I just finished Tom Piccirilli's November Mourns the other day and my head is still filled with images of snakes, briars, deformed children, and witchy women.

The book is so loaded with atmosphere I fairly thought I caught a whiff of dusty backroads and moonshine at some points.

Shad Jenkins, imprisoned for defending his sister's honor, is visited by her ghost days before he's to be released.

Meag Jenkins was found on a road under the black hills, a place where yellow fever victims were once taken to die and where wraiths may still lurk to gnaw on the living. No cause of death could be determined. She looked like she simply went to sleep on a road that even the few non-superstitious residents of The Hollow know to avoid. The most curious aspect of the scene was the smile on her face.

The Hollow is poisoned throughout by bad moonshine. The result is deformed babies and adults whose brains simply short out. The Hollow is also cursed with superstitions making Shad's mission to discover what happened to his sister doubly difficult. On the one hand, he has to talk to witnesses who drink alchohol cooked in old radiators and on the other, people who fear the area his sister was found in and see signs and portents surrounding Shad, making the two general types to be found in The Hollow pretty unreliable to him.

To complicate matters further is the notion that Shad, possibly psychic and plauged by dreams where his dead mother and sometimes the devil together deliver prophecies that either don't come true or do and he just isn't bright enough to see it, may have a destiny tied to the hills where his sister was found; a destiny that, if understood, could help him discover the secrets of his sister's death.

As it is, Shad can scarcely do the leg work of the amateur detective he's forced to become let alone understand what plans the entity he feels thinking about him from the black hills may have for him.

The book's flaw, for me, was Shad's search for the truth. He has to play detective and thankfully for the sake of realism, doesn't do a very good job of it. Shad is frequently made to confront the fact that he doesn't know how to go about conducting an investigation, which is definitely a plus because it made me think of how I would probably botch things in his situation, thus making me sympathise all the more with Shad.

The problem is that Shad pretty much stumbles into one situation and falls into the next. He doesn't seem to have much of an impact on the story's events and seems more like a spectator than someone on a mission. He bears witness to strange happenings and listens to strange people's stories, but does little to influence things. He doesn't even really contribute to the story's climax. He's just there.

I took one of the themes of the book to be how a place can make your fate for you and trap you in it and this makes Shad's ineffectiveness in the face of things far greater than himself somewhat in keeping with that line of thinking.

But on the whole I thought it robbed the tension from the story and made it a little less involving. What kept me turning the pages was watching the freak show that is The Hollow roll by and immersing myself in Mr. Piccirilli's wonderful prose. One of my loves, reading wise, is having horribles delivered to me in beautiful prose and Tom Piccirilli has never let me down in this.

The greatest accomplishment in November Mourns is the atmosphere. The Hollow is really another world which strangely makes the supernatural goings-on that much more believable.

In a place the residents seem incapable of escaping in life, it's hard not to imagine that it might be overrun with their ghosts as well.

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Well, there have been a couple of flipper babies...yeah.

I was just used book shopping on amazon last night and grabbed A Lower Deep instead of November Mourns. Tom Piccirilli is one author I had kept forgetting to get into and after reading your review on November Mourns, I just might have to grab that one too.

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"There's no law, no law anymore - I wanna steal from the rich and give to the poor."
~The Ramones~

FLOG YOURSELF, HEATHEN!!!!

I would let myself be flogged if you could get Halle Berry to do the flogging. She was crazy-sexy when she swung that whip in Catwoman.

I was going to make my next Piccirilli book A Choir of Ill Children after I read A Lower Deep, but I'll grab a copy of November Mourns before I get attacked on here.

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"There's no law, no law anymore - I wanna steal from the rich and give to the poor."
~The Ramones~

Sorry. I don't loan Halle Berry out. She's MINE!!!!

I have to smile John, what you describe as a flaw was one of the very things I enjoyed about the novel. Shad was shackled to a seat in a carnaval ride and we got to expirence his terror along with him. It doesn't matter if Shad was as astute as Sam Spade or as unlucky as Phillip Marlowe, the character was written true to itself and was totally believable to me.

And for me, Atmosphere was the main character in November Mourns, not Shad. But as you mentioned, Pic's writing is so wonderful, so stunning, so descriptive, he could have approached Shad's character several different ways and we would still be mesmerized by the story simply because of Tom's excellent way with prose.

Thanks for giving it a shot John, I have a feeling that the other novel I suggested, Clive Barkers, will be much more to your liking.

Tt

I've noticed that in stories where the setting tends to be the focus of the story the main character becomes "everyman" and is reduced to a looking glass for the reader. Neil Gaiman's American Gods was like that and it wrecked what should have been a wonderful story for me.

Thankfully Tom Piccirilli avoided that trap and I found Shad Jenkins to be likeable and interesting. Still, I wish he had had a more involved role in things.

But in case my review didn't make it clear, I did find much to enjoy about the book.

And I am looking forward to the Barker book. I've been flipping through it randomely already which is a terrible habit because I might spoil a surprise, but I just can't help myself.

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Well, there have been a couple of flipper babies...yeah.

Boy, I've never done that...skip through a book randomly and look at the pages. If I like the book I think it would spoil it for me knowing that something is coming up that I already know.

Tt

I never do that either. My reading habits are a little weird though:

I never dog ear pages. I always use a bookmark.
I always read the blurb on the back cover first.
I always read forwards, intros, dedications, acknowledgments and afterwords.
I always read the reviews at the beginning of the book.
I never look at any ads that may be at the back of the book.

Basically, if I don't read every page, I feel like I cheated the author some how. I know... I'm really weird.

