cover image Visions of Evil

Visions of Evil

Nile J. Limbaugh. Samhain, $14 trade paper (208p) ISBN 978-1-61921-352-4

Missouri author Limbaugh (Daughter of Evil) offers a reading experience of wildly varying extremes. The conceit—a magical light bulb that shows the past when turned on—is wonderfully evocative, and newly minted lumber-mill owner Ramsay Paxton puts it to admirably clever use. Unfortunately, the main plot, following Jeremiah Corday, an immortal Civil War soldier who’s now in service to the Devil, is both less original and less interesting. There’s too much exposition, much of it unnecessary—but it does show off every nook and cranny of the corner of the “lethargic backwater” Georgia swamp Ramsay lives in. Meanwhile, character motivation is largely skipped, as characters leap to either eternal love or homicidal hate at first sight. The Devil himself is merely stilted and petulant. What could have been an interesting dual narrative instead spins out of control before settling for a mundane climax. (Aug.)