Pay the Piper

By: Jamie Steinberg

Renee Pontiac (don’t use the first name) is a ten-year-old living in Alligator Point, Louisiana. Her father is a drunk and her best friend Billy May is a coward. This spitfire of a girl has heard stories of “The Piper” – a murderous swamp being – all her life, but only recently has she started to believe these tales might be true when children begin disappearing from the bayou. In the book Pay the Piper famed horror filmmaker George A. Romero and novelist Daniel Kraus combine to tell as frightening a tale as one of Romero’s movies.

Back on January 8, 1815, British soldiers stormed New Orleans. Major General Andrew Jackson was able to hold the city and send the Brits packing with the help of Blacks, frontier riflemen, Choctaw Indians and the men of the Pirates Lafitte. Those who perished in the battle had their bodies thrown down a hole in Chalmette Plantation’s battlefield. To celebrate this win, every year Bob Fireman’s Wagon Wheel Carnival comes to town and draws out the residents of Alligator Point. Precocious youngster Pontiac is one of those and she is determined to face her fears in “The Chamber of Dragons.” Not with Pontiac is her bestie Billy May who has stayed scared. Little does he know that what he should be afraid of will come calling for him at his own home as he is tricked into going outside in the middle of the night to meet something that will take his life.

So begins the tale of Pontiac and her mission to take down whatever is coming after and killing local kids. Very reminiscent of the film It, in the book Pay the Piper Pontiac teams up with her father, her schoolteacher and a local merchant to destroy the entity. As someone who is not a horror fan, I still found myself intrigued and invested in the tale – turning page after page to see how things were resolved. Pontiac is queen of sass and that’s a tribute to the fact she’s been raised by a father who favors the drink over parenting.

Kraus stumbled upon the half-finished novel of Pay the Piper while sifting through the George A. Romero Archival Collection and received permission from Romero’s estate to pick up where the manuscript left off. Kraus does a seamless job of carrying on the storyline to where the reader does not know where Romero began, and Kraus took over. There is also a beautiful light shone on the Cajun culture and the voodoo mysticism that surrounds the city of New Orleans which weaves its way deep into this dark tale.

For those who are fans of horror movies and scary stories, Pay the Piper will do the trick. The characters are unique and have true depth that you want each and every one of them to avoid an ill fate for which their lineage may be at fault. Grab a spot on the sofa and be ready for Pontiac start swearing while she and her rag tag team fight for their tiny town.