Pay the Piper

June 3, 2024
Kraus’s second attempt at completing an unfinished novel from horror master Romero (1940–2017), after The Living Dead, is a dud; the plot, about a boogeyman targeting children in the Louisiana bayou, is familiar, and lackluster prose and thin characterizations do little to elevate it. The backwoods town of Alligator Point is home to the legend of the Piper, “the thing kids whispered about, the thing that drank laughter like Kool-Aid, that chewed good feelings like bubblegum.” The Piper strikes early in the narrative, abducting nine-year-old Billy May as punishment for the sins of his ancestors, then removing his heart and devouring it. Billy’s fate remains unknown for months, but after more kids disappear, panic sets in, and his best friend endeavors to learn the truth. Kraus’s rendering of the Cajun dialect often sounds like a parody (“Dat somet’ing out t’ere, it de root of all de awful on de Point”), and the plot’s late-breaking Lovecraftian elements feel tacked on and can’t save the cookie-cutter story line. Even diehard Romero fans will be disappointed.

July 1, 2024
Best-selling author Kraus' work with the Romero archive (The Living Dead, 2020) has unearthed another partially finished novel. In 1998 in the Louisiana swamp, Alligator Point is a dying community where pirates once ruled the waterways, octopus carvings are everywhere, and "the Piper" has stalked the town for generations. Opening with a tandem of unsettling scenes, Kraus and Romero build an unforgettable cast of characters whose alternating perspectives bring the Point to life, including Pete, the John Wayne-obsessed sheriff, and nine-year-old Ponitac. The pervasive unease and steady pacing will lead readers eagerly to the book's final third, where it all breaks wide open, violently revealing the epic root of the terror. A great action-packed horror novel, Pay the Piper also dives deeper, telling a story about revenge and regret that offers real hope. For fans of waterlogged southern gothic with monsters that prey off the complicated history of a land and its people, such as The Toll (2019), by Cherie Priest; The Boatmans' Daughter (2020), by Andy Davidson; and Evil Whispers (2023), by Owl Goingback.

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July 1, 2024

A modern horror author teams up with a horror-cinema legend to create a modern monstrous spin on Southern gothic fiction. Kraus (Whalefall) found this half-finished novel among the personal effects of the late horror director Romero, who died in 2017. Working with Romero's estate, Kraus has finished this story about the denizens of swampy Alligator's Point, LA. Many in the Point lead hardscrabble lives, and several who are desperate for something different are also selling their property to oil companies to drill. As the residents of the Point try to escape the pull of the swamp, the Piper, a creature seemingly straight out of fairy tales who has sworn vengeance on the town, is luring local children away to be brutally killed. Many in the Point know of this terror, but soon their ancestors' sins will have them all paying the Piper. Those horror fans expecting classically Romero zombie hijinks from this novel might be disappointed, but there's plenty of gory description to satisfy them. Not only is this deliciously gruesome book teeming with classic Southern gothic trappings, it also resonates with a socially conscious message. VERDICT For fans of both Kraus's novels and Romero's films, this bloody Southern story highlights the strengths of both auteurs.--James Gardner

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