Jack Ketchum

The tales in “Peaceable Kingdom” run the gamut from supernatural horror and thriller to the just plain weird. The one consistent factor among the stories is Ketchum’s stellar writing. Regardless of how plain or outrageous the tale is, Ketchum’s crisp descriptions and well-realized characters bring an atmosphere to his writing that few authors are able to achieve. I won’t be surprised to find Ketchum someday being required reading in high school as his writing deserves to be right up there with the classical masters.

This is a collection that, once you’ve started reading you’ll find it quite literally hard to put down. Other than a few tales which don’t shine quite as brightly as the rest (but still outdo most other author’s work), “Peaceable Kingdom” is a collection of tiny masterpieces.

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The story itself seems rather simple and conventional: two young men and two young women go to an abandoned house out in the woods of Maine in order to play a game of adult hide and seek--the house has long been the subject of gossip and rumors but it cannot really be characterized as haunted. The idea for this seemingly foolish pursuit comes from Casey, a complicated, fascinating female character. Her constant shows of bravado and risk-taking bother our protagonist yet he never refuses her requests. The first half of the novel establishes Casey's character and background pretty well, so the context of the game makes sense to the reader. When the gang arrive at midnight and commence their game, this novel quickly shifts into overdrive. Having to follow our protagonist around this creepy house in the dark, searching for the hiding places of his friends, got this reader's blood pumping a little harder, but the increasingly scary nature of the game is actually no more than a prelude of the horror to come.

The only flaw I can identify in my own mind is Ketchum's level of characterization. He spends a lot of time introducing us to the four players of the hide and seek game, but I never fully came to know them. The complex Casey remains somewhat of an enigma to me despite the revelations we receive about her life and history. A few events seem very important when they happen but are never fully dealt with later on. Of course, Ketchum is mainly trying to scare readers, and to some extent it matters little whether or not we completely understand and care deeply about the players in his fictional universe. The fears Ketchum manipulates here are some of man's most primal, instinctive ones, which makes it almost impossible for the reader not to get sucked into the story and taken along for a wild ride. If you have begun to think that all horror novels are basically alike, Ketchum will surprise and delight you with his refreshing originality, realism, and honesty.