Crimson Veil By John Slaughter
Written By J.R. Dunmore
When I began reading Crimson Veil, I sat down with almost no expectations. I knew that
could write compelling fiction. Hell, I am still dying to know what happens to Samuel and Jonathan Walker in The Weight Of Steel. However, long-form writing is a different beast entirely, and many good writers get stuck in the slog of maintaining a coherent plot, writing beautiful prose and believable dialog over hundreds of pages, or in this case 180 pages.Yet, time and time again I was blown away. Honestly, there were a few times when I was taken aback by how effortless the prose felt. Very seldom a clunky sentence would catch me off guard and break my trance, but I think that says something about the quality of the prose overall. The few times something felt dissonant, it was obviously an aberration, and no sooner did I read the sentence the next line would pull me back in even deeper than I was initially.
All in all, Crimson Veil was an absolute pleasure to read.
Plot
Set in Arcadia on the Alabama-Georgia border in the years following World War II, Crimson Veil follows the life and career of JD Hooks, a lawyer’s son, and private eye as he is offered a case to find a missing person. Yet, as he digs deeper into the mysterious circumstances surrounding the disappearance he begins to uncover terrifying realities about the place he calls home.
Theme & Genre
This is a bona fide thriller and another great installment of Dixie Noir. I often found myself rushing to get back to the text after work or doing things around the house, as any good thriller should make you want to do. However, to break it down to a designation so simple would not do the work justice. Although this book is a thriller, and “Dixie Noir,” it is so much more…
More than a few times, the prose began to venture into the fray of consciousness, conflict, and being, ala Cormac McCarthy. One could only assume the musings found within the narrative of Crimson Veil were planted inside of the author at some point during his deployments to the Middle East and the combat experiences he had there as a US Marine. Something about being engaged in “the ultimate trade” stirs a man to a reflection few others are capable of apart from the experience of war.
Yet, it was not all despair for the fallen state of men and the reckoning of the chaos that pours forth from them. Very evident throughout the story is the tangible possibility of redemption. Crimson Veil, like all good myths, is fundamentally about sacrifice and transcendence. In pagan/secular myth, Odin, Horus, and Faust had to give something valuable up to gain a revelation about their being and reality. In the only true myth, Christ had to be crucified for those undeserving to achieve greater glory for all, and JD Hooks has done a little bit of both. Losing himself in the darkness that surrounds him paying the price of his soul for forbidden knowledge, and sacrificing himself in an attempt to save the undeserving and unaware.
*Note: J.R. Dunmore is a devout Christian who believes that the incarnation, crucifixion, and resurrection are the one place in human history where myth met reality in the divine person of Jesus Christ. Think of it as a hyperreal synchronicity if you will, or where the meta-narrative and historical narrative collide.
This would come as a surprise if it was from a secular author, but as I know
and his deep faith in Christ, I realize that these themes whether intentional or not make themselves manifest in the work as a result of what is inside him. The effects were obvious, and frankly, they were a breath of fresh air. To have a gritty protagonist that was impossible to hate is rare. Most of them are insufferable and cliche, but in JD Hooks, I found someone who I could always relate to as a man, even though I couldn’t always relate to all of his experiences. Reading his story was very much like reading the story of King David. Selah.Style
has a unique way of writing, and I believe from reading the text it is apparent that he is a very visual thinker. This style is most evident when he is transitioning scenes throughout the book. I think his way of doing this would lend itself incredibly well to film, and with minor adaptation, Crimson Veil could easily be a screenplay. Perhaps even the next season of True Detective? Make no mistake though, Crimson Veil is a piece of literary fiction, it is just the author’s style that lends it to the medium of film.As far as the composition of the story goes, it was executed well, it never felt amateurish, and the foreshadowing was subtle, which made the climax much more enjoyable. I often figure out the plot of a movie while I am still watching the first half in the theatre, but I was unable to divine the direction of the narrative and it was glorious. This is an indictment against the mainstream writers and a compliment to Mr. Slaughter.
In addition to this, Mr. Slaughter like so many great Southern writers who have gone before him, excelled at creating interesting characters who felt real. Other than the protagonist, I was most impressed with his hero’s paramour, John has an uncanny ability to write believable women that come to life on the page before you.
Another pleasant surprise was the technicality of his writing. I’ve only read a few books that have come out of the Twitter/X sphere, but those that I have read thus far have blown me away. What has most impressed me about Mr. Slaughter is his evident lack of experience writing long-form fiction, as pointed out by the great author Tom Edgemon about Crimson Veil,
“Slaughter has delivered a fine piece of Noir with all the trappings of great fiction. Given this is his first novel, if his subsequent ones are any better, he very well may put the rest of us out of business.” — Tom Edgemon
There really isn’t much more I can add to that. Reading Crimson Veil was very much like what I imagine a college football scout feels like when he goes to a no-name school in a rural town and finds the next Tom Brady or Brett Favre.
Final Thoughts
Honestly, if there was anything I could leave you with, it would be to buy the book. So far as I can tell, Crimson Veil is an instant classic of Dixie Noir. Well-written and beautifully composed, I would encourage everyone to read this book.
If you would like to buy Crimson Veil click here. If you would like to follow
on X click here. You can also find his Substack below.
Thank you for taking the time to read this review today. If you enjoyed reading this, please share it with a friend, word of mouth is how we grow. God bless y’all, and Deo Vindice. — J.R. Dunmore, EIC