“Zeb Barton knew many ways to die and had seen most of them.” No, fourteen-year-old Zeb isn’t a serial killer, nor has he spent time on the battlefield. Rather, this careworn young man is the son of a busy physician in a North Georgia town. Doc Barton is a man dedicated to his career, a necessary evil to keep his mind off the horrors of his life. And he’s never spared Zeb from the traumas in his practice, even regarding the boy as his young apprentice. Doc may have an unpredictable temper, a penchant for drink, and a filthy habit of smoking on the job, but he loves his son and his lifesaving work in equal measure. So when Zeb faces his own life-threatening injury, the Barton household shifts into recovery mode. But it isn’t just a snake’s venom poisoning Zeb. He is plagued with dreadful visions, overcome with fear from the voices only he can hear, wracked with guilt over past mistakes, and consumed by the notion of the Goatman, a local urban legend who serves as the subject of Zeb’s waking nightmares. Whispered rumors, tall tales, and nursery rhymes start to look more like facts than fiction when the town experiences a series of murders. Certain that if he can find the Goatman then he’ll be absolved of his personal demons, Zeb resolves to uncover the identity of the elusive fairytale specter and put an end to the tyranny once and for all.
Set in the era of the post-World War II South, everything in this novel feels untamed, exciting, and slightly bewildering by modern standards. Imagining a medical exam room filled with writhing snakes and cigarette smoke or a careless kid careening toward a dangerous river on an old motorcycle creates as much terror and mystique as any mythical creature ever could. As potential antagonists ebb and flow, the tide of the story wades into the complex waters of processing grief. Dark, purple prose lends to the sinister feel of the novel while family secrets emerge as one of the biggest threats. However, some of the most revealing, interesting, and plot-critical dialogue is laden with heavily affected dialect, diverting the focus from the suspenseful storyline and stifling the flow. Richly crafted characters and deeply held local lore form the basis of this gritty, depraved mystery, and readers will enjoy navigating the difficult terrain between psychological struggles and external threats in Wallace Martin’s The Goatman.
