The River of Souls
McCammon made his name in the 1980s and early ’90s as one of the preeminent American horror novelists; after a lengthy break from publication, he returned in 2002 with the first of the Matthew Corbett novels, which are not horror (although there are horrific elements). The fifth book in the series, set in 1703, finds the young investigator in Charles Town, Carolina, where a girl has been murdered. Local residents are quick to identify the prime suspect: an escaped slave, who has fled into the swamps. Corbett, however, has his doubts, and—even though he’s a member of the party hunting for the slave—he’s not sure the man is a killer. The Corbett novels are rich, atmospheric stories, the kind of historical mystery that makes the reader feel as though he really has stepped back in time. Matthew is a very well designed character, very much a man of his time but also ahead of his time, as though he has stepped out of a modern-day crime lab into the early eighteenth century. For the author’s fans, a definite must-read. --David Pitt