The Witch at Sparrow Creek

Kent's diffusely plotted first novel, set in a rural backwater where superstitions sometimes attain frightening substance, only occasionally hits the notes of horror that its events are orchestrated to sound. Jim Falk, a self-described "ghost killer," is drawn to the town of Sparrow in an unspecified locale by his visions of a red-haired woman and a burning church, as well as his personal mission to rid the land of evil. He's got his work cut out for him. Shortly after his arrival and an encounter with a yellow-eyed monster in the woods, Jim and the townsfolk are besieged by packs of ravenous wolves and pursued by shadowy figures in the surrounding forest. These are all proof to Jim that "the old evil has awakened in the land," but the insular townspeople distrust Jim as an "outlander" and believe that his magic skills for battling the supernatural are proof that he himself, in league with "the Evil One," has brought these miseries down upon them. Jim's adventures eventually dovetail with those of Wylene, the titular witch, and shed light on the fate of his parents, whose death and disappearance under mysterious circumstances years before cast a pall of menace over his mission from the outset%E2%80%94but Kent takes his time relating these plot lines to one another. The laconic manner of Sparrow's residents%E2%80%94they often repeat what they've already said and are sometimes incapable of explaining precisely what they mean, even when pressed to do so%E2%80%94infects the narrative with a sluggishness that impedes the build-up of any dramatic tension from its eerie events. Though satisfyingly atmospheric in spots, this dark fantasy tale is too drawn out to serve its homely horrors effectively. (Feb.)