book’s many plot threads unconnected. Kraus completed the book, working from his knowledge of Cajun folklore and Romero’s own likes and preferences.

Pay the Piper takes place in and around the town of Alligator Point, deep in the Louisiana bayou. The story begins with the arrival of a traveling carnival on January 8. That date is significant because the Battle of New Orleans occurred on the same date in 1815, and most residents of Alligator Point are descendants of Jean Lafitte’s pirates who fought alongside Andrew Jackson. (The book will conclude with the carnival’s return six months later.) A precocious nine-year-old girl named Pontiac visits the carnival and has an unfortunate encounter with one of its attractions, a cottonmouth snake that gets out of its enclosure. Pontiac (she doesn’t like anyone to use her first name) escapes unharmed, which is a better fate than the one that befalls her best friend, Billy May, that night. He is lured from his bedroom by the enticing voice of the titular Piper, following the entity into the swamp, never to be seen again.

Over the next six months, the population of Alligator Point dwindles dramatically. A couple of young people disappear the same way Billy May did. Others sell their property to the Oil Man who makes offers on behalf of an oil company for their land to those who want to get out. To top it off, the town’s residents have had abnormally high death rates from cancer over the years, courtesy of toxic byproducts from the nearby drilling sites. Pontiac is one of the few residents who realize that evil forces are active around Alligator Point.

What impressed me the most about Pay the Piper were the story’s many unique, fully developed characters. Horror fiction often relies on stock characters because many aren’t around for very long. Pay the Piper has about a dozen characters that rival anything you’ll find in this type of fiction. Further, they all reflect the Cajun bayou atmosphere. My favorite was Pete Roosevelt, Alligator Point’s unofficial law-and-order representative. He’s unofficial since the town has no authority to have a police department (and he doesn’t carry a weapon). But he still makes his rounds trying to keep people in line. He’s also a huge John Wayne fan, having memorized almost every bit of dialogue from all the Duke’s movies. Characters like Pete make Pay the Piper entertaining, even when there are no supernatural goings on.

Unfortunately, the book’s complexity and many colorful characters prove its eventual undoing. George Romero put the book aside for years because he couldn’t fit all the plot elements together. Daniel Kraus does so, but in a way that goes way overboard, turning the book’s finale into something out of a bloated-budget disaster film. The last revelation of the nature of the evil forces at play borders on being ludicrous rather than suspenseful or frightening. I must assume these last few chapters are Kraus’s contribution to the book. This portion of the story becomes very confusing and difficult to follow. (I’m still not sure which characters survived by the conclusion.) Worse, parts of the story seem taken from a Watchmen comic book.

I suspect that the nature of George Romero’s unfinished text may have given Daniel Kraus an impossible task to complete Pay the Piper. The book’s current ending is a mess that detracts considerably from the wonderfully descriptive text that preceded it. Most of this book creates a marvelous feeling for the locale, its culture, and its characters. Not even the disappointing ending could diminish its effect. I’m giving Pay the Piper a three-star rating and marginal recommendation. Read it for its strengths and try to get through the weaker parts.

NOTE: The publisher graciously provided me with a copy of this book through NetGalley. However, the decision to review the book and the contents of this review are entirely my own.