People Live Still in Cashtown Corners

Burgess (Pontypool Changes Everything) continues to work the theme of murderous rampages in this enigmatic and ultimately unsatisfying account of deranged gas station owner Bob Clark. After a woman fills up at his station in a small Ontario town and then stops at a nearby traffic light to apply makeup, Clark decides, for reasons that remain obscure, to kill her. That senseless slaughter proves to be but the first of many. Burgess includes 12 pages of true crime–style photos, for no obvious reason; the book does not end with Clark's apprehension or trial, and to some extent, the photos spoil the remainder of the disjointed narrative. Sententious prose ("Things are very ‘this happens all the time now'") makes the would-be horror story a slog. Photos. (Oct. 15)