Mike Mignola’s HELLBOY is one of the great comic book/graphic novel creations of the past two decades. Christopher Golden has written several exceptionally fine novels in the HELLBOY world and he’s now joined by Tom Piccirilli, whose HELLBOY: EMERALD HELL is a delightfully dark take on the mystical and mythical South of Manly Wade Wellman and Robert E. Howard.
Here’s what the publisher has to say: “Hellboy comes to the crossroads in Enigma, Georgia, a small town beset by strange occurrences. Sent to keep an eye on Sarah Nail, a young girl hiding from the curse of her family, Hellboy becomes entangled in the blood debt of evil mystical preacher, Brother Jester. Stuck between human malice and the mysteries of the occult, Hellboy comes up against an intrigue of ghosts, demon trees, talking bullfrogs, and a race of lost mutant children.”
Here’s what the publisher doesn’t say: Piccirilli is becoming one of the most compelling stylists in current fiction. He possesses the gifts of a true poet as you’ll discover simply by opening the book at random. He couples this with his ability to show us people we’ve never met before. They’re Piccirilli people, exclusively so. And to take us places we can never quite escape. They stay with us long after we close the book.
This book is rich with a variety of pleasures. –Ed Gorman
OTHER BOOKGASM REVIEWS OF THIS AUTHOR:
• THE FEVER KILL by Tom Piccirilli
• FIVE STROKES TO MIDNIGHT by Tom Piccirilli, Gary A. Braunbeck, Deborah LeBlanc, Hank Schwaeble and Christopher Golden
• FOUR DARK NIGHTS by Bentley Little, Douglas Clegg, Christopher Golden and Tom Piccirilli
• THE MIDNIGHT ROAD by Tom Piccirilli
OTHER BOOKGASM REVIEWS OF HELLBOY:
• B.P.R.D.: KILLING GROUND by Mike Mignola, John Arcudi and Guy Davis
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Yeah, the novel was a good read but priced at $12.95 for a little over 200 pages I felt ripped off. Even more so when it’s marketed in the graphic novel sections of all the major retailers yet contains no illustrations whatsoever. I would have much preferred it to be a mass market paperback like the previous Hellboy novels. Sometimes you just don’t get what you pay for.