Cold Moon over Babylon

Valancourt 20th Century Classics

By: Michael McDowell

Narrated by: Scott Brick

Length: 9 hrs and 41 mins

Publisher's summary

Welcome to Babylon, a typical sleepy Alabama small town, where years earlier the Larkin family suffered a terrible tragedy. Now they are about to endure another: 14-year-old Margaret Larkin will be robbed of her innocence and her life by a killer who is beyond the reach of the law.

But something strange is happening in Babylon: traffic lights flash an eerie blue, a ghostly hand slithers from the drain of a kitchen sink, graves erupt from the local cemetery in an implacable march of terror. And beneath the murky surface of the river, a shifting, almost human shape slowly takes form. Night after night it will pursue the murderer. And when the full moon rises over Babylon, it will seek a terrible vengeance.

Cold Moon Over Babylon, the second novel by Michael McDowell (1950-1999), author of Blackwater and The Elementals and screenwriter of Beetlejuice and The Nightmare Before Christmas, is a chilling Southern Gothic tale of revenge from beyond the grave that ranks among his most terrifying books.

©2015 Valancourt Books (P)2016 Griff Furst

Another McDowell Masterpiece!

I'm new to horror literature but already Michael McDowell is one of my favourites! I wish he were still with us because I haven't read one of his works yet that I haven't enjoyed/had nightmares about!! Another fantastic performance from Scott Brick as well!

LOVED IT!

First time reading this genre and I LOVED IT! Great story, great narrator, and great overall!!

Horror Classic

what a great writer! This book is eerie, spooky, shocking it has it all! characters are so well drawn that I really cared about what happened to them. No cannon fodder in this novel. I loved it!

Best Listen so far...wow!!

Where does Cold Moon over Babylon rank among all the audiobooks you’ve listened to so far?

This is definitely #1 in my book (see what I did there?), this book was amazing!!

What other book might you compare Cold Moon over Babylon to and why?

Quite honestly, I don't have one to really compare this to - I've read several horror books, but THIS is back to good old-fashioned creepy horror.

What does Scott Brick bring to the story that you wouldn’t experience if you just read the book?

My goodness, give me more Scott Brick. He read these characters so well and brought me into the story. I couldn't get enough of this!! He reminded me at times of Vincent Price. I was so sad when it ended.

Who was the most memorable character of Cold Moon over Babylon and why?

Probably Belinda. I liked her character alot, she was a bit of a firecracker at such a young age.

Any additional comments?

This one is going to be hard to top for me, but I look forward to researching more!

What a great story...

McDowell's abilities are what make this author immortal. After the last sentence, I found myself saying aloud, "WOW!". This is one of my favorite books and is what will throttle me into every little thing he's ever written. If you like a great ghost/revenge story with beautiful imagery, masterful storyline, rhythm and well formed characters ... Jump into the Styx river for a great ride! Narrator was perfect as well.

It’s a movie

I adore his work - but I saw the movie first and yes, the book was definitely better. Sadly I have the cast from the movie stuck in my head!! The narrator is no RC BRAY! He tried but fell short!

Good enough

Prefer elementals - this was more of a predictable bloodbath despite the supernatural element. The characters weren't as interesting and you could tell early where it was headed but good if you want something for the plane.

No one tells a good old fashioned southern ghost story like McDowell

Adored it! The narrator is wonderful and the story was one that kept my interest. I am never disappointed in his work!

Not my favorite McDowell

I listened to McDowell’s Blackwater series a couple years ago and loved it. I’ll probably listen to it again. It was so creepy and yet the characters were interesting, intriguing people. I can’t remember who narrated it, but they were fantastic.

I was eager to listen to this one, given my love for Blackwater, but I was disappointed. Part of it had to do with the narration. Scott Brick is not a favorite of mine, and I honestly usually just avoid listening to books he narrates. I was eager enough for this story, though, that I went ahead and gave him a shot. He’s just not great. I hated the way he narrated Evelyn. Everyone else was just kind of flat.

The story in this book isn’t as strong as Blackwater. There are many creepy moments — he does that so well. But the characters were pretty flat (matching Brick’s narration!) and they just didn’t engender the same empathy I’d had for those in Blackwater.

This was an okay Southern Gothic, but not the best. McDowell is worth your time. I’m going to keep avoiding Brick.

Cold Moon Over Babylon

My second book by this author and it did not disappoint.

I don’t care for super scary books in my old age but a little spook is good!

It took me a minute to get totally in to it, But once I did, what a fun ride.

Narration was top notch. Great story and the last two hours are sooo good!