Besieged by an Unknown Evil

Author Michael Amos Cody blends murder and the supernatural in his new thriller Avalon Moon. Set in Runion, North Carolina, the novel opens with community members worried about an impending snowstorm and the potential danger posed by a new wolf sanctuary on a local island. But their fears shift when the bodies of a missing resident and a stranger are found together in a field. As more victims are discovered, the small town finds itself besieged by an unknown evil, and locals must work together to protect each other.

Fans of Cody’s work will recognize some of Moon’s characters, including Gabriel Tanner, the editor of the local newspaper, and they will already be familiar with Runion. While his version is fictional, Cody grew up near the remains of the actual Runion, an abandoned town located within Pisgah National Forest. Now a professor of English at East Tennessee State University, his previous books include Gabriel’s Songbook, A Twilight Reel, and Streets of Nashville.

Cody’s professional background is apparent throughout Moon. He frequently references the work of other writers, indirectly and directly teaching while entertaining. For instance, Ron Rash’s novel The Cove features in the plot, and Cody introduces his audience to Rash through Tanner. Tanner narrates while drafting his weekly column for his readers: “I reminded them that Rash was Parris Distinguished Professor of Appalachian Cultural Studies at Western Carolina University and that his novels Serena and The World Made Straight had also been — or were being — adapted into films.”

Cody also weaves into Moon his expertise in early American literature. Characters repeatedly reference Edgar Allan Poe, Nathaniel Hawthorne, and their works. Cody is a scholar of a lesser-known author who predates Poe and Hawthorne, and this author plays an important role in the story. But I’ll let readers discover his name for themselves.

Avalon Moon is a rich, multilayered tale. Historical events contribute to the main narrative drive, and smaller puzzles develop alongside the principal mystery of the killer’s identity. Instead of employing a single storyteller, Cody shifts between first-person and third-person narrators from chapter to chapter, allowing the reader to adopt different perspectives. And several themes wind throughout the work, including power versus powerlessness and the majesty of our natural world.

Cody excels at crafting believable scenes and characters, and this sense of reality is what truly terrifies. The reader can see themselves living in Runion and doing what the characters do. So when some of them are attacked, readers can also picture themselves as victims.

Cody particularly shines with his use of detail to bring his scenes and characters to life. For instance, when Tanner drives by his wife’s hair salon, he always honks his horn three times, each blast representing a word in “I love you.”

But it’s the details in scenes involving murder and the killer that really seize attention. I won’t recount them here because, while that wouldn’t spoil the mystery, it would spoil the experience. So I’ll leave it at this: I bet readers will remember these details long after finishing Avalon Moon. Ask me how I know.