Robert R. McCammon is my favorite author, and the fact remains that he gets way less attention than he should over the years. This is due to a number of factors such as getting boxed in by his publisher or being forever stuck in the shadow of Stephen King. Most of his books are currently unavailable in print or hardcover. This is a shame, because every book by him that I’ve read has been a knockout. He’s been able to jump between genres and subgenres and tell a satisfying story in each one. His prose is elegant and his pacing is always tight. That’s why I feel like giving the man his due. Here’s the best ones that fans of horror, historical fiction, or fantasy should check out.
10. Usher’s Passing (1984)
Starting off this list is what has to be McCammon’s strangest book. Essentially a sort-of sequel to The Fall of the House of Usher, the plot revolves around the aristocratic Usher family and a community of hill people near the town of Asheville, North Carolina. Rix Usher is an author and the black sheep of the family who returns to the Usher estate due to his father being at death’s door due to the infamous Usher Malady. While there, he uncovers a boatload of disturbing secrets about the family’s history. In terms of tone, McCammon leans into old-fashioned spookiness here, while the plot involves everything from cannibalism to killer panthers and hillbillies using the Force. I’m not sure if it all fits together, but I definitely won’t be forgetting it.
9. Stinger (1988)
Reading this book is like eating a nice juicy burger. This one takes place in the Texas town of Inferno, where the space alien escapee Daufin crash lands. After Daufin possesses the body of a young girl, an alien bounty hunter named Stinger puts a dome-shaped force field around the town in order to capture Daufin. The plot involves a whole town full of characters, including the sheriff, the girl’s parents, and some government agents. But the highlight of the book for me is the gang of white high schoolers and their Latino rivals. It made the book feel like the 80’s version of West Side Story, but with aliens. Some memorable scenes include Stinger digging tunnels through the city and creating sinkholes in people’s homes, leading to a final showdown inside the alien’s ship.
8. Speaks the Nightbird (2002)
After a ten-year hiatus, McCammon returned with a mystery novel set in colonial America starring Matthew Corbett, a character who would earn himself a ten-book series. Matthew is an assistant clerk to a traveling magistrate in 1699. They arrive in the newly founded town of Fount Royal to investigate an accusation of witchcraft on an outsider named Rachel. The magistrate investigates the normal way and decides that Rachel is guilty, but Matthew believes that something else is going on. As it turns out, the members of the town who want her dead are far from innocent, with many harboring dark secrets of their own. Matthew goes to great and sometimes questionable lengths to get to the bottom of why the town is experiencing such bizarre events, all while the clock ticks down to Rachel being hanged. The mystery is well constructed and McCammon keeps the suspense going until the very end.
7. Mine (1990)
Laura Clayborne is having a very rough time of it. First her husband walks out on her after it is discovered he’s been sleeping around. Then after giving birth to her first child, the boy is kidnapped by Mary Terrell AKA Mary Terror. Unwilling to wait on the FBI, Laura chases Mary across the country, but confronting her won’t be easy. Turns out Mary’s a former member of the Storm Front Brigade, a group of sixties radicals responsible for quite a lot of death and destruction. Then there’s the disfigured FBI agent with a huge grudge against Mary who is willing to take her down by any means necessary, even if it means endangering Laura’s baby. Mary is the most memorable villain that McCammon ever devised, with the opening chapter that introduces her being as unsettling as it gets. She’ll soon learn, however, why she stole the wrong woman’s baby!
6. They Thirst (1981)
A teenage vampire named Prince Vulkan has designs on the city Los Angeles. From a transplanted gothic castle in the middle of Hollywood, he plots to conquer the city with a combination of vampirism and weather magic. This is currently my favorite vampire novel, and I think the reason is due to how interesting the city of LA is here, far more than the boring-ass small town in Stephen King’s Salem’s Lot. It helps that the characters are interesting too including Andy Palatzin, an LAPD officer who witnessed a vampire massacre in his home country of Hungary as a boy. Then there’s Roach, the serial killer he’s hunting, who basically serves as the Renfield of this story. As the bodies continue to pile up, the vampire army grows until the survivors inevitably have to storm the castle and put an end Prince Vulkan’s bloodlust.
