Little Heaven

July 4, 2016
Cutter (The Deep) portrays three very damaged people trying to do good in this disturbing tale, which is elevated by illustrations by Adam Gorham. When Micah Shughrue wakes up to find his daughter missing, he’s terrified that a darkness from his past has come to claim her, so he enlists his former colleagues Minerva Atwater and Ebenezer Elkins to go back to the place that nearly broke them 15 years before: Little Heaven, a religious compound in the wilds of New Mexico that’s run by the slimy Rev. Amos Flesher. Flash back from 1980 to 1965, when the trio of mercenaries take a job to find Nate, a young boy who has been taken to Little Heaven. Just getting there is fraught with danger: dead birds fall from the sky, and the three investigators are chased by nightmarish creatures. Micah, Minerva, and Eb want to help the children at Little Heaven, but at what cost? Micah and his associates (calling them friends would be a stretch) are easy to root for, and horror fans yearning for the days of over-the-top stomach-churning gorefests will be darkly delighted.

October 15, 2016
Little Heaven, as described by Cutter (the pseudonym of Canadian writer Craig Davidson), is a big slice of hell. And this deeply disturbing story throws the reader right into the thick of it, along with a trio of mercenaries who encounter the supernatural within a Jonestown-like religious compound.The story opens in 1980, when three professional killers--spiky bounty hunter Minerva Atwater, refined English mercenary Ebenezer Elkins, and reformed family man Micah Shughrue--are still damaged by the events of 15 years earlier. That story is told in flashback, as the ragtag team--who became allies after trying and failing to assassinate each other--is hired by Ellen Bellhaven to rescue her nephew from the compound. Getting there requires navigating a dark wood, where they find evidence of undead, demonic creatures. Things get much worse at Little Heaven, as children turn sadistic, the head preacher turns power-crazed, some of the congregants are graphically murdered, and ominous insects and vermin are everywhere. The three outlaws follow a trail to a looming black mountain, where they face the shape-shifting embodiment of all this evil. They survive, but 15 years later it returns to abduct Shughrue's daughter, prompting a fateful rematch. The story is gripping and the language often poetic, and the three killers make oddly sympathetic heroes. But readers will need to maintain a high tolerance for grisly violence and unsettling imagery and be ready for a few sleepless nights. The early sections have enough dark humor to give a false sense of security. But once the team reaches Little Heaven, the pace of the horror is unrelenting.

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November 15, 2016

In what may be Cutter's (The Troop; The Deep) best work yet, this new novel follows three mercenaries who years earlier encountered a horrific monster that left them cursed. The trio are now hired by a young woman to check on her nephew, who is living in a remote New Mexico religious community known as Little Heaven. Each man must now face his past demons as they track down a deadly malevolent force that has taken over Little Heaven and its inhabitants. Shifting between the late 1960s and the 1980s, the action takes place in a gritty, remote Southwest with the settings so well detailed that they almost become characters in themselves. However, the graphic violence makes this unsuitable for teens and sensitive adult readers; the salty language and racially charged epithets typical of the time period may also offend. VERDICT Despite these flaws, this terrific novel will please hard-core horror fans.--Matt Schirano, Univ. of Bridgeport Lib., CT

Copyright 2016 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

Starred review from December 15, 2016
Cutter (The Deep, 2014) proves yet again that he is a master of thoughtful pulp horror. The year is 1980, and a young girl is lured from her home by a grotesque monster, but this is more than just a random kidnapping. That monster has a score to settle with the girl's father and his friends, a score that goes back to a different abduction in 1965 and the religious commune of Little Heaven, deep in the wilderness of New Mexico. Flipping between 1980 and 1965, this gruesome novel drips with dread from the very first lines, as we meet our extremely flawed but undeniably sympathetic heroes and watch them get dragged into the hell that is Little Heavenonly to find a much worse supernatural monster lurking in the surrounding woods. With it's claustrophobic, isolated setting, gory details, and strong action sequences, this book is sure to win over horror fans, but there is also a powerful underlying philosophical aspect here which ponders the meaning of family, love, and community. This permeates the novel and anchors it even in its most disturbing moments. Imagine that Bentley Little or the late Richard Laymon tried their hand at writing a Cormac McCarthy novel, and you understand who will enjoy this story.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2016, American Library Association.)