vampires

Carolina is on her way to school when an old woman peers out at her from behind her curtains. Arty, the fat kid of the class, meets her and carries her books. Bullies push Arty around, Carolina tries to defend him. The bullies promise to deal with Carolina and Arty after school. Such is the stuff of children in junior high school, but young Carolina and Arty have much bigger problems on their hands than a handful of bullies. That old woman for example. She is a soucouyant, loosely related to the vampire. A bloodsucking shape-changer that hunts and kills in the Southern Caribbean. She wears a locket which allows her to live forever. Unknown to Carolina, when her father, a petty thief, was in Trinidad on vacation, he stole the locket on a routine burglary, because he thought it would make a good gift for her.

Very bad things are about to happen in the small Northern Californian town of Palma. People are going to die as the soucouyant vents her ancient wrath. However there is a secret to her destruction, not a stake in the heart, something more chilling, and our young friends are going to have to find what it is pretty darned quick, because they are on the evil old witch's list and the Night Witch is certainly not someone or something to be trifled with.

Mr. Priest has delivered a chilling, sometimes violent, sometimes uplifting, horror story that will have you on the edge of your seat. A super, bad, vampire-like, evil old witch of a character that will have your heart racing to a voodoo beat as you eagerly read though the pages to see what comes next. I couldn't put it down. You won't be able to either.

This book was one of three sent to me by Jack Priest with the request that I read and review them all: Gecko, Ragged Man and Night Witch. I enjoyed reading all three, but I considered Night Witch the best in plot, character development and pure imagination.

Supernatural creatures of the Jack Priest universe aren't contained by the fences of traditional boundaries. They slip through and explode into new and unexpected avenues of the mind, the dark closet and the sounds just outside the bedroom window. Priest combines human thriller-drama with hand grenades of outrageous (but almost believable) nightmare creatures in a way that will keep you reading until you finish (even if you have to get up early in the morning and really need to put this down and get some shuteye).

Night Witch is Priest's best to date. Read it.

I was up all night at a friend's cabin in the mountains reading this story and I was captivated by the soucouyant, this Caribbean cousin to the European vampire that Mr. Priest writes about. She is a great and spooky character, but I must admit that I was convinced from the start that she was wholly a product of Mr. Priest's imagination. However, four days later, vacation over, home again in the land of the DSL internet connection, I did a Google search and imagine my surprise when I found out she actually exists.

Well, she doesn't really exist, not unless you believe in vampires. She's as real as one of them and there is a ton of stuff about her on the World Wide Web. I read a lot, thrillers and horror stories. I love mysteries, police stories, ghost stories and I devour vampire stories, so it really hit me that I'd missed out on Spooky Soukie. She is one mean cookie. However I think the author fudged the soucouyant legend a little bit with the magic locket business. I couldn't find anything about that in what I read, but that seems to be the only part of Soukie's story that I couldn't substantiate. But then the book is fiction and a storyteller should be allowed a little license. Besides, who knows, perhaps after NIGHT WITCH has been out for awhile, the longevity locket will become part of the folklore.

I also liked the running battle the soucouyant had going with John Coffee, a certified tough guy. As you know, if you've read the reviews, Coffee is little Carolina's father and he stole the locket when he was on vacation in Trinidad, brought it to California and gave it to his daughter. Soukie wants it back and that's the thrust of the story and a powerful thrust it is. Just when you think things are gonna calm down a bit, Soukie is on the spot to wake you right up.

But the real gems in NIGHT WITCH are the two children, Carolina and her overweight friend Arty. Carolina has the locket, doesn't know Soukie wants it. Soukie is coming after her and Arty is determined to protect her. This is one fine story, one that will get your blood pumping, frighten you and in the end leave you smiling. I highly recommend it.

Reviewed by Stephanie Sane