on my shelf. This book has teeth.

The novel itself is short (270 of the 334 pages). It is followed by two short stories, also set in Cedar Hill...

This book makes me wonder if I am losing my spine for real horror.

I have never read a novel by Gary Braunbeck before, and since the Cedar Hill stories are all presumably interconnected, I thought I might wind up a little confused. I came out of this book in a daze.

I get the sense that this is part of something much, much larger. Maybe that's why a character will enter the story, be the focus of one chapter and then disappear completely and not ever appear again in the book. Unfortunately, two or three of the characters I felt most interested in (Charlie Smeds and Eugene Talley, the boy referred to as Sir Fossil and the convenience store clerk, Arliss) all end up dead. Well, wait a minute. Sir Fossil might still be alive. He points at Arliss through a window and is never heard from again... in this book at least. Charlie and Eugene are there for historical perspective, and we get a glimpse of something terrible that happened years ago. Then we're introduced to one of Charlie's coworkers, who along with his wife narrowly escape the disaster. But then they're dropped from the story as well. Arliss's chapter would have made a great short story. I really felt for the guy. His thread ends with the police pounding up his stairs... but no mention of these incidents are referred to in the rest of the book, although an unseen sniper is referred to later by the (sort of) main characters, but it's clearly not the same guy. And then there are the two information-dump chapters that deal at great length with fingerprints and computer programs relating to fingerprint comparison. One of the characters from this thread ends up killing the other, but I'll be darned if I can figure out why or how they were involved in the dark machinations to begin with.

Sound jumbled? It is. And these aren't even major players. They're more like cameos to add to the body count and move the story line along. The ending seems very abrupt and thrown together as if a deadline were looming. However, if you enjoyed "The Tommyknockers" there's a real good chance you will enjoy this book.

I didn't.

Which I am sorry to admit, because several of Gary Braunbeck's short stories are among the BEST I've ever read. (Find "Man with a Canvas Bag" in Dark Delicacies 3 or "Rami Temporalis" in From the Borderlands to see what I mean.)

The short stories at the end were good. Better than the novel portion of the book but I was so crabby by the time I got to them that I didn't quite embrace them the way I might have if read independently.

I have two more of Gary's books already purchased on the strength of his short fiction. I hope I enjoy them more than this particular title.

The horror genre is rife with writers that make us shiver at things that go "bump" in the night. However, it's a rare treat to find a cerebral writer who crafts tales that are thought-provoking as well as chilling. Gary A. Braunbeck is one such writer, and in "Coffin County", he's at the top of his scary, mind-twisting game.

Detective Ben Littlejohn's life veered off the road when his wife and unborn child were gunned down three years ago. Since then, his world has become a drudgery of work and dreams of a different life. Waking from one such dream, Littlejohn receives a phone call that will change everything forever.

An ancient force has invaded the small town of Cedar Hill; one that's visited before. Cedar Hill's history is stained in blood, marred by periodic outbursts of violence. In a spray of bullets, a serial killer strikes at the small Hopewell Diner, drawing Ben Littlejohn into a centuries old pact that reaches back to the death of Christ. In the midst of unraveling this mysterious bloodbath, he'll be faced with his worst nightmare, couched within his greatest wish: to have his family back again.

"Coffin County" poses the reader with the daunting question: who chooses between those who live and die? How can we reconcile a loving God with the atrocities mankind has inflicted upon itself? In a thoughtfully horrifying tale, Braunbeck not only chills the soul but also taunts the mind with unanswerable questions that are far more gruesome than blood spilled upon the page.

4 AND 1/2 STARS

Whenever the horror genre begins to wane, I dive into a book by Braunbeck and that sinking feeling always goes away. Coffin County, set in the familiar world of Braunbeck's fictional town of Cedar Hill, delves deeper into the mythology he has created, giving us a look at the past, the present, and the future. And all three are pretty damn terrifying, I'll tell you.

While I wasn't as emotionally affected by this book like I was with Braunbeck's MR. HANDS, I was still mesmerized with the story, characters, and the facinating way he pulled what appeared at first to be a rather scattered tale tightly together. There's nothing worse than reading a book and feeling nothing, and with Braubeck, you're guaranteed to have a reaction -- repulsed, meaningful, drained, reflective, powerful, haunted, saddened, disgusted, or angered, you're bound to feel something and get more than your money's worth. Highly recommended.

Cedar Hill, Ohio has seen more than its share of violence over the two centuries since its foundation. In fact the small town was built on the blood of mass murders. Several decades ago, a mob lynched a man. Recently, the casket factory exploded before burning down the surrounding neighborhood.

Violence is the periodic norm. The townsfolk believe the ancient tree contains demons locked away for eternity as long as no one slices a limb. When murder arrives, everyone knows the tree is not containing a demon. When murders begin that puts Cedar Hill on the national news beyond being known as the Coffin County, the police investigate. The Reverend who runs the Cedar Hill Open Shelter will tell you more than you want to know; he is even writing the events down. The police detectives are not as forthcoming with the truth as the clues of the homicides lead back to an abandoned cemetery besides which everyone especially Sheriff Jackson is watching Ben Littlejohn whose wife and son were killed.

With two Cedar Hill short stories on top of the full length novels, fans of small-town horror thrillers will appreciate the aptly named COFFIN COUNTY. The prime tale takes its time as Gary A. Braunbeck establishes the atmosphere with a unique strangely different style, a personalized account by people like the Reverend and Ben reacting to the serial murders that seem impossible to have occurred by a mortal. Fans must peruse deep into the novel before beginning to understand the cause, but most readers will enjoy the slow simmer leading to learning what is going on in Cedar Hill while wondering whether a grieving Ben will only watch from the sidelines.

Harriet Klausner

I started reading Gary Braunbeck's books after I picked up a copy of Keepers, and they just keep getting better and better. This one deals with a mass murder that happens in Coffin County, and it's spooky but also bloodier (in a good way) than his usual novels. I read this book practically in one sitting if that tells you anything. If you like police procedurels as well as horror and dark fantasy you might also enjoy this. The book also contains two bonus stories: the long story "I'll Play the Blues for You" and "Union Dues". You don't have to have read his other Cedar Hill Novels to get what's going on this book, but I think you would enjoy it more because a lot of the same characters pop up in unexpected places and you lose some of the oh-cool factor if you haven't met them before. Oh, the other books in the series are Keepers and Mr. Hands but the very first is In Silent Graves.

I must admit that I am a big fan of Braunbeck. I am in love with In Silent Graves. This book uses many of the same surrealist horror present in Braunbeck's writing, and I suggest it. It is probably not as dark and creepy as In Silent Graves, but I am sure many people will appreciate that.

What a strange book... an interestingly convoluted plot, with clear, character-driven narration that was quite well-written. But it was one of the gorier and graphic books I have ever read - truly horrific in a violent and awful way. The premise was original and though overall, it was quite disturbing, I did enjoy reading it. But it certainly isn't for the faint of heart! The "bonus" short stories at the end were an unexpected surprise, too.