Booknote: Coffin Hill, Volume 1

Caitlin Kittredge and Inaki Miranda, Coffin Hill, Volume 1: Forest of the Night.  New York: Vertigo, 2014. ISBN: 9781401248871.

This series is the story of Eve Coffin. Eve is a daughter of the Coffin family in a small New England town. The Coffin women are witches who fled Salem and the witch hunts, eventually settling in their current town. Eve goes to Boston, seeking to leave her past behind. She becomes a city cop but gets wounded on duty, so she gets a medical retirement. She then returns to the town she left behind where years ago one of her friends went missing and another ended up in a mental ward. Some folks, including the local police chief, seek to blame here, but there is a darker power involved. Will Eve be able to solve the mystery? 

Right away I will say that this is a volume with some good art. For some readers, this may be a good reason to pick it up. This is a horror/mystery story, more mystery than full horror. Fans of witches' stories will probably enjoy this one. The Coffin witches are traditional witches; you can forget the ideas of modern pop urban fantasy here. This work is the story of witches confronting a dark power in a small town while concerned about staying below the radar so to speak. The narrative jumps back and forth a bit between the modern time and flashbacks. Eve is not always a sympathetic character; as a teen, she was working to steal her best friend's boyfriend for instance.

In the end, if you like some suspense, a little drama, and some supernatural tales with witches, this may be for you. This is more in line with works like Lovecraft and Poe. I did not score it higher because some of the family and soap opera elements are just not appealing to me, but the supernatural suspense was pretty good. In terms of appeal, readers of works like the Locke and Key series may enjoy this one. I liked it, but that is about as far as I go. Volume collects issues 1-7 of the Coffin Hill comics.

Giving it 3.5 out 5 stars.

Disclosure: The mandatory stuff I have to type to tell you that I read this as an e-book review copy via NetGalley in exchange for a fair review. You know, so The Man is satisfied everything is kosher.