鈥淛ackal鈥� by Erin E. Adams (Bantam)
Something sinister lurks in the woods enveloping the fading industrial town of Johnstown, Pennsylvania. If you sense its presence, parents warn their children, 鈥淒on鈥檛 look.鈥� If you do, the myth will become real.
Liz Rocher knows there鈥檚 something to it. When she was a child, one of her friends disappeared, only to be found with her organs removed. When Liz was old enough, she moved away. But now, as Erin E. Adams鈥� novel 鈥淛ackal鈥� opens, Liz reluctantly returns to attend a friend鈥檚 wedding.
Being a Black female in Johnstown 鈥� and in America 鈥� is fraught with peril, Liz knows. As she puts it, 鈥淵our beauty is denied but replicated. Your sexuality is controlled but desired. You take up too much space, but if you are too small, you are ripped apart.鈥�
At the wedding, another Black girl ventures into the woods and vanishes. To Liz, the circumstances are horrifyingly similar to the loss of her childhood friend. Gradually, she discovers that local Black girls have gone missing, one every June, for generations 鈥� police always dismissing the incidents as runaways or animal attacks.
The first half of 鈥淛ackal鈥� unfolds as a criminal investigation, but the novel slowly morphs into a gothic horror story. The monster in the woods is all too real.
The author grew up in Johnstown, one of only three Black children in her school. As she recently put it, 鈥淚鈥檝e lived with this story all my life.鈥� She infuses her tale with the tragic history of the place. In 1889, a dam burst, killing more than 2,200 people, most of them Black and poor whites who lived near the river. Three decades later, about 2,000 people of color fled the area after the mayor ordered them out.
鈥淛ackal鈥� is a terrifying tale of the fears and hatreds generated by racism and class inequality 鈥� and of the monsters these fears and hatreds have created. The novel shares the sensibilities of Jordan Peele鈥檚 film 鈥淕et Out,鈥� but Adams brings to it a depth possible only in books.
Although this is the author鈥檚 first novel, it is an extraordinary achievement. Her prose is exquisite, portraying characters and settings with a painter鈥檚 eye and the lyricism of a poet. For the most part, she tells her propulsive story without preaching, but in the end she allows Liz to nail the point home:
鈥淓veryone in this town鈥攖his country鈥攊s so afraid of the other, whoever the 鈥榦ther鈥� is today. If there鈥檚 one thing fear can do, it鈥檚 make a beast out of a shadow. It turns us all into monsters. The enemy of the shadow isn鈥檛 light. It鈥檚 sight.鈥�
In other words, if someone says 鈥淒on鈥檛 look,鈥� don鈥檛 listen.
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winner of the Mystery Writers of America鈥檚 Edgar Award, is the author of the Mulligan crime novels including 鈥淭he Dread Line.鈥�
Bruce Desilva, The Associated Press
