VULTURES

The long, strange journey of the cursed girl Miriam Black finally comes to an end.

Wendig (The Raptor and the Wren, 2018, etc.) has been writing about his punk-rock angel of death for nearly a decade now, and he’s chosen this sixth book to finally tie up the loose ends. Miriam, who’s cursed with the ability to see how and when anyone she touches will die, has been through so much already, and Wendig isn’t letting her go easily. As the book opens, she’s pregnant with the daughter of her now-gone lover, augmented by a new paranormal healing ability, and traveling with her recent paramour, Gabby, all while being chased by the supernatural shape-shifter she calls The Trespasser. She’s recruited by FBI agent David Guerrero, who’s assembled a team with gifts similar to Miriam’s in pursuit of a serial killer code-named “Starfucker” for targeting young actors in Hollywood. That’s the gist of it, but Wendig throws in everything but the kitchen sink here, including the return of several villains and an old ally, the elusive Wren. Come for the medium who thinks he’s Rasputin reincarnated; stay for the series’ new big bad, The Ghost of All-Dead. The story is as propulsive as ever, with Miriam’s new abilities giving Wendig a devious way to torture his much-loved fate-breaker—as always, Miriam is acidly profane, and the story is graphic both sexually and in terms of sheer bloody and visceral violence. It’s certainly not the best entry point for the series—that would be the hard-charging opener, Blackbirds (2015). But readers who have shared the journey of this hard-drinking, hard-living runaway and want to see if she finally gets free of her demonic conundrum will have as much of a blast as ever.

Gruesome and bathed in ebony-black humor, this is a much-deserved conclusion for one of horror’s most imaginative heroines.