cold moon over babylon by michael mcdowell

All common enough elements in a story like this, but even in the early going, McDowell’s prose brings the town of Babylon and its inhabitants to life nicely, giving us a sense of why the Larkins have stayed in this town despite the awful fate of their parents, or the influence and power of the Redfield family, or the sense of responsibility that weighs on someone like Ted Hale, our main representative of law and order. And let me tell you, I’m glad I did, because this strange, unsettling piece of Southern Gothic horror isn’t quite like much else that I’ve read – and that’s very much to its credit.Ĭold Moon Over Babylon starts in true Southern Gothic fashion: a small Southern town, a stormy night, and a horrible murder. I’ve had my eye on that saga for a while, but when I saw that one of McDowell’s earlier novels, Cold Moon Over Babylon, was on sale, I jumped at the chance to check out his work. This first-ever reprint features deliciously creepy new cover art by Mike Mignola.I first heard about Michael McDowell’s work through Grady Hendrix’s Paperbacks from Hell, where he raved about McDowell’s serialized novel Blackwater. Ĭold Moon Over Babylon (1980), the second novel by Michael McDowell (1950-1999), author of Blackwater and The Elementals and screenwriter of Beetlejuice and The Nightmare Before Christmas, is a chilling Southern Gothic tale of revenge from beyond the grave that ranks among his most terrifying books. And when the full moon rises over Babylon, it will seek a terrible vengeance. Night after night it will pursue the murderer. And beneath the murky surface of the river, a shifting, almost human shape slowly takes form.

Now they are about to endure another: fourteen-year-old Margaret Larkin will be robbed of her innocence and her life by a killer who is beyond the reach of the law.īut something strange is happening in Babylon: traffic lights flash an eerie blue, a ghostly hand slithers from the drain of a kitchen sink, graves erupt from the local cemetery in an implacable march of terror. Welcome to Babylon, a typical sleepy southern town, where years earlier the Larkin family suffered a terrible tragedy.

Cold moon over babylon by michael mcdowell