Synopsis:
GIVE US THAT OLD-TIME RELIGION. About fifteen miles west of Stauford, Kentucky lies Devil’s Creek. According to local legend, there used to be a church out there, home to the Lord’s Church of Holy Voices—a death cult where Jacob Masters preached the gospel of a nameless god.
And like most legends, there’s truth buried among the roots and bones.
In 1983, the church burned to the ground following a mass suicide. Among the survivors were Jacob’s six children and their grandparents, who banded together to defy their former minister. Dubbed the “Stauford Six,” these children grew up amid scrutiny and ridicule, but their infamy has faded over the last thirty years.
Now their ordeal is all but forgotten, and Jacob Masters is nothing more than a scary story told around campfires.
For Jack Tremly, one of the Six, memories of that fateful night have fueled a successful art career—and a lifetime of nightmares. When his grandmother Imogene dies, Jack returns to Stauford to settle her estate. What he finds waiting for him are secrets Imogene kept in his youth, secrets about his father and the church. Secrets that can no longer stay buried.
The roots of Jacob’s buried god run deep, and within the heart of Devil’s Creek, something is beginning to stir…
Edition:
E-ARC
Disclaimer:
I received an Advance Reader copy of this book from the publisher in exchange for review consideration. They give me no money, nor do they in any way influence my thoughts – those are 100% my own for better or worse. A great big thank you to Ken McKinley at Silver Shamrock! Edit to add: oh, these were the days – the days before I realized all the many, many issues with this publisher and Ken McKinley specifically. Just do some basic internet research into why the shuttered for details (warning: it involves racist shit and a book positing some weird ass neo-nazi/eugenicist shit).
This wonderful book can now be found under Cemetery Dance Publications. A much better organization.
My Thoughts:
I. Love. Cults. I love learning about cults. Watching documentaries about cults. I love movies and books about cults. Do you get it yet? Cults are kind of my jam. I also love body horror and cosmic horror. Devil’s Creek gave me all that and then some. I am not sure I can use my words in a way that will accurately convey how much I enjoyed this book, but this is a review, so I’m gonna try.
Devil’s Creek is a story told in five distinct parts, and spanning a period of 30-ish years (although it does briefly explore a time further in the past, but the main story fits within that period beginning in 1983).
The story begins at Devil’s Creek outside of Stauford Kentucky, where a cult called the Lord’s Church of Holy Voices is serving up some of that “old-time religion” to their followers – a situation which a handful of former members is determined to rectify. See, the Lord’s Church is bad – it’s really, really bad. Their leader, Jacob Masters is a super-nasty so-and-so. There have been anonymous police reports of children being horrifically abused, and now he’s determined to sacrifice his children to his god in order to “bring back the Old Ways.”
“Everyone knew not to go out to Devil’s Creek.”
After all is said and done on that fateful night in ’83, all that remains of the Lord’s Church of Holy Voices is some burned out rubble, a huge pit in the Earth, a ghost village, and a handful of survivors, including Jacob’s six children, dubbed the “Stauford Six” by the local papers.
The story picks up 30 years in the future, when Jack Trembly, one of the Stauford Six, and grandson of the heroic former cult-members returns to Stauford to see to his grandmother Imogene’s estate only to find that his grandmother kept a lot of secrets from him relevant to the cult and his father. And then those secrets begin to rise up out of the shadows and the people of Stauford begin to change.
About the Author:
TODD KEISLING is the author of Devil’s Creek, The Final Reconciliation, and Ugly Little Things: Collected Horrors, among other shorter works. He lives somewhere in the wilds of Pennsylvania with his family where he is at work on his next novel.
Rating:
This was such an insanely cool book. There was a lot going on, but everything was very well put together, and the main protagonists (which I feel are Jack and Imogene) were incredibly likeable. Especially Imogene – I found that I just fucking loved that lady.
You can find Todd on Twitter at: @todd_keisling
Devil's Creek Todd Keisling Silver Shamrock Publishing ISBN: 9781951043032 Expected Publication: June 16, 2020 405 Pages Author's Website
I need to snag a copy of this one!!