The Lebo Coven
Stephen Mark Rainey
Macabre Ink (September 11, 2024)
Reviewed by Carson Buckingham
Stephen Mark Rainey hits it out of the park again with The Lebo Coven. When you have creepy goings-on in a small town, warring witch contingents, and a black-hearted villain who makes Hitler look like Mary Poppins, how can you go wrong? And all this without a whole lot of blood and guts and veins in the teeth.
The Lebo Coven opens with Barry Riggs’s arrival at a place he swore he’d never go back to.
Home.
Aiken Mill, Virginia.
And his brother, Matt, is the entire reason for that.
After his parents died and his brother inherited the house, there was never a reason to return. But, since his place of employment had just folded, he was at loose ends, and blood, as they say, is thicker. So, when Barry receives word that Matt is missing, he reluctantly returns. Reluctantly, because the two have never gotten along…in fact, they despise each other.
What he finds is a completely trashed house with words painted on a wall in what looked like blood, and worst of all, no Matt to help him clean it up. At least, that is how he initially regarded his current situation.
The townspeople want to know what happened, but they all seem kind of, well, off to Barry—from Matt’s underage girlfriend to the town sheriff. Jennifer Brand, a girl who was born with spina bifida, and who somehow has overcome it and is gorgeous, joins forces with Barry to get to the bottom of things in Aiken Mill.
But it’s about so much more than just his brother.
Initially, Barry was extremely shallow and it’s the first time I’ve actively disliked a protagonist, but the author made it easy. Jennifer shows up, and he remembers—and she does too– how horrible he was to her when they were young, when she was severely handicapped—splitting on her, treating her like dirt—and enjoying it. But now, she’s beautiful, and at last, good enough for him. Hurrah. His apology to her was as shallow as he was, since it was given with an accompanying erection. As it turned out, growth or no growth, he wasn’t fit to shine her shoes. Barry’s only saving grace was that his character grew a bit and finally morphed into an adult. He became more open-minded about Jennifer’s abilities, the reality of what was happening in the town, and about his brother.
Jennifer was my favorite character. She was a complete human being overflowing with compassion, and intelligence—not to mention her white witch abilities, which came in handy. Beyond Jennifer, the characters in the book were not the most likable, but this is set in a small town in East Nowhere, filled with small-minded people and a river of evil undercurrent to keep them company. What can you expect? It was realistic.
Move over Mr. Lovecraft—Stephen Mark Rainey is in town!
