Publication Date: 24th February 2015 (first published 1980)
Publisher: Valancourt Books
ISBN: 9781941147634
Genre: Horror
Strong Point: The eerie atmosphere and the mixture of reality and ghostly elements.
Weak Point: The “baddies” can look and behave sometimes a bit clownish.
Books on Tour Rating: 
(4/5)
Goodreads Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️ (3.95/5)
“COLD MOON OVER BABYLON”
The moon plays tricks in Babylon. It behaves in a very bizarre way…it changes its size and intensity to such an extreme that it makes you believe you are under a strong fluorescent lighting and not the pale light of the moon…
And what about the river? The river at Babylon, the Styx, carries life as well as death. It feels as if it is cursed or as if it is looking for revenge…
The Larkin family knows this last fact very well, unfortunately.
In 1965, Jim and his wife JoAnn were sailing on their boat in that same river, the Styx. They found a sack and JoAnn picked it up. When she opened the sack, five snakes bitted her and her husband. He fell to the river and drown. She made it out of the water but sank into a quicksand. Their bodies were never recovered.
THE STORY
This is the prologue of “Cold Moon over Babylon”.
The present story has as protagonists the son and daughter of JoAnn and Jim, Margaret and Jerry. They live with their grandma, Evelyn, in a house next to their blueberry farm.
The farm is in a precarious situation and money is quite scarce. Their business and only livelihood is slowly dying.
However, another catastrophe is about to happen. Margaret, who is only 14 years old has disappeared, and no one knows where she is.
This is the prologue of “Cold Moon over Babylon”.
The present story has as protagonists the son and daughter of JoAnn and Jim, Margaret and Jerry. They live with their grandma, Evelyn, in a house next to their blueberry farm.
The farm is in a precarious situation and money is quite scarce. Their business and only livelihood is slowly dying.
However, another catastrophe is about to happen. Margaret, who is only 14 years old has disappeared, and no one knows where she is.
Evelyn and Jerry start looking for her without any results.
PARANORMAL ACTIVITY
Very early on, (unfortunately, in my copy of the book, it was written in the blurb!) we know about Margaret’s sad fate. And about who the killer is and the circumstances of the murder.
However, the most interesting and frightening characteristic of this book is what happens in Babylon once evil is left free.
The city, formerly a boring and sleepy town in Florida, becomes something else. Streets seem to change their destination, a black and disgusting black liquid flows in certain areas, water puddles appear inside houses, etc. etc.
What causes such strange circumstances? I think the best explanation is the embodiment of revenge…call it justice, divine justice if you want, but justice nonetheless.
THE NEIGHBOURS
The rest of the characters of “Cold Moon over Babylon” are a curious lot. Starting with the Town Sheriff, Ted Hale, whose wife left him for an FBI agent. And his daughter Belinda. She is maybe one of my favourite characters.
Then we have James Redfield, the banker and richest man in the area. He is 70 years old but had suffered various accidents that tie him to a wheelchair. And his two sons, Nathan and Benjamin, who are a couple of “good for nothing”, lazy and in a word, scumbags.
And then we have the typical character you can find in every small town, the big gossiper, Ed Geiger. He owned a store with his niece Annie-Leigh. If you want to know the latest rumours and incidents in town, go and speak with them.
And Warren Perry? A very young school teacher whose father went bankrupt and committed suicide. And whose mother is completely clingy with him, so he is forced to spend lots of time with her. But he despises her.
And many, many more. In my opinion such a group of characters is a very important part of the book. They complement the main plot superbly. It is such a diverse bunch of people that I enjoyed a lot reading about them and gossiping about their lives.
FINAL THOUGHTS ABOUT “COLD MOON OVER BABYLON”
“Cold Moon over Babylon” is my chosen book for the state of Florida in Johann‘s Instagram challenge #50states50horrorbooks .
I am very happy that I chose this one because I did not know about it. It is an older book and horror is normally not my first pick when choosing books to read.
In the book, I found a writer, Michael McDowell, who had a lot of experience as a screenwriter, having taken part in titles like “Beetlejuice” and “The Nightmare Before Christmas”. That is nothing!
Because of this, while I was reading, some scenes in the book felt absolutely like scenes of a movie. Of a very good movie.
In addition, his style is quite “up to the point”. There is no time for embellishments, he has to tell the story to the reader. However, the novel does not lack descriptions, which is what gives the book its eerie and spooky atmosphere.
McDowell creates a small microcosmos in the city of Babylon, and fills it with a group of characters which are the perfect partner for it. And not only people, but the moon itself as well as the river, are part of the characters list.
This embodiment of moon and river is what gives the book the above-mentioned ghostly atmosphere.
In a word, go for it. But beware…Some scenes from ”Cold Moon over Babylon” (for me, specially the one at the cemetery) may haunt your dreams… 😉
