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Book Review: Cluck: Murder Most Fowl

I fretted about how to begin this review for hours. I was afraid that if I came right out with the basic premise—how a boy with a very special gift is whisked away to a chicken-obsessed secret society in France to learn the fine-points of poultry exorcism, and then gets tested years later in an extremely haunted farm house infested with ghost-chickens—you would probably laugh out loud, then go on your merry way without even considering the idea of reading the book, and that would be a shame.

But, readers of this blog know good quality entertainment when they see it (obviously) and I know they will give it a chance; besides, who could resist a novel featuring a zombie Rooster King and his army of phantom hens?

Cluck is extremely well-written and is story-telling at its best. Author Eric D. Knapp shows his skills by successfully blending the difficult combination of humor and horror without the whole thing unraveling into something stupid. This is not so easy to do as I’ve seen with other novelists attempting this type of thing; the humor tends to clash with the horror and the author tragically turns it into something really dumb. Not so with Knapp; he grabs you on page one and doesn’t let go until the last zombie-chicken is plucked.

However, be forewarned: sections of this novel get down-right spooky! I get the sense that Knapp, who studied English and writing at the University of New Hampshire and the University of London, could have easily written a successful main-stream horror novel without so much as breaking a sweat. The opening scene of Cluck so vividly describes the creepy mouth of hell that I literally had goose-bumps forming on my arms.

Luckily for me, Knapp also crafts several scenes throughout the book which are absolutely hilarious. In particular, I enjoyed the exchanges between the book’s hero, Armand, and “The Charge,” a friendly but wise-cracking supernatural entity inhabiting his body. I defy you to suppress the laughter when these two (sharing the same body) disagree.

In the book’s final battle, Armand must face a very powerful Dead Rooster (yes!), “The largest rooster, living or dead, ever known to walk the face of the planet.”

Cluck: Murder Most Fowl is independently published so there’s no telling how long it might still be available. It is not, to my knowledge, available in any brick-and-mortar bookstores, so you will have to order it from Amazon or some other online bookseller.

CLICK HERE TO GET IT FROM AMAZON

One thing is certain: Cluck is completely original. You will not find anything like it anywhere and probably never will.

Cluck: Murder Most Fowl
Author: Eric D. Knapp
Illustrator: Ian Richard Miller
Published by: Booksurge
340 pages
Available only in Paperback