The town of Sturgeons might have it’s cute little motto of “The Good Life Begins And Ends Here!” but their travel bureau has their work cut out for them with the odd things going on around town. The first half of this serial book (“Darkening Sturgeons“) has town folks disappearing like flies under dark and unknown circumstances, leaving the local sheriff’s department and team of out-of-town scientists baffled. The second half (“Haunting Sturgeons“) has twenty-something Jimmy Schroder returning to his old home town after a decade away, to find out exactly what happened to his missing brother and the incident that caused his family to flee Sturgeons.
John L. Harmon, the indie-author of “Sturgeons: (The Complete Serials)“, has a welcoming writing style that makes for a fun and unexpected read. I found myself flying through the pages reliving these stories I read before but finding new things to appreciate and smirking at the undertones of humor. The book is a mix of creepy with a little sci-fi thrown in and a whole lot of small-town heart. As with any small town, you get to know the characters (and I do mean characters, gotta love nosey-neighbor Floridia Minch in her binocular necklace and gospel-country music on full blast) who bring the town to life and had me rooting for happy endings, which are hard to come by in Sturgeons.
In my gay opinion, “Sturgeons: (The Complete Serials)” is a great book to visit but if Sturgeons should find itself on anyone’s Top Ten Places To Visit Before You Die list, any unfortunate soul willing to risk it, wouldn’t be seeing the other nine.
