Fictional locations are utilized by authors as diverse as William Faulkner (Yoknapatawpha) and H. P. Lovecraft (Arkham). Imaginary towns like Castle Rock (Stephen King), Mud Creek (Joe R. Lansdale), Newford (Charles de Lint), Isola (Ed McBain) and Dempsy (Richard Price) — to name only a few — give their creators free reign to develop histories spanning generations. Add to this fictional atlas the Ohio town of Cedar Hill, and in so doing, Gary A. Braunbeck and his impressive latest novel, COFFIN COUNTY.

Braunbeck has written about Cedar Hill long enough to fill two collections of short stories. It’s also been the setting of his last three novels. With COFFIN COUNTY, he steps back to present the town’s unfortunate chronicle. For as the local saying goes, “This is Cedar Hill. Weird shit happens here. Get used to it.”

Weird indeed. And this, we learn, is because the town is one of those places where the finite and infinite are skewed, thus allowing unearthly things to slip through. Like the night of Aug. 14, 1969, in the section of Cedar Hill known as Old Towne East, when Charlie Smed and Eugene Talley witness a parade of ghosts fleeing from the town’s cholera outbreak some 200 years ago.

Returning later to his job as the night security guard at the Franklin Beaumont Casket Factory, Charlie sees an even stranger occurrence in the center of the factory that results in a huge explosion and a fire that destroys most of the area. The explosion scatters coffins throughout Old Towne East, causing a reporter to describe it as “a county made of coffins.” The area, thereafter known as Coffin County, is never rebuilt and becomes the epicenter of the town’s crime and poverty.

But just before the explosion and fire, two shadowy figures emerge who, we learn, are responsible for Cedar Hill’s legacy of tragedy, stretching as far back as the 1805 bloody murder of an entire family of immigrant settlers. This event is followed by a procession of death, murder and disaster that includes the 1969 fire and key events from Braunbeck’s previous novels. It finally bring us to the present day and the bulk of the novel’s narrative.

Det. Ben Littlejohn is awakened from his late-night sleep and learns about a mass shooting at the local all-night diner. As he and his associates and supervisors race to examine the evidence left at the scene, they uncover baffling and seemingly impossible facts about the shooter. Among the more fascinating is that the shooter’s fingerprints contain I.D. traits of several known serial killers and mass murderers. In the meantime, other Cedar Hill residents are randomly indoctrinated to carry on more killings, seeing it as their destiny or true life’s calling.

It eventually becomes apparent that Braunbeck sees Cedar Hill as the location where nothing less than the cosmic purpose of evil, as well the balance between good and evil, are explained. It is also where certain individuals are unwittingly enlisted to carry on this purpose and maintain the balance.

It’s a formidable task, but Braunbeck for the most part pulls it off. This is due generally to his prose style, which seamlessly shifts from heartfelt compassion to unimaginable violence. Then there are his imaginative and nightmarish images, his precision-crafted character depictions and effortless dialogue.

There are moments, however, when the novel strains under its own weighty undertaking. The mixture of influences used to explain the town’s unending terror, which veer from Biblical tenets to chaos theory and back again, is a bit much to comprehend, much less follow.

There is also the awkward incorporating of a local spook legend, known as Hoopsticks, that at first seems central to the narrative, but is ultimately left dangling. And Braunbeck seems uncertain if the communication between those two figures who instigate the horrific events should be carried out through simple dialogue or the more irritating exchanges in lowercase italics at the beginning of certain chapters.

But Braunbeck is to be commended for demonstrating how horror fiction can rise above its splatter-flick stereotype and address such hefty philosophical topics - and still scare the hell out of us. If COFFIN COUNTY is any indication, it won’t be long before he is inducted into the pantheon of giants whose work is enjoyed by many more than die-hard horror fans.

This edition also contains a generous bonus of two Cedar Hill short stories: “I’ll Play the Blues for You” and “Union Dues.” Both effectively demonstrate Braunbeck’s expertise of the form. —Alan Cranis

Buy it at Amazon.

OTHER BOOKGASM REVIEWS OF THIS AUTHOR:
• KEEPERS by Gary A. Braunbeck
• MR. HANDS by Gary A. Braunbeck