Neofotis evokes physical, emotional setting

• By GREG LANGLEY AND BOB ANDERSON
• Advocate News Features staff
• Published: Jul 26, 2009

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Fiction
CONCORD, VIRGINIA
By Peter Neofotis
St. Matin’s Press, $19.99

The subtitle of this small collection is “A Southern Town in Eleven Stories.” In these 11 short pieces set in a town in a little valley in Virginia’s Blue Ridge, Neofotis uses recurring characters and locations to gradually bring into focus the likeness of this small place. Concord emerges like an image gradually appearing on a print being developed in a darkroom: the town eccentric here, the prodigal daughter there, the rich jerk here, the star athlete there, and here the sickness of prejudice that simmers just below the surface.

In “The Vultures,” a man with a load of guilt gains a measure of absolution from a flock of very unattractive birds. In “The Snake Man,” a reporter from the local paper interviews a man carrying the psychic wounds of war hidden inside him. During a daylong river dalliance, the man and the reporter gradually share information and reach some understanding of each other. In “The Heiress,” a young woman takes the life of her dictatorial brute of a father. Race and hatred fuel the plot of “The Builders.” Each of the 11 stories is worthy of attention.

Neofotis shows a keen sensitivity to nature. That is part of what gives his writing such a strong sense of place. At the same time, a powerful strain of mysticism informs Neofotis’ work. His stories are closer in spirit to Ray Bradbury than William Faulkner. He is an adept wordsmith who evokes his setting in both a physical and emotional sense. As he says in his prologue — “In Invitation” — Concord, Va., is one of those rare and special places that birth stories and folklore.

“In the places set between folds in the Earth, voices echo against the mountains. This is especially true if it is blue-dusk; you are alone; and you laugh, cry, or call out for a friend.

“Often no one hears your song, lost forever. Yet in a small town guarded by blue-limestone forested masses, a tale — like a ghost — can verberate off the weathered hills.”

Greg Langley

MARK OF THE DEMON
By Diana Rowland
Bantam, $23 paperback

At first this book seems to have an identity problem: it reads like a romance, but there is some fantasy stuff with demons but then it’s a crime thriller with a cop chasing a serial killer. Somehow Rowland manages to tie it all together, but the knots are not all neat.
The cop, Kara Gillian, works for the “Beaulac Police Department” in a small city near New Orleans in “St. Long Parish.”

“A small, quiet parish with the city of Beaulac as its hub, it boasted only a few murders a year and not much other crime except for the usual mix of drug abuse and burglaries.” That quiet is shattered by a serial murderer called the Symbol Man. He is called that because he carves arcane symbols into the flesh of his victims. Gillian recognizes the nature of the symbol because she herself is a “summoner” who calls up demons in her spare time. The Symbol Man had been active years before, then went quiet only to start up again just after Gillian is promoted to detective.

Gillian knows a lot about demons, but she is still a novice summoner, and when she tries to call up a particular demon, something goes badly wrong. The being who comes into her basement (Rowland explains the rarity of basements in Louisiana) is not the creature she called. He’s a demon lord, and he is very powerful and very angry. Yet he calms down when he sees Gillian, and she reacts by having a steamy sexual encounter with him. Gillian is always complaining about how plain she looks and how she never gets any action. The demon is definitely action. Then there is the FBI agent with the pretty eyes who comes to help find the serial killer.

The best of the plot lines is the serial killer chase. Yet it is dependent on the arcane complications. The demon sex and romantic interests are just extras.

Somehow it all seems to work and provides a compelling story line by the time you get toward the end of the book. The local color is pretty good and pretty accurate (basement aside), as you would expect from Rowland since she is from south Louisiana. Her characters are strong, Gillian the most complex and nuanced, but her bad guys are deliciously bad and her demons, if unbelievable, are plenty scary.