cover image Banshees

Banshees

Mike Baron. Wordfire, $16.99 trade paper (416p) ISBN 978-1-61475-394-0

Veteran comics writer Baron (Nexus) slays with this epic and brutal novel. A new band with the look and sound of an old satanic metal group called the Banshees blazes onto the music scene decades after the original trio died in a plane crash. A concert flyer leads impoverished musician Ian St. James, the son of the Banshees’ drummer, from a hangover in his Prague hotel room to the shocking discovery of his long-dead rock star father performing with the rest of the Banshees at a Czech club. He demands to see his father but ends up drugged and screaming in a car compactor, from which he only narrowly escapes. The reanimated Banshees attract a cult following. Each gig results in the death or disappearance of someone in the crowd, and soon Ian is lured into helping ambitious reporter Connie Cosgrove score the story of a lifetime. Baron’s smart dialogue propels his globe-trotting characters along in a charismatic ballad of carnage. Horror buffs and metal fans will marvel at every grinding detail in this meaty, grim fantasy. (BookLife)