Question: While reading a murder mystery (or any other type of novel), do you parse the clues, track the characters and second-guess the narrator in an attempt to figure out the resolution? Or do you simply enjoy the plot twists as they unfold?

In the past, I would spend a lot of energy attempting to solve the murder case before the final chapter—but I rarely got it right. These days, I generally sit back and allow the author to tell their story one way or another with no expectations from me.  

While reading Unholy Blood by Ian Gielen, however, I slipped up and misinterpreted a bit of baseless foreshadowing. “Aha!” I thought immediately. “I know exactly how this book’s going to end. The girlfriend is gonna take a hammer and smash her boyfriend in the back of the head.” 

Boy, was I wrong. There was no skull-smashing whatsoever. Instead of reading between the lines like I did, I should have focused more on the imminent danger—id est, the giant, otherworldly bat living in a cave beneath the Adirondack Mountains. 

What begins as a fun Halloween party for a bunch of jocks and their cheerleading girlfriends quickly escalates into a grisly subterranean nightmare. It’s messy, pulpy and deeply unsettling. 

Without question, the Coon Mountain cave and its labyrinth of tunnels were truly magnificent. It was an intricate tapestry, a rare ecosystem untouched by human hands. The kids were understandably awed by the splendor before them. 

What they didn’t know was that a horrible, bat-like creature was living in the cave. And now it was furious that its lair had been invaded by the sound of laughter and loud music. “There was something about these humans that made it angry,” said Gielen, “something from long ago that slipped through its mind like sand.” Driven by ancient suffering, the bat’s rage becomes a metaphor for forgotten trauma passed down through time. 

For 200 pages, the creature stalks the college kids through the meandering tunnels. I have to admit that the spelunking travelogue often overshadows the monster horror, but overall, Unholy Blood builds to a solid (yet bleak) finale. The author has written a novel with a unique blend of American splendor and American carnage. He even throws in a little bit of bat sex. Just like in Las Vegas, whatever happens in the caves of the Adirondack Mountains, stays in the Adirondack Mountains.  

[ Unholy Blood / By Ian Gielen / First Printing: July 2025 / ISBN: 9781764012614 ]