One I didn't like

For quite some time I was looking for a reasonably priced copy of the out of print Full Moon Over Babylon. The novel gets high praise from the Amazon reviewers and a lot of love on GoodReads as well. I'm glad I only paid four bucks for my copy since I thought it was a rather run of the mill story, with turgid prose and nothing scary about it.

The narrative structure is a stand out. A down on its luck Southern family sees its members die one by one. You'd have to not pay attention to know who the bad guy is as soon as you meet him. I think that the author was going for a Jim Thompson sort of villain, but there is little insight, just irrational behavior from our baddie.

The scares come from ghosts, which I don't find scary (devils yes, ghosts no) and the threat to the family. There is some social criticism of how the powerful can manipulate their world to their liking. Oh well.