5. Gone South (1992)
McCammon wrote this book during a very unhappy period in his life. His publisher kept insisting that he write more horror stories even though his interest in the genre had waned. There was a big row over getting Boy’s Life published the way he wanted it and then he had to provide them with another novel to get out of his contract. Thankfully, the book doesn’t read like a contractual obligation. The story concerns Dan Lambert, an unemployed Vietnam vet who kills a man in a blind rage and is forced to go on the run. On the way, he meets a bizarre tableau of characters, including an Elvis impersonator, a freak show escapee, and a young woman with a birth mark covering half her face. Upon reading, you can feel McCammon’s anger and frustration with his lot, especially in the beginning. As the novel continues, he allows hope to break through the bitterness.
4. The Queen of Bedlam (2007)
This is the second book in the Matthew Corbett series which finds our hero joining a group of detectives and trying to solve a series of murders committed by the mysterious Masker. McCammon’s setting this time is 1702 in New York City, where he shows us the insides of pubs, a lunatic asylum, a rich mansion and houses of ill repute. I really like what he does with the main character, as now Matthew’s trying to get justice for the victims of the orphanage that he grew up in on top of solving the murders. It also shows his knack for getting himself in trouble and sticking his nose where it doesn’t belong. The story introduces Professor Fell and his evil organization, who will wind up being the main antagonist for the series overall. Once again, McCammon’s talent for suspense and atmosphere remain unmatched. I am planning to read the rest of the books very soon.
3. The Wolf’s Hour (1989)
I always enjoy a good werewolf yarn, and this book is one of the very best. The main character is Michael Gallatin, a man who grew up in Bolshevik Russia who later becomes a spy working for the Allies against Nazi Germany. Oh yeah, and he’s also a werewolf. It’s the kind of premise that sounds really campy on paper but McCammon treats with the upmost sincerity, making it awesome. The plot alternates between Michael growing up among a found family of werewolves and his WWII mission to stop a secret project called Iron Fist before D-Day happens. One plot plays out like a really good werewolf origin story, while the other is structured much like a James Bond novel. The standout villain for me was Harry Sandler, an American hunter who is working with the Germans that Michael has a personal vendetta with. The scenes with him were all very entertaining, especially the train sequence. Despite the adventure premise, there’s still plenty of horror moments to be found here. And a fair amount of sex, too.
2. Boy’s Life (1991)
This is the McCammon novel that is most praised by critics, and for good reason. Cory Mackenson is an 11 year old boy growing up in 1964 rural Alabama. He witnesses his father rescue a man from drowning in a lake, only to discover that the man in question was already dead. This kicks off a series of events that will change how Cory views the world around him. “Magical realism” is probably the best way to describe the episodic narrative that occurs in the fictional town of Zephyr. It portrays childhood not as it was, but as it ought to be. There’s plenty of odd and eccentric wonders to be found and I found the relationship between the Cory and his father to be deeply moving. It is striking to me how similar the world Cory grows up in is to my own father’s childhood and how different it is from my own. The big takeaway I received from Cory’s journey is that you can’t experience life’s beauty without also experiencing its sadness and ugliness as well. There’s plenty of all three to be found here, with all the complicated feelings that come with it.
1. Swan Song (1987)
I constantly praise this novel as the best one I’ve ever read. Like They Thirst, this book is often compared to a Stephen King book, which in this case is The Stand. But unlike that novel, this one has a much better ending, along with a better middle and beginning to boot. It starts with the literal end of the world by nuclear holocaust and it doesn’t let up from there. The lost souls who have to learn to survive in the resulting wasteland are some of my favorite characters in fiction. You have Josh, the former wrestler charged with protecting a young girl. There’s Sister, a homeless woman who finds new purpose after the world ends. Then there’s the excellent lineup of villains, including Colonel Macklin, Lord Alvin, and the shapeshifting demon known as The Man With the Scarlet Eye. McCammon explores the entire spectrum of humanity though them and the pacing never drags in spite of its long length. He also incorporates several magical elements that fit into the story naturally. This is the big reason why I will never attempt to write a post-apocalyptic novel. There’s no way my version could be better than this.
Tanner J. Parsons 