The Hauntings of Hood Canal [Hardcover]

Jack Cady (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 12, 2001

Cady's horror is that of the working man who has put his soul and sweat and hands to build a civilization, only to see the edifice of his creation taken apart by time, by selfishness, and by the warped, dark corners of the men who would bend the work of others to their own ends. The Hauntings of Hood Canal presents a small town in Washington state, a town that has settled into its own equilibrium, only to have that equilibrium upset by the arrival of a man who's a little too fond of small children. A responsible blacksmith rids the town of this infection, but the doing of it creates a moral imbalance, and restoring the balance means facing an evil that has cracked the foundation of civilization itself.

A dark and moody novel of small-town life in Washington disturbed by a mysterious entity that drags cars into Hood canal. A cast of drifters, hustlers, and others on the fringe find their lives drawn into a vortex of anxiety by an investigation into the deaths caused by an ancient creature that takes up residence in the canal they live by.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

The Off Season and Street, Cady's last two novels, were wry fables on life in contemporary America, slyly disguised as dark fantasy fiction. This diffusely plotted novel mines the same vein of magic realism that laced those tales, but it doesn't quite achieve their fusion of quirky characterization, macabre mystery and cultural critique. Set on a branch off Puget Sound, it follows yet another Cadyesque crew of gregarious locals as they come to grips with supernatural phenomena spawned by changes in their social environment. Hood Canal has always been a sleepy backwater until Sugar Bear Smith, a moody blacksmith, dunks the corpse and car of a suspected child molester in the local waterway, rousing a water fury with a suddenly voracious appetite for other vehicles and their drivers. Thereafter, the town is besieged by an assortment of hustlers, con artists and well-heeled entrepreneurs who smell exploitable business prospects in its atmosphere. Cady implies that the ensuing weird incidents are all portents of the decline of civilization and its values, but he never finds a persuasive way to convey this subtly, and finally appoints a bartender to play oracle and spell things out bluntly late in the story. Though the narrative never comes together as more than an assortment of oddball episodes from small-town life, Cady's loquacious voice and skill at spinning tall tales from the dross of his characters' daily lives still provide moments of charm and enchantment. (Oct. 16)as the Harper First Fiction prize.

Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal

A Nebula Award winner and author of 12 previous books, Cady (The Off Season) is known for his lyrical prose and quirky characters, and his first novel since retiring from Pacific Lutheran University will not disappoint his fans. Cady's black comedy enlists an ensemble cast from the hinterlands of the Pacific Northwest who are involved in a murder and its cover-up. While Sugar Bear, the lovable killer, and Annie, his witchcraft-practicing girlfriend, ponder their circumstances, supernatural events along the route of the Hood Canal distract from the murder; cars are being dragged into the canal by a mysterious force. Gossip flies among the locals, but none of the stories can approach the true evil behind the unexplainable occurrences in and around the roiling waters of the canal. This dark but down-to-earth fantasy is recommended for those who would like to take a few steps off the beaten path. For larger horror collections.Nancy McNicol, Hagaman Memorial Lib., East Haven, CT
Copyright 2001 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 304 pages
• Publisher: St. Martin's Press; 1st edition (October 12, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0312280793
• ISBN-13: 978-0312280796
• Product Dimensions: 8.6 x 5.9 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,338,133 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Good Style, Average Plot, March 21, 2005

By 

Ahmed A. Khan (Canada) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Hauntings of Hood Canal (Hardcover)

Jack Cady is a winner of the Nebula and the World Fantasy Awards. His previous works include: The Off Season, Inagehi, etc.

The present book is an urban fantasy set in the hinterlands of the Pacific Northwest. Most of the story takes place in a bar but encompasses world shaking events and heros and villains on the grand scale.

The Hood Canal is a dangerous place to cross in the dark. Accidents are quite common. Cars and trucks are often found drowned in the canal. Suddenly, the frequency of the accidents goes beyond the expected and the police have to intervene. The canal is dragged and the drowned vehicles are salvaged. The inspection of the vehicles makes it clear that the drownings are something more than accident. There is some sinister element involved. Some of the vehicles appear as if they had been crushed under great force and other vehicles appear as if their windshield and windows had been sucked off their body.

These sinister drownings started after Sugar Bear Smith had killed a child molester.
There seems to be a primeval evil force haunting the canal. It seems to thrive on misery and pain. However, there are heroic people around, some of then as primeval as the evil.

The story starts with the drownings, goes to the discovery of murder, then the climax is reached when the forces of good and evil come out in the open.

Characters come and go in the story at quite a brisk pace. There are Petey Mullholland and Bertha. There is Lee.

Cady has a quirky style of writing. There are several important characters in the story that are never named. They are just the fisherman, the tow-truck kid, the bartender, the red head. On the other hand, the dog in the story has a name like Jubal Jim Johnson. Another quirk of Cady is to shift from the past tense to the present in a see-sawish manner. The present tense is used whenever a character is described, giving the story an immediacy. Good stuff, even though at points, the story gets bogged down in style. Stylewise, the book is good. Storywise, it is average.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Jack Cady Meets Stephen King, February 28, 2002

By 

Matt Reynolds (Cleveland, Alabama) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Hauntings of Hood Canal (Hardcover)

This book is wicked because it is suspensful and keeps you jumpy in the dark. The small town setting makes it realistic, yet this town has something more. When Sugar Bear,a blacksmith, ditches the body of a child molester in the canal everything in the small,laidback town breaks loose. The plot of the book follows the canal from bar to bar introducing the reader to many dark, mysterious characters. Any fan of Stephen King Should really love this book.

3.0 out of 5 stars Didn't Come Together, October 6, 2004

By 

flyingmouse (Atlanta, GA USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Hauntings of Hood Canal (Hardcover)

I waited a long time to read this book, so maybe I just built up too much anticipation, but I was quite disappointed. I admit that I expected more of a traditional ghost story, which this is not, but all expectations aside, the story just didn't seem to follow a clear and cohesive path. I felt a sense of vagueness all throughout the book, and never really felt immersed or completely invested in the characters. I also did not feel there was much of a payoff at the end, as the book did build up suspense and a desire to know what was behind all the mystery. My response to this work is lukewarm at best, but I still might check out some of the author's other works. Maybe it's just this book that doesn't speak to me.