“The River of Souls”
Author: Robert McCammon
Publisher: Subterranean Press
Burton, MI
2014
Pages: 257
Price: $24.95 (Hardcover)
Here in Alabama we have had several authors with huge best sellers—Rick Bragg with “All Over But the Shoutin’,” Homer Hickam with “Rocket Boys” and Winston Groom with “Forrest Gump,” but after Harper Lee, Robert McCammon may be the Alabama writer who has sold the most books.
McCammon graduated from UA in ’74 in journalism , worked at a copy desk, then in 1978 published “Baal,” a horror/thriller. “Baal” was followed by 10 more in this genre, with a wide assortment of monsters: vampires (one named Count Vulkan), ax-wielding Amazons, voodoo priests, psychics, zombies, and the criminally insane.
Among these ten was “Swan Song,” 1987. A post-apocalyptic novel like Cormac McCarthy’s “The Road,” “Swan Song” convinces me once again that, after the nuclear holocaust, you don’t want to be there. Although a staggering 856 pages, “Swan Song” sold a million copies and tied with Steven King’s “Misery” for the Bram Stoker Award for best horror novel. McCammon’s novel “Mine” won the award in 1991.
McCammon’s career has undergone two significant shifts over the years, the first, a pivot away from pure horror.
"Boy’s Life," 1991, is set in a town like Elba, Alabama (it floods) in 1964 and is the coming of age story of a 12-year-old boy, Cory Mackenson. The son of a milkman, Cory plays little league ball, and wants to be a writer.
“Boy’s Life” is full of mysteries, fantasies and magic with cinematic and literary allusions to Ray Bradbury, Vincent Price, Bela Lugosi and many others. There is a real enough murder, but there is also a triceratops, and the boys, once a year, on the day school lets out, grow wings and fly. The KKK appears, along with nasty bullies and rural gangsters, but the book is not a gore-fest; “Boy’s Life” was required reading in many schools and has also sold a million copies.
In 2002, McCammon pivoted yet again.
“Speaks the Nightbird” is set in fictional Fount Royal, outside Charleston, South Carolina, in 1699. This little, struggling town, set in a steamy swamp, seems bewitched, with murders, arsons and other evils. In fact, the very attractive Rachel has been jailed as a witch, and a magistrate is to sentence her to death. The magistrate’s young assistant, Matthew Corbett, admittedly somewhat smitten, sets out to prove the evils are manmade.
"Nightbird" is thoroughly researched: clothing, food, household furnishings, even dialect, seem punctiliously accurate. It’s a blend of historical novel, events that seem supernatural, and murder mystery.
McCammon was hooked by his own creation.
Calling himself a “problem solver,” Matthew Corbett moves to New York City and becomes, in 1700, a private detective. Corbett will solve “problems” in New York, chase a truly terrifying villain, a serial killer, Tyranthus Slaughter, through the woods of Pennsylvania and return to Charleston in 1703 in “River of Souls,” the fifth in the series.
Here Matthew believes his job is simply to escort the beautiful and thoroughly spoiled Pandora Priskett to a ball, but later finds himself on a rice plantation where a young woman, Sarah Kincannon, has been murdered. A slave, Abram, is accused and flees, with two others. Matthew suspects a cruel white overseer of murdering Sarah. Matthew and his colossal companion, Magnus Muldoon, who is a glassblower, of all things, chase upriver after the runaways to catch them before they are lynched, and clear their names.
The swamps have more dangers then just quicksand, poisonous snakes and alligators, although in this book all these beasts are crazily aggressive. There is an Indian village comprised entirely of psychotic Indians, psychopaths who have been expelled by their various tribes and have created a manic, sadistic, hyper-violent society. You don’t want to be caught by them as they have invented a kind of field hockey using human heads.
Matthew, like most series detectives, is grievously wounded, but of course survives.
“River of Souls” is only 257 pages and McCammon says readers have complained: they want his books long. The sixth Matthew Corbett, “Freedom of the Mask,” set in London, is just now being released. It is a satisfying 528.
Don Noble is host of the Alabama Public Television literary interview show “Bookmark with Don Noble.” A shorter form of this review was originally broadcast on Alabama Public Radio.