Creekers

Edward Lee is one of the most popular of the “extreme” horror writers, those whose stories push the boundaries of acceptable limits of sex and violence. This has made him a somewhat controversial author. Creekers, originally published in 1994, was something of a breakthrough novel for him.

Phil Straker is an ambitious big city cop, who originally hailed from the small Southern town of Crick City (for non-Southerners, “Crick” is a colloquial way of saying “creek”). He is on his way up the ladder when he is framed for shooting a child, and his career is destroyed. The only job in law enforcement he can find is in his old hometown, so he joins the small Crick City police force, and is detailed by the police chief to begin an undercover investigation of a local meth ring.

The meth operation is run by a member of the titular “Creekers”, backwoods residents who have intermarried for generations, resulting in a variety of aberrations and birth defects. Creekers have red eyes and black hair, and many have misshapen heads and missing or extra limbs and other features. Phil is drawn into a macabre world of stripclubs/whorehouses employing hideously deformed Creeker girls, and an underclass that has it’s own strange agenda.

Creekers is not for the squeamish. It has scenes of deviant sex, and gonzo violence. But for those of us who can handle such topics, we are rewarded with a fast-moving tale with unpredictable turns and surprises.