Horror novel, written by Stephen Graham Jones and published by Gallery/Saga Press in 2023. It is the second book in the Indian Lake trilogy, following "My Heart Is a Chainsaw," which was published in 2021, with "The Angel of Indian Lake" following in 2024.
Four years after the bloody Independence Day Massacre that killed and wounded so many, Jade Daniels is out of prison after her murder conviction is overturned. And Proofrock, Idaho is mostly the same. There have been changes, of course. Sheriff Hardy isn't sheriff anymore, as his injuries sustained in the massacre mean he's not able to be a cop anymore. Letha Mondragon is married to Banner Tompkins, Proofrock's new probationary deputy, and raising Adrienne, her infant daughter, all while recovering from her own injuries. There's a new history teacher, Mr. Armitage, and he seems more interested in trying to use Proofrock's slasher legacy as his ticket to stardom and riches.
Jade has gone through her own changes -- not surprising after four years in the big house. She's grown her hair out, she's telling everyone she goes by Jennifer now, and she hasn't been able to watch a horror movie in years. In fact, Letha and a few students at the high school have now seen more slasher movies than Jade has.
And then there's Dark Mill South. South is a Native American serial killer, supposedly devoted to killing a white person for every one of the 38 Dakota warriors hanged in Minnesota in 1862 in the largest mass execution in U.S. history. He's also got a remarkable talent for reenacting kills from popular slasher movies. After a seven-year rampage across the West, South is captured, losing a hand in the process. (And some absolute moron who doesn't understand how dire such a move could be actually replaced South's lost hand with a hook.) But in the process of transporting South for trial, the caravan moving him gets caught in a catastrophic blizzard and avalanche, killing almost every police officer in the caravan and releasing Dark Mill South mere miles from Proofrock.
Unsurprisingly, a lot of this book is about a lunatic slaughtering massive numbers of high school kids -- you can't have a slasher movie or book without it. There are also several other interesting things going on. One of the ongoing mysteries is why Dark Mill South is stalking Cinnamon Baker, a girl who survived the Independence Day Massacre? Cinnamon's twin sister, Ginger, ended up locked away in the local nursing home because she went insane after spending a week forgotten on a yacht full of dead people four years ago. Is Cinnamon a target just because she survived Dark Mill South's attack earlier in this book? Or are both twins more wrapped up in this new massacre than anyone knows?
There's also both more and less mystery about who is behind the slayings in this book. It's clear early in the book that Dark Mill South is definitely in Proofrock and is actively killing people. But it's also clear that some of the murder sites are widely spread apart while some of the deaths don't match up with South's established modus operandi. Does South have an accomplice or copycat? Or can South -- like many fictional slashers -- teleport to increase his body count?
Like the first book in the series, the characterization in this one is a great strength. Jade is older and more mature -- or at least trying to figure out what "more mature" looks like for her. Does she get a mainstream haircut? Does she stop caring about horror movies? Or does she care about them more? Is she too old to be a Final Girl now? Does she want to hide and be safe? Or does she want to fight harder?
Letha also becomes a more interesting character, a bit less innocent and naive, with her own appreciation for slasher movies. She has real responsibilities now, to her husband and to her baby, and she has her own serious fears, as she worries the ongoing pain from her injuries is going to leave her addicted to her pain meds.
Sheriff Hardy is adjusting -- with great difficulty -- to forced retirement and growing obsessed with his past, and particularly with the long-ago death of his daughter, Melanie. Banner has to deal with being new and absolutely untrusted by his superiors (though they still left him as the sole law enforcement officer in town while they left to look for South out of town), along with his fears for his family's safety.
We also get some wonderful storytelling moments with victims as well, as we get to see bravery, ingenuity, fear, and longing from people in the very worst moments of their lives, as they struggle on the razor edge between survival and oblivion.
And then there's Dark Mill South himself. On the surface, he's a juggernaut-style slasher, like Jason Voorhees or Michael Myers -- relentless and unstoppable but not a lot going on upstairs. Except we know there's plenty going on upstairs, just from the early descriptions of his murder spree. We know he seems to be upset about the injustices faced by Native Americans over the course of several centuries. We know he loves and studies slasher movies, just like Jade. We know he's mentally nimble, able to improvise elaborate murders based on horror movies on the fly. But there's still more mystery behind him than anything we'll ever know. No one's even sure what his real name is, much less what his real motives for his killings are.
I enjoyed "My Heart Is a Chainsaw" a lot. But I think I liked "Don't Fear the Reaper" even more.
horrorquest