Technically, I still have a few pages left of Dead Man’s Song, but it is my lunch break, so I thought I’d throw in a quick review.

Ahem. In essence, damn you Jonathan Maberry, you did it to me again.

I read his first book, Ghost Road Blues, after paneling with him last November at Philcon, which I never really wrote about. I picked it up because Maberry was a genuinely nice guy at the panel and because it takes place in Bucks County, Pa., just around the corner, really.

Ghost Road Blues pissed me off about halfway through, because it dawned on me that he was setting me up for a sequel. There was a satisfying climax, of course, but I realized that I wouldn’t get the complete story in one book.

Of course, the same thing happened halfway through Dead Man’s Song, but I wasn’t so upset this time around. Maberry has me hooked, the bastard. (I would have known this was a trilogy if I had bothered to read his site before, but that’s doesn’t ease the hurt. *sniff*)

To summarize both books, 30 years ago something horrible happened in Pine Deep, a fictional BucksCo borough. The Bone Man, an intinerent blues man in the spirit (ha!) of Robert Johnson, killed the devil, but he didn’t finish the job and was lynched for his effort. He’s back, but so is this particular monster — and this monster has friends, lots of them.

Ghost Road Blues was the setup and Dead Man’s Song draws us in further. At times, a bit densely plotted, both books are very well written and full of great characters (good and bad) that you just want to keep reading.  If anything, there is almost — almost — too much going on in these books.  Everything stays on pace, but even though I just read the first one seven months ago, it took a while for everything to click back into place as I got into Dead Man’s Song — which made it so much the sweeter when it did click. There’s a lot going on, but not so much that it will bog you down.

I bought Dead Man’s Song on Thursday and haven’t been able to put it down. If I didn’t have obligations, parental or work, I would have finished it Friday morning.

Zombie enthusiasm aside, I’ve never been a huge horror fan. I read a few second hand King books that I enjoyed but didn’t love. I read a Koontz novel once. Once.

Inevitablly, reviewers compare Maberry to King, which is fine, but Maberry writes with many of King’s better attributes (ability to conjure a lingering dread and characterization, among them) and does without a few of Kings worse ones (the King bloat, mainly).

Above all, Maberry has shown himself to be a great storyteller. At the end of Ghost Road Blues, I sincerely didn’t know where he was going with all of this. In my world, that’s much higher praise than it sounds. He manages to wring the dreck out of some tired old tropes to rejuvinate them. By the end of Dead Man’s Song, I have an inkling of wear he’s going…and it creeps me the hell out.

My biggest regret is that I didn’t save this book for the beach. I love being creeped out by the seaside.

The quick verdict: Go out and buy Ghost Road Blues and Dead Man’s Song…just don’t read them right away, since you’ll have to wait until next summer for the final novel in the trilogy.

UPDATE: Finished the last five pages. Crap. I really look forward to Bad Moon Rising.