Charlie Book, a researcher for Texas Parks & Wildlife, is living aboard the Christabel, a wrecked, half-sunken, 19th-century freighter off the coast of Galveston in the Gulf of Mexico, and studying the ecosystem of a mangrove forest that has grown up through the deck. His research team -- Alan, Luisa and Gerald -- live in rented rooms on shore.

Book's life is fairly mundane and isolated, and he likes it that way ... until his ex-girlfriend, Ruby Cahill, shows up unexpectedly with another woman and a baby in tow, offering vague stories of some dangerous pursuit that has them afraid for their lives. Reluctantly, he agrees to let them stay with him on the Christabel, at least until an approaching hurricane has passed them by.

The woman is named Mae Cunningham, and she was Ruby's sister Bella's girlfriend. Bella is also the mother of the infant, Aiden, and Mae tells Ruby that Bella is dead. Murdered.

By witches.

These aren't the peaceful, healing, nature-tending witches of so many modern pagan traditions, but the dark, evil archetype that summons demons and sacrifices newborns. And they can maybe transform into birds, or at the very least control them. And they want Aiden, and they want Mae, and they want everyone who gets in their way to suffer and die.

That includes Book and Ruby, among others.

I'll leave readers to discover the rest of the plot on their own, but be warned -- The Night Birds is a stressful book! Much of the action takes place on the Christabel, which provides a weird and atmospheric setting for the creepy business that follows. And don't get too attached to the characters, either.

It's horror, after all.

Christopher Golden has written some very likable people here, and he has crafted a couple of sweet romantic twists as well ... which makes the horror of the story all the more, well, horrible. But let's be honest, readers care about the characters because they are so well written, and they will likewise be creeped out because the events that occur, both on the wreck and on the shore, are disturbing at a visceral level.

In addition to a taut, horrifying storyline, Golden has written scenes depicting so much pain, both physical and emotional, that it was at times hard to keep reading. Whether or not you like horror, that's good writing.

If you're like me, you'll finish The Night Birds with the sense that you've just been kicked in the stomach, and the knowledge that you just read something very good. I'm not entirely sure if I should thank Golden for the experience, but I'm glad I had it.

[ visit Christopher Golden's website ]