Joe R. Lansdale utilizes his long career as a gifted storyteller in many styles to create what may be the ultimate multi-genre mixtape of a summer must-read.

While Lansdale has delivered horror gold and crime classics, pulp delights and comic book fun, TV and film gems, he’s also written deeply emotional novels that should stand alongside To Kill A Mockingbird and True Grit as modern classics of American Literature. In Moon Lake, he manages to mix most of those styles into one novel. The result is compelling.

What starts as near death experience which decimates a family turns quickly into an unblinking look at the Jim Crow South. The narrative then evolves into a mystery mixing crime, horror, small town politics gone insane, dark pasts, and disturbing secrets. That feast is leavened with humor that runs through the novel like new laces on a well-loved pair of Converse.

America’s champion mojo author once again visits the theme of dark waters, conjuring unique takes on gothic tropes, modernizing monsters, refreshing fiends, rehaunting houses, creating more current catacombs, and keeping the pace as swift as a runaway current.

Looking for a summer read that sweeps you away? Lansdale’s latest, Moon Lake, is highly recommended.