Dark Corner
By Brandon Massey

       Like Clive Barker’s “Candyman,” Brandon Massey’s second thrilling novel (following on the heels of his Gold Pen Award-winning Thunderland) draws on the legacy of slavery and racism in the American South to create a story of an ancient, terrifying, mysterious horror preying on a rural African-American community in Mississippi.

     Diallo, the warrior king from Mali, seeks vengeance against all humanity for the death of his first wife, but his current wife, the enigmatic Lisha, will do whatever it takes to prevent excuse for violence against modern reclusive vampires, including sacrificing Diallo’s son Kyle. At the same time, Web designer David Hunter moves to Diallo’s war zone, Mason’s Corner (Dark Corner more familiarly) to understand why his father, famed novelist Richard Hunter, chose to sacrifice a father and son relationship. However, the truth behind Richard’s absence lies in an ancient family legacy linked to Diallo. Sounds like an update of “Candyman.”

      This time, however, the protagonists are black--think Will and Jada Pinkett Smith, or Denzel Washington and Halle Berry, with a sprinkling of Alfre Woodard, Lawrence Fishburne, Louis Gossett Jr., Don Cheadle, Sidney Poitier, Charles Dutton, Oprah Winfrey, Regina Taylor, Ruby Dee and Ossie Davis---who would be the perfect choice to play an older scholarly couple. There’s even a small, memorable role for a white man (can we call him the token minority?), a valiant Vietnam vet. Halle, along with Wesley Snipes, gets a mention in this pop culture-laden story. However, Massey refutes popular culture and delivers a brilliant answer to Anne Rice’s Lestat in his portrayal of vampires.

      Besides David McLeod’s Dancing with the Moon, this is the most original vampire novel to debut. Both stories portray vampires, and for that matter African-Americans, as flawed but vibrant creatures with complex motives, not harmed by religious symbols and sleeping in coffins (as Kyle Coiraut, sheltered vampire son relying on packaged blood from blood banks, muses, “What sane creature slumbered in a wooden box intended for the dead?”). Both provide powerful stories of family, in this case fathers and sons (with a great mother-daughter conflict) and of good versus evil.