words in scarlet ink

I picked up John Langan’s The Fisherman when I was living in Nyack, New York because it was in the “local interest” section of the Barnes & Noble in the Palisades Mall.

There aren’t a ton of horror novels that take place in upstate New York, but I found one.

It was pretty good.

The novel takes place over a course of three parts and is presented as a memoir of our narrator, Abe. In Part 1, ‘Men Without Women,’ Abe marries Marie who dies, about a year and a half after their marriage, of breast cancer. Abe is naturally devastated, but eventually pulls himself out of his depression and burgeoning alcoholism when he wakes up one day with a strong desire to go fishing. Fishing is how he eventually processes Marie’s death and is able to go back to work in a functioning manner.

As the years pass, one of Abe’s co-workers, Dan, also loses his wife and children. His wife and twin toddlers are killed instantly when they’re hit by an 18 wheeler that runs a stop sign. Abe strikes up a friendship of sorts with Dan, and they go fishing most weekends, sharing a bond of grief they don’t really speak about.

Eventually, Dan suggests they try a new fishing spot – Dutchman’s Creek in the Catskill mountains. On the way up, they get caught in a torrential rain and stop at a diner, where a short-order cook (a thinly disguised version of HP Lovecraft) hears their destination and advises them against going. Part 2 of the book – ‘Der Fischer’ – tells the history of Dutchman’s Creek. This is where the story gets really bizarre, in the way most horror stories are bizarre. Using the technique of a story within a story, we go from the present day to the early 20th century, where we are presented with a tale that includes zombies, an immortal sorcerer, water nymphs, a cursed grimoire, disgraced academics, a heroic fellowship of men, and last but certainly not least, an ancient primordial monster lurking below the waves of a vast, black ocean (leviathan).

Part 2 of the story takes up the most space but to me it was the most interesting part.

So, Abe and Dan decide to continue on to Dutchman’s Creek, in spite of the warnings of the short-order cook. This is a horror story, afterall. Part 3, ‘On the Shores of the Black Ocean,’ is where these two narratives converge and goes on to address the consequences afterwards. I won’t ruin it for you, as this is a pretty decent payoff and the book isn’t that old.

This is the sort of book that is about one thing but is really about something else. This book is a book about grief, and how people deal with it and go on to use it to continue their lives after a devastating loss. Abe uses his grief as a force to transform his life. Dan stews in his with a horrific result. It reminded me, in this sense, of the movie ‘The Babadook.’

I enjoyed this book, but I can see why not everyone would. It’s a character study as much as a horror novel, and it does have a rather slow build up and is very psychological in many ways. That said, I really enjoyed it, especially as I knew the local geography. I recommend it highly, if you like this kind of story. It was interesting, well done, and very suspenseful.