Book Review: Dark Eye

Reviewed By: Harriet Klausner

Dark Eye     Amazon US PB Amazon Canada PB
Steven R. Cowan
Class/Genre:   SF AND Fantasy   Horror
Southern Charm, Jul 2001, 210 pp.

In 1872 Southern Georgia hatred of blacks runs rampart among most whites, but the most violent group is the KKK. A white girl was seen making it with a black man enraging the leader of the Ware County chapter of the KKK. Eleven men wearing white gowns lynch Obidiah Hodges for supposedly having a sexual relationship with a white woman. They rape and batter his wife Hattie before finally tossing her in the nearby Okeefenokee Swamp. Witch woman Checholer rescues her. Hattie learns the black arts and her mentor kills all eleven of the males who caused her extreme pain. Over a hundred and twenty-eight years later as the comet Ephesus approaches earth Mattie is allowed to interfere in the lives of men. The descendants of her killers live in the small southern Georgia town of Waycross and she is able to subvert one of them with her otherworldly charms to kill them for her

DARK EYE is a great work of horror that shows the audience the ugly side of Santeria, a religion practiced in the Caribbean. Much of the work occurs on the supernatural plane. Though fascinating, the strength of this tale is observing the transformation of a decent person into a demon. Steven R. Cowan is a talented horror writer who rivals the King and Koontz crowd.

Harriet Klausner

Reprinted with permission. Do Not repost without permission from the author, Harriet Klausner