New Arrival: Those Who Came Before by J. H. Moncrieff

There was a time not long ago where detective shows ruled the airwaves. Whether it was the multitude of Law and Orders, everything from the classic to Criminal Intent, or CSI shows in every major city, going back to Starsky and Hutch and even Dragnet, law enforcement has always played well into the heroic archetype. The office in question may be a seasoned veteran who was not too old for this sh** or a fresh-faced rookie eager to prove themselves, but they risked everything to protect the public from the criminals that lurked just outside our vantage point. When involving horror and the supernatural, those evil forces go far beyond masked men or mob bosses in business suits into something truly malevolent, out to maim and murder in the most visceral way possible. J.H. Moncrieff’s newest Those Who Came Before borrows heavily from this hero cop archetype, but also adds its own flourishes that help it stand out from the stories that came before.

Detective Maria Greyeyes has seen a lot of disturbing things in her tenure as a homicide detective, but her most disturbing comes with the gory remains at the Strong Lake Campground where three campers met their grisly end and Reese Wallace, the only camper to survive, claims to have no memory of what happened. Those familiar with the cop archetype are familiar with the strain the job places on her marriage and family, but the case also tests the limits of her sanity, especially as whatever supernatural forces in that campground comes after Sarah. Just like Law and Order, this story benefits from multiple perspectives. Greyeyes is chasing down leads even as those leads take her into darker places while Reese is trying to come to terms with his own survivor’s guilt and basically being the only suspect in the case.

Along with multiple viewpoints, the novel gives us a narrative that borrows from historical fiction and perhaps showcases an overarching theme to the story. Along with the present day mystery narrative, the book goes into the past to show how a meeting between the indigenous people and white settlers has left a stain of evil upon this land. This narrative clearly depicts many of the settlers as the villains (with some historical accuracy), but the acts done by the natives in retaliation are what curses the campground for generations. Readers see how this evil created by blind hatred and revenge still permeates enough to be felt by Maria and Reese, even influencing their actions in the present. In many books about cursed places, much like this one, there is the theme of not necessarily evil spirits staining a place but evil acts that live beyond the people that perpetrated them. Maria in particular has the power to break the cycle, but readers will have to read the book to find out if she can.

Ultimately, this tale is a blend of different genres that, far from being a haphazard mishmash, tells an intriguing story about the permanence of evil and our need to be vigilant against it. Fans of mysteries, of historical fiction, of Native American mysticism, and of visceral horror will find this book has many different ways to sink its claws into them.