From Publishers Weekly
Jean-Luc Godard meets Joe R. Lansdale somewhere near Upshur County, Tex., in this dark and disturbing novel, Searcy's second after Ordinary Horror (2001). Strange things are happening in a small East Texas town. "Scarecrows" stuffed with the decaying remains of small animals appear hanging in trees. The sheriff catches a 300-pound catfish. A little girl disappears. Those inclined to the miraculous find portents of the Rapture in it all. The end of the world, they say, need not be a single cataclysmic event; the world can end a little at a time. Luther Hazlitt, a self-sufficient type who lives in an abandoned camper in a cow pasture and scrounges a living taking care of cattle, doesn't believe in a piecemeal Apocalypse. He's not sure what's going on, but he knows there's no "Holy Spirit" involved. As the damage mounts, Luther builds a series of traps to define and capture whatever is causing the problems. He's assisted by Yurang, his big red chow dog, and no-nonsense Agnes Peeler, whose yard is a raked Zen garden. Eventually, Deputy Willis Beagle joins Luther and Agnes to ensnare what neither characters nor readers know much about other than "it ain't a simple thing." This novel ain't that simple either. As in Ordinary Horror, Searcy employs present-tense, poetic (and occasionally convoluted) prose and intentional ambiguity to build his weird atmosphere, but this time he provides sympathetic three-dimensional characters for it to swirl around. Fans of high-end horror are in for a treat.
Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc.
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
From Library Journal
Similarities between Searcy's new offering and his first novel, Ordinary Horror, are not difficult to find. Both books feature male protagonists who have been ostracized by local society and who become aware of an unseen and unnamable menace threatening that society. Each man takes it upon himself to find a way to combat the unknown enemy. In Last Things, the enemy is erecting gruesome scarecrows consisting of severed body parts. As these monstrosities appear in the fields surrounding the ramshackle trailer Luther Hazlitt calls home, Luther's meager stock of poultry diminishes. Unaware of the magnitude of his undertaking, Luther devises a series of traps for the culprit. In this work, Searcy has begun to show a greater sense of the story as a whole and of his characters' place within it. However, its slow pacing works against both plot and character development. For larger horror collections.
Nancy McNicol, Whitneyville Lib., Hamden, CT Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc.
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
