SYNOPSIS:

Set (mostly) in 1970s Portland, Coffin Moon follows barkeep Duane Minor, a Vietnam vet struggling with PTSD nightmares.

Those nightmares bleed into his days when a gang of bikers force their way into his establishment, led by a hulking vampire named John Varley.

Worse, Duane has an adopted teenage niece to care for, and Varley’s more brutal than your average bloodsucker…

RELEASE DATE: September 9, 2025 (but you can pre-order now)

RATING: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

REVIEW:

This one will pull your heart from your chest, play your arteries like a harp, then tear out your throat too, just for the fun of it.

What I’m saying is: Coffin Moon is good. Really, really good. Amazing, in fact.

It’s Stephen King at his best good. It has Uncle Stevie’s sense of place, his emotional intelligence, and - most of all - his villainous brilliance at immersing his readers in simple, straightforward, abject terror.

Example: There’s a sequence in here, in a Children’s Museum, that feels like one of those ‘70s paperback covers come to life. You know the ones. The scary ones.

There’s another moment, where a very minor character, a one-scene character, is handed one of the best metaphors in the book, on a dirty bathroom floor. Utterly meaningless in the grand scheme of the plot, beautiful for no reason.

You will live with these characters, you will love them, you will scream at them to make different choices. You’ll experience a profound sense of sadness when you reach the back cover, and you’ll press your hand against it, because that’s what you do when you want to remember something.

I give Coffin Moon a universe of stars. [five, if you’re being pedantic]