Title: The Black Lord

Author: Colin Hinckley

Release date: September 12, 2023

Man, you could just show me this cover and I’d tell you this was a book for me haha! And then you could add the first line of the synopsis – ‘There’s something knocking on the window.’ – and I’d tell you the author would have to do a REALLY poor job with this story for me not to love it! And guess what – Colin nailed the story here, so no worries on that part.

What I liked: If you’ve been reading anything from the mighty Tenebrous Press, you’ll know you’re in for a good time. The fiction they publish tends to walk that line of either ‘mass marketable’ or ‘very weird.’ Easy comparison – ‘Lure’ from Tim McGregor. Strange, sure. But pretty straight forward story (or as straight forward as a mermaid’s vengeance on a small town can be). On the other hand (pun intended) – ‘One Hand to Hold, One Hand to Carve’ by M. Shaw. This one is WEIRD. And phenomenal. And follows a body waking up on the autopsy table, split in two, and deciding to live life again together, while still being surgically and anatomically apart. What all of that is to say – I had no idea which way Hinckley was going to go, and I think that works to heighten the tension in this story, which starts from page one.

We follow young Eddie, struggling to understand how his infant brother, Danny, has disappeared, seemingly snapped up from his cradle in the middle of the night from his room. His parents are crumbling, both as individuals and as a couple, but things get worse when there’s a light tapping on his window one night and the thing he calls ‘The Tall Man’ begs him to open the window and come out to visit.

Hinckley nails the shadowy anxiety that folklore revels in, a way of making the reader feel unsettled, even when the lights in the room are on. As the story progresses, we get to learn the truth about The Tall Man, and when Eddie’s mom, Laura, has her own experience, the door between the two world’s is thrown open and all bets are off.

The last quarter of the book races along like a roller coaster ride coming off the tracks. Family runs into the woods trying to find the missing, the shadows lurk closer and The Tall Man wants to eat. It all scrambles haphazardly until Hinckley reels us back in and we finally meet The Black Lord.

What I didn’t like: The length of this novella makes it so that we get a surface level of back story and not much in the way of description of the world over there. Hamill’s ‘A Cosmology of Monsters’ did a wonderful job of giving the reader a lot with a little about the ‘over there,’ but this one doesn’t go very far into it, so if you’re wanting more of that aspect, be warned.

Why you should buy this: Well, fans of Tenebrous Press will most likely already have this, as any books coming from them will be an auto-buy! Otherwise, if you’re a fan of odd things in the woods at night and strange events that connect the generational dots, look no further. This one was jarring, unsettling and ultimately a terrifying romp through the trees at night!

5/5