Primal Creatures (French Quarter Mystery)

By Eric Wilder

Full disclosure, I received a review copy of this book. Sadly, it languished on my TBR pile for far too long. Any avid reader knows that it is far too easy to have books pile up and pile up until even the ones that you really want to read find their way to the bottom of the pile. Well, yesterday, I demolished the pile, looking for a good Halloween type read and found this. It looked like just the ticket, and I pulled it out and jumped in. What I found was a new must read author.

Somewhat reminiscent of DePoy, a little along the lines of Koontz...what I got for my reading time was a wonderful, page turner of a story, very likable and interesting characters. The author is clearly an animal lover who incorporates pets into the story and takes good care of them. No killing off a pet just to add some gore.

In fact, there is very little gore. This is a writer who is able to tell the story and add chills without gratuitous mayhem or blood flying from every direction. He tells a chilling story that takes place on a place called Goose Island, off the coast of Louisiana. A place where the memory of Katrina adds a bit of chill of its own, when a freak hurricane threatens the area durning the investigation of a mysterious and grim death. One where the details were quickly covered up and it lands in the capable hands of PI Wyatt Thomas to investigate.

Wyatt is sent to the island which is home to a small sect of monks who are known for building hand crafted coffins. There are only a very few monks left in this sect. There is a resort on the island as well, it is run by the monks who call themselves Tracists and is a very elegant and secluded area frequented only by the very wealthy. Aside from the resort and the monks the island is home to one man, a professor who is there to study avian life, and a small village filled with. . .

I think I will leave the rest for you to find out on your own, and believe me you won't regret the time you spend reading this one. I suspect that like myself, you will immediately go looking for more by this talented author.