Blackwater, Part I: The Flood

Back in the '80s, I remember this series of horror books that were published - Blackwater was the name, and the covers to the books were all black, with a different image on each cover that somehow tied into the title of that particular book. But what stood out the most for me was the fact that each cover had this ominous eye - just one eye, right smack in the middle of whatever image happened to grace that particular cover.  Now, this was well before Stephen King or V.C. Andrews or any of these other authors published a series of novellas that told one full story - no, author Michael McDowell did this way before any of these other authors thought of it.  He was the forerunner of the serialized horror tale, so to speak.  But, as fate would have it, I never picked them up as they came out, and they did not stay on the shelves long.  As the introduction to this collection I recently purchased so aptly puts it - these were published at a time when horror books had their own section of the bookstore, with numerous books appearing on the shelves and just as quickly leaving the shelves, never to be seen again.  But, for some reason, Blackwater always stuck with me, and since then, I've always kept an eye out for them in used book stores, but never came across them.

Until I stumbled across this full collected edition on Amazon....

The Flood, which is the first book in the series, introduces readers to the Caskey family, who reside in the small southern town of Perdido, which borders the Perdido River. . The Caskey family history is steeped deep in the annals of Perdido, and they hold a place of power within the town.  Everyone there knows the Caskeys. Mary-Love Caskey is the matriarch of the family - strong and controlling.  James Caskey is her brother, described as effeminate and weak, never quite able to control his drunken wife. Oscar Caskey is her son, who has always done everything his mother wanted. Until the day he and Bray (the family's servant) go paddling through town after the flood and discovery a lone survivor - a young woman trapped on an upper floor of a hotel. The only problem is, after they rescue her, Bray goes back for her belongings and notices something - the water stains on the walls of that hotel room are far above where the woman was capable of standing, even on top of the bed.

So, who exactly is Elinor Dammert?  That is the central question on everyone's mind in The Flood...

This first book in the series is not what you might think of as straight-forward horror. There is one rather bloody scene that I won't spoil for you (as it has a direct impact on the main characters), but otherwise, the horror in The Flood is more of a psychological nature, slowly building as the story unfolds. There is an intense power struggle that is evident between Mary-Love and Elinor, and it's pretty clear from the get-go that Elinor is going to gain the upper hand.  She takes on the job of a teacher when the current teacher leaves town suddenly.  She becomes a mother figure to James' daughter, Grace.  She proves more than strong enough to face-off against James' wife, Genevieve when she returns to Perdido.  She enthralls Oscar to the point where he asks her to marry him, despite his own mother's objections.  Bray seems to be the only one who truly sees through Elinor's façade, knowing that she is hiding something that could ultimately destroy them all.  And while Elinor has the uncanny ability to charm an entire community, her complete lack of fear of the Perdido River and the legends surrounding the monstrosity that lives beneath the whirlpool at the junction leaves one to wonder - does she know the legend is just that, a legend, and there is nothing there; or is it something far more sinister?

By the end of The Flood, the reader is familiar enough with all of the main cast (and even many of the supporting cast) to be thoroughly involved in their lives and with a burning desire to know what comes next. This is not a Friday the 13th or Annabelle or Frankenstein, or any other "typical" tale of horror and scares - at least, not yet.  I am definitely hooked, and I am curious to see where McDowell will take us on this journey with the Caskey family and the enigmatic Elinor Dammert...

RATING:  9 family jewels raining down from the ceiling out of 10 for proving that psychological terror can be much more frightening than the bloody-slasher kind any day of the week!