Don't Go Looking for Trouble

Don't go looking for trouble may be sound advice,  but thankfully the protagonist of Christopher Buehlman's Those Across the River does not heed this advice. In this debut novel, Buehlman tells the story of Frank Nichols and his inheritance of a rundown Georgia mansion in 1935.  Nichols comes to the Savoyard Plantation with Eudora, who he calls his wife, but who may not actually be his legal wife.  It seems as if Frank and Eudora became lovers and they left Chicago and his job as a professor in somewhat of a scandal.
They see the plantation as a place for them to start over as Frank decides to write a history of this plantation and his family, including a shadowy figure of a great-grandfather who Frank does not know well.  There are definitely Faulknerian influences here with unknown secrets and dangers that someone like Frank might want to let lie.  Of course if he did that, there would not be a novel, so this is a good hook used by Buehlman to suck his reader into the narrative.  To that end, he has Frank receive a letter from his Aunt Dorothy who bequeathed the house to Frank.  Ironically, she then tells him that he "MUST SELL" this house.  She goes on to explain that "there is bad blood here, and it is against you (YOu) (sic) for no fault of your own & you will not have time to go stale in whitbrow."
Frank ignores the letter, but soon there are so strange events going on and warnings about staying out of the woods from some of the locals.  The Nichols do befriend the local taxidermist Martin Cranmer, who doesn't quite fit the profile of most of the residents of Whitbrow and he owns a still to boot.  One of the more unusual events is a gathering of pigs that are sent out into the woods as a offering from the town.  Their local pastor is there as well and it has a seemingly civic and religious function too.
These types of events only seem to heighten Frank's curiosity so he finds himself exploring the woods on his own.  He goes looking for a Civil War battlefield with partial directions from one of the locals.  The directions are incomplete, because no one wants to or appears to have had much desire to go to the under side of the river.  Frank finds himself lost, but keeps going trying to regain his way and the path to the battlefield. In the late afternoon, Frank has the distinct feeling that he is being watched and followed.  He finally does see the "thing" that had been following him.  "A thin pale mulatto just entering puberty. I knew this because the boy was n't wearing pants.  Just a dirty shirt that stopped at his navel."  Despite attempts to engage the boy in conversation, the boy refuses to speak, but continues to accompany Frank on his way, though from a distance.
Eventually the boy engages in a half-hearted assault on Frank with precision stone throwing.  It is obvious that the boy could do more damage than he does, but he seems to be toying with Frank.  Frank is irritated, but not scared until the boy tells Frank nonverbally that he is waiting for nightfall.  Frank finds his way to Martin Cranmer's cabin, but Martin is not excited to see him and tells him to get lost.
Frank makes his way home, but he is uneasy with what happened to him.  It only serves to fuel his curiosity.
Frank and Dora continue on with their life and make friends and go about their work and lives, but eventually "those across the river" make their appearance on this side of the river too.  Slowly and masterfully, Buehlman shifts this book into somewhat of a gothic novel with supernatural creatures.  I won't give away what they are, but the cryptic letter from Frank's aunt begins to make more sense as the plot advances.  Frank and some of his former war buddies engage in a final showdown with these creatures.  It ends essentially in a draw and Frank turns his back on his friends and on his wife, Dora, who he lost to "those across the river."
However, there is a coda where we learn that Frank had narrated these events from his relative youth. He is now a self-described "old lush."  Without giving away the ending, let me say that there is more to the story.
Christopher Buehlman is a playwright and an award-winning poet, though this is his first novel.  He is a helluva writer.  The novel is assured and gorgeously written.  He can go from a passionate love scene to a amusing and meandering conversation between Frank and Martin.  He does a fine job with the action sequences too and creates a disturbing and mesmerizing atmosphere for the novel.  The characters are believable and distinctive too.  Most importantly, though I would characterize Buehlman as a literary writer, this story is a page-turner.  One of the blurbs mentions that he is like a cross between  Fitzgerald and Dean Koontz.  That is pretty accurate, though I think his subject matter and setting makes me think more of Faulkner than of Fitzgerald.  I would highly recommend this novel.
Czar