Here is my review of Kristopher Rufty's latest, Seven Buried Hill.
Kristopher Rufty has managed to find a distinctive voice
when he writes. In the same way I can listen to a song and recognize Eric Clapton or Slash or
Keith Richards as the guitarist, I can read an excerpt of writing and just know
it’s Rufty. That distinct voice means whatever he puts out will most likely be
good, which is why I tend to snatch it up within the first week of its release.
His latest, Seven Buried Hill, is no exception. I will admit
to being curious and slightly worried once I realized that it would be a western-themed
horror novel, and wondered if the setting would prohibit the signature Rufty
style from shining through. Once I finished it, I was pleased to discover my
worries were completely unfounded.
Henry Hardin was an outlaw, once upon a time. The longer he
did it, the more he realized how much he was risking his life, so he’s out of
the business, trying to take honest jobs for a change to reform his ways.
Catherine Dalton is heiress to one of the largest tobacco plantations in North
Carolina. When her father goes missing and the law won’t help her, she turns to
Hardin for help. With his “boys”, Red, Pete, Drippy, and Charlie, Catherine
herself, and Catherine’s effeminate fiancé Everett, the posse heads out looking
for Papa Dalton. Unfortunately, they find something else, something worse,
something that not all of them will survive.
The story owes as much to The Hills Have Eyes as it does to
The Unforgiven, or even established horror westerns like Bone Tomahawk. The
tone actually feels like the old west, even though it was set in the east.
Thankfully, Rufty avoids the stereotype of making Indians the bad guys, and
even shows a bit of acceptance through some of the characters for the Native
Americans and their way of life. And the moments of tension—of which there are
many—are suitably gripping and kept me turning the pages.
Henry and his boys are well crafted, with distinct
personalities that shine through on the page. Catherine seems at first like the
cookie-cutter “girl trying to prove herself in a man’s world”, then you get to
go a little deeper into her thoughts and realize that she’s considerably more
faceted than you first assume. Hardin himself, who could easily fall into
another tried and true stereotype, manages to show real depth of character as he
tries to maintain his hardened exterior while falling under Catherine’s charms.
In fact, if there’s one character here who seemed a bit
under-developed, it was Charlie. He tended to wear his motivations on his
sleeve, meaning the reader could see what was coming with him long
before it
actually happened. His fate was exceptionally satisfying, so this one was
easily overlooked.
Where the story shines, though, is in the villains of the
tale. They’re sick and twisted, make no mistake about that, but one can actually
see the reasoning and logic behind why they act the way they do, even if
there’s no question they went much too far with it. The sympathy they manage to
evoke even made me wonder by the end whether I was wrong to feel nothing but
sympathy for how things ended for them.
Overall, this is a shining example of Rufty at his best,
weaving a story that sucks you in and makes you feel like you’re actually
living it. It’s no accident that he’s one of my favorite modern horror authors,
and a major influence on my own writing as well. If you haven’t picked it up
yet, don’t hold back. Just prepare yourself for a thrill ride of a horror
western as it plays across the screen of your imagination.
5/5 Stars
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