One unassuming, ordinary, morning, the people of Walden, Virginia wake up and discover their town has been plunged into darkness.  The electricity is down, cell phones have no signals, and the televisions and radios have no reception, only dead air.  And as dark as the town is, it is nothing compared to the absolute black that surrounds the town.  Trying to avoid panic, the fire chief sends a crew to visit the next town since all communications are out.  The men drive into the darkness beyond the town limits, and all that is heard from them again are their screams.  All who enter the darkness never leave it.

Robbie Higgins and his girlfriend, Christy, along with their neighbor Russ, investigate the darkness on the edge of town, wanting to see it for themselves.  What they learn is that the darkness is alive, it shows you visions of your desires (dearly departed relatives, lost lovers) to entrap you, to draw you into it.  But the darkness doesn’t stop there, it fills your head with thoughts, murderous thoughts, violent means.  Though Robbie and his friends try to resist, resistance isn’t always that easy.  It’s not long before the entire town is thrust into anarchy, and it’s a powder keg of hatred and violence ready to explode.

Finally, finally, Brian Keene seems to be getting back on track.  Darkness On the Edge of Town could be considered Keene-lite.  But that’s okay, it works for him.  With books like Dark Hollow, Castaways, and Urban Gothic, it felt as if Keene were trying to be provocative for the sake of being provocative, and what social commentary was in those books (mainly Urban Gothic) really felt forced.  With Darkness…., it’s all a lot smoother and never brings the story to a halt.  It’s hard to imagine Brian Keene applying any kind of restraint to his work, but that’s the name of the game here, and it helps the book.  I could almost feel Keene wanting to break loose in certain parts, and it’s that feeling that lends a certain dread to the story.  You never know when all hell is going to come busting through the door to get medieval on your ass.

No one can write an apocolyptic, or even a post-apocolyptic, tale like Brian Keene.  This little treasure may not measure up to the likes of The Rising or City of the Dead, but it’s his best book since those two masterpieces.

4 out of 5
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