As the leaves turn and fall, it’s easy for thoughts to skip past Spooky Season and into the holidays—where, for some, the horror of Halloween continues, or reaches new heights, in the form of obligatory family gatherings. Both are true in KJ Charles’ All Of Us Murderers, which thrusts two turn-of-the-(20th)century men squarely into a Gothic horror.
Zeb Wyckham doesn’t like his family, necessarily, but when a relative reaches out with an invitation for everyone to reconnect at the family’s manor, Zeb reluctantly agrees. It’s not until he’s in the manor and the estate’s gates are securely locked that he realizes he’s been lured under false pretenses. This is no good-faith family reunion, but rather a ploy to pit Zeb against his brother and cousins for the family fortune. To make matters worse, among the staff at the shadowy manor is Zeb’s ex, Gideon.
Initially intending to white-knuckle his way through both unpleasant reunions, Zeb soon finds things becoming increasingly volatile. A young woman purported to be an illegitimate cousin insists ghosts roam the grounds, and Zeb can’t immediately explain away the shadowy figures that seem to come straight out of his grandfather’s darkest and most bizarre book. Blood-red letters on the manor’s wallpaper tell of each remaining inhabitants’ secrets, and Zeb’s nearly outs him to the rest of the family. The threats soon become corporeal, with the disappearance of one family member and the attack of another. As danger grows, even smoothing things over with Gideon isn’t enough to soothe Zeb’s nerves, and time is running out to escape.
The manor and grounds seem genuinely menacing, even aside from the apparitions and attacks. No Gothic horror would be complete without foreboding mists and a house full of twisted secrets, and Murderers has that in spades. It throws Zeb, and the reader, into a good amount of tension to start with, and the dread only grows from there. The pacing and balance is good between the various interpersonal dramas and the darkening shadows around them. Murderers was just the kind of book that I didn’t want to put down and go to bed, while also being the kind of book you shouldn’t read at night when the house is dark and quiet and you’re the only one awake. In other words, perfect for spooky season.
Zeb is remarkably normal in a modern sense, with an appropriate amount of horror at the bloody beginnings of his grandfather’s fortune and perfectly progressive opinions about sex, class, and race, and his views stand in such stark contrast to his family’s that it strained credulity. This is a new book, but it’s set in the past, and his having no outdated ideas felt more like our main character had traveled back through time rather than having been born in the era. This is not to say that I expect fiction set in historical eras to entertain old ideas without batting an eye, but there’s a delicate balance of the author including those ideas and acknowledging that our understandings of various things have changed. This was not so delicate. Zeb is also ADHD-coded with such clarity that it, too, made my suspension of disbelief flounder. The scenes where Zeb and Gideon make up for lost time, too, felt misplaced. I’m not sure any amount of yearning would allow me to get all hot and bothered in a house with ghosts and bloody wallpaper. (That said, Gideon does seem like a snack.)
Then again, it’s likely I’m overthinking this entire story. Murderers is a slim book and it moves quickly, punctuated by those steamy scenes. I haven’t read Charles’ other books, so I probably had the wrong idea going into it. Not every book is written for every person, and while the main character and his romance missed me, it’s likely to hit someone else square in the kisser.
Ring Reads 