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Reading:

The Spartacus War - Barry Strauss
Slow Death - Jim Fielder
The Decline And Fall Of The Roman Empire - Edward Gibbon

Thanks for the comments, responses, and interest, folks. Much appreciated.

By the way, you can always feel free to stop over and post on my quie board:

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Tom Piccirilli is the author of over 20 novels including SHADOW SEASON, THE COLD SPOT, and A CHOIR OF ILL CHILDREN. www.thecoldspot.blogspot.com

great book, read it when it first came out.

The same thing that happened when I read Gary Braunbeck's masterpiece In Silent Graves has happened with November Mourns: I find Tom Piccirilli to be a master storyteller and I'm only half way through it.

November Mourns oozes with darkness and brilliant storytelling power that made me read pages more than once before turning them.

But this time I was prepared! Last time I read In Silent Graves and then had to rush and buy the rest of Gary's novels. I anticipated Piccirilli being a killer author and already have A Lower Deep, A Choir of Ill Children and Headstone City waiting in my to be read pile.

I'll make sure to post a final review when I'm done. November Mourns deserves it.

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"There's no law, no law anymore - I wanna steal from the rich and give to the poor."
~The Ramones~

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Tom Piccirilli is the author of over 20 novels including SHADOW SEASON, THE COLD SPOT, and A CHOIR OF ILL CHILDREN. www.thecoldspot.blogspot.com

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"There's no law, no law anymore - I wanna steal from the rich and give to the poor."
~The Ramones~

Well, TT, I loved the book beyond description, but I don't know if I'm ready to kill myself over it ... geez ... such a serious guy you are.

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"There's no law, no law anymore - I wanna steal from the rich and give to the poor."
~The Ramones~

Good point. You still have to read Galillee by Clive Barker.

What the heck was I thinking?

Tt

TT, I read Galilee back when it came out. I must have pushed that book on just about every person I came in contact with. The mailman could have been at my door and I was like, "Have you read Barker's new masterpiece yet?"

I just started reading A Choir of Ill Children and it's gut-wrenching. I don't think there's any other author out there that writes like Piccirilli. It's like he takes surrealism and molds it in to a strange kind of dark fiction that hasn't been explored yet. His sentences tap in to parts of your brain that were sleeping until you read his words.

Between discovering Braunbeck and Piccirilli back to back, the part of my mind that loves great writing is feeling like it's been invaded by a revolution of ultimate satisfaction.

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"There's no law, no law anymore - I wanna steal from the rich and give to the poor."
~The Ramones~

I forgot to mention that I think the name Drabs Bibbler has got to be the coolest name I've ever read in any book, ever.

When I write, I always have trouble with names for some reason; never happy with the ones I come up with. When I read the name Drabs Bibbler, I freaked out.

Drabs Bibbler:

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"There's no law, no law anymore - I wanna steal from the rich and give to the poor."
~The Ramones~

You got me laughing again...I agree with you on the name.

Since you're already on to Pic's other books, the only other thing to live for since you've already read Galilliee is Prodigal Blues. That one might make you want to off yourself its so intense. Prodigal Blues is without a doubt the most horrifying novel I have ever read. Notice I said it wasn't the most enjoyable novel I ever read.

My top 10 as of this moment:

November Mourns
Galillee
Prodigal Blues
House
Hard Roads
Quake
Haunted Forrest
Repairman Jack Series (its all one song)
The Stand
The Road To Hell

These can change order or come in and out of the list depending on what other books I remember reading at the time.

Tt

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"There's no law, no law anymore - I wanna steal from the rich and give to the poor."
~The Ramones~

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Reading:

The Spartacus War - Barry Strauss
Slow Death - Jim Fielder
The Decline And Fall Of The Roman Empire - Edward Gibbon

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"There's no law, no law anymore - I wanna steal from the rich and give to the poor."
~The Ramones~

Thanks so much for the in-depth and humblingly positive review, HD. Glad you dug November Mourns so much, and I hope you feel the same about the other books when you get a chance to peruse them a bit.

"Drabs Bibbler" is just a slightly altered version of my step-daughter's first boyfriend's name. When she introduced me to the kid years ago, I knew I'd have to use his name someday.

Terrific seeing my pal Gerard Houarner's Road to Hell on your list of Favorites, Tony. He doesn't get mentioned nearly enough!

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Tom Piccirilli is the author of over 20 novels including SHADOW SEASON, THE COLD SPOT, and A CHOIR OF ILL CHILDREN. www.thecoldspot.blogspot.com

I guess I should've put the whole series up there rather than just the last book in Houarner's Max series. If you do decided to read 'The Road To Hell' Horrordude, start out with 'The Beast That Was Max' first, that is the inintial installment in the three book series. You can pick it up and its first sequel for $.01 each on Amazon. The Road To Hell will cost you about $25.00 but if you average all three books in, its pretty cheap.

The first and third book in the Max series are classics, both of them mind blowing. Pretty close to Barkers work if you want a comparison and I would say its somewhat related atmospheric wise when compared to early Pic.

Tt

You might also want to track down a copy of Gerard's early small press collection PAINFREAK, which contains the first couple of Max & Beast short stories.

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Tom Piccirilli is the author of over 20 novels including SHADOW SEASON, THE COLD SPOT, and A CHOIR OF ILL CHILDREN. www.thecoldspot.blogspot.com

I know Painfreak is the name of the club in The Road To Hell, is the short story about the club?

Tt

Horrordude. I have paperback copies of The Beast That Was Max and The Road To Hell. Let me know if you're interested. I'll be happy to send them along to you.

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Reading:

The Spartacus War - Barry Strauss
Slow Death - Jim Fielder
The Decline And Fall Of The Roman Empire - Edward Gibbon