The Hour of the Oxrun Dead by Charles L. Grant

Welcome to Oxrun Station. I was sitting at a stop light when I read this statement on the back cover of The Hour of the Oxrun Dead, my decision of waiting until I was home to open the package having been overturned seconds into my journey. Excitement followed, and for a few minutes I actually considered pulling off into a parking lot to read the first chapter before getting on the expressway, the thought of having to wait another forty five minutes nearly unbearable. Fortunately I didn’t give in to temptation. Excitement wasn’t the only thing bubbling around inside of me and by the time I pulled the car into my driveway I had only one thought in my head: toilet. Alas, that is a story for my medical website so I shall spare you all the poopy details. Anyway the reason for my excitement about this book was two fold. First: I’ve always been a fan of small town horror and Charles L. Grant’s Oxrun Station novels promised to deliver such a setting; second: I had been forced to wait nearly two weeks to get my hands on the novel, my better judgment having convinced me to put my parent’s address down in the shipping column rather than my own since my mailman frequently bypasses my box (complaints haven’t yielded any results). So, having completed the two week shipping wait, forty five minute drive, and unexpected colon cleanse, I finally sat down with the first of the Oxrun Station novels.

The Hour of the Oxrun Dead is the tale of Natalie Windsor and her growing realization that the small New England town she married into hides a deadly secret. Having been widowed a year earlier when her police officer husband was killed responding to a prowler call at an abandoned house, Natalie pretty much lives in isolation, her only real contact with the town being through her job at the local library. Occasionally she also has to contend with her late husbands overbearing family who smothers her with misguided concerns about her wellbeing. That’s it. Any illusions toward her having an interesting life are quickly put to rest. Day in and day out her life follows a seemingly ordinary if not dull path. Then everything changes when Natalie begins to notice that books are disappearing from the library and that all efforts to replace them go unfulfilled. Somewhat curious as to why this is happening Natalie begins looking into it and is soon told by her boss that if she continues down that path she will be fired. Undeterred, she continues the investigation with the help of a newspaper reporter who has also been noticing odd things around town, one who also just happens to have a bit of a crush on her. Not long into their amateur investigation things turn scary. Wanting to spend time with the newspaper reporter Natalie trades evening shifts with a young co-worker at the library who is murdered shortly after shutting the place down for the night, her body mutilated in a way that bears similarities to the attack that killed Natalie’s husband. The question is was the attack a case of mistaken identity, Natalie being the intended target? If so was her investigation into the missing books to blame? Further, what is it about the missing books that would cause such drastic measures to be taken? Soon more deaths follow, all brutal, and all seemingly connected by the fact that Natalie had contact with the victims prior to their deaths. The question is why?

Though intrigued by the story idea I wasn’t impressed at all by the novel itself. I’m not sure what exactly was to blame for this, it just never grabbed hold of me, and even though the writing was smooth and I was able to complete the book in less than a day, I didn’t enjoy the time spent with it. It just didn’t work. Nothing exciting really happened. The potential was there but never used. Things would build up and up and up and then just kind of mellow out. The ending was the worst example of this. Still holding out hope for the story I went into the last few chapters thinking something big was going to happen, something so intense and surprising that it would completely change my opinion of the novel, but no. Once again it built up, things looked as if they were coming to a head, and then the book abruptly ended. That was it. Add an extra hundred pages or so of text into the story and I think this book could have been incredible. Instead it just falls flat. Thankfully I’ve been told that the other Oxrun Station tales are better and that this one should be viewed more as an example of a writer who has great potential but hasn’t quite learned how to wield it. Hopefully this truly is the case because I am eager to dive back into the town of Oxrun Station and discover what it is that so many fellow readers have enjoyed. There is a reason these books have been highly recommended to me over and over again and I am on a quest to discover it. Next up: The Last Call of Mourning. From what I’ve read it looks like it could be good. Fingers crossed.

UPDATE: The list I was using was wrong. The Last Call of Mourning is really the third Oxrun Station novel. The Sound of Midnight is the second. Thankfully I had ordered the next two books anyway and then realized the mistake before reading the next one when looking at the copyright dates.