I’m back
with another review of a Charles L. Grant book. After reading the really fun Dark
Cry of the Moon I decided to check out his other Oxrun Station books. It
just so happened that I walked into my local used book store and found the
first three of the series. To refresh your memory these books take place in the
same small town, but tell what I think are unrelated horror stories. At least I
think so. I suppose I’ll have to read them all to find out.
Our main
character here is named Natalie and when things kick off she is having a
nightmare. It is a reoccurring one about the murder of her husband who died
under mysterious circumstances. He was a cop and she heard the attack over the
radio while she was home listening to the police scanner. We are then
introduced to a cast of odd characters that live in Oxrun Station including the
local minister, banker, jeweler, and police chief, who also just happens to be
her former brother in law! It becomes clear that something is clearly up in the
town when eighteen months after her husband’s death there is another murder
eerily similar. But what is going on?
With the
help of a local reporter, Marc, who is also her love interest Natalie starts to
unravel things and expose the seedy inner workings of the town. Simple things
like missing books from the library and strange attacks on her by a mysterious
big cat start to add up. The more she uncovers the more dangerous it gets. It
all takes a supernatural turn when Marc shows her something has been trying to
hide the town from him. Literally it is like people just don’t want to see the
small town of Oxrun while they are driving along!
Honestly,
I didn’t enjoy this one as much as I did Dark Cry of the Moon. But that book
had a werewolf in it and I do love me some Lycanthrope action. Still The Hour
of the Oxrun Dead was a decent read. Grant does a nice job of setting up the
mystery and building a sense of paranoia. It becomes clear early on that there
is some sort of conspiracy happening which leads to the whole “who can they
trust” vibe. There was even a part where for the briefest of moments Grant had
me doubting one of the main characters. That was cleverly done and a good bit
of writing on his part.
I guess I
only have one complaint about Hour of the Oxrun Dead and that is it wraps up
too quickly. We get this great build up with the conspiracy and the mysterious
creature chasing Natalie all around town trying to kill her. Only to suddenly
have things end rather abruptly without the kind of payoff that the rest of the
story deserved. Heck the “monster” doesn’t even get to play a part in the big
finale. I found that very disappointing.
In the end
the good here far outweighs the bad. I was excited to read more of Grant’s
books before I cracked this one and I’m still interested in them. If you see
this or any of his other efforts, I’d recommend picking them up. Except for the
Nestling. I really didn’t like that one.
© Copyright 2018 John Shatzer
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