The Beast Within

by Mitch Rowland

The quiet, lakeside city of Ancroft has been shaken by the violent death of Frank Keller, local professor of mythology at Harbor College. Eyewitnesses to the bizarre scene reported that Frank was delirious, his flesh ripped bloody, while he repeated the haunting chants of a different tongue. When the local sheriff disappears, it falls on David Keller to unravel the mystery of this brother’s death; a situation complicated by the arrival of Aaron Malcolm, a detective claiming to know what Frank was trying to say.

“He is Menotath, he is here.”

Unsure who to trust, David enlists the help of Natalie, Frank’s estranged wife, and Rebecca Holland, a Coast Guard Lieutenant grappling with the resurgence of extinct parasites in Lake Chinook. But the more David learns about Ancroft’s dark secrets, the more his sanity starts to crumble.

182 pages, Paperback

Published August 25, 2016

About the author

Mitch Rowland’s earliest writing memory was of his childhood comics. Though they began as an excuse to draw, each successive issue produced smaller characters and set pieces to make room for the encroaching words. Deciding, just out of high school, that he wished to tackle the epic fantasy, Mitch began a journey to transcribe Lincoln’s story. Originally one novel, ‘The Sword of Eternity’ was written and revised as a personal project during the summer breaks, between semesters, and was finally completed in November 2011. For marketability purposes, the book was later broken in half and re-titled “Eternity’s Reach” and “Eternity’s Redemption” respectively. Mitch hopes they will serve as a strong foundation for a series of novels, as well as a career in speculative fiction writing. He currently lives in Michigan with his wife and family.

Reviews

[Julian Traas · Rating 4 out of 5]

"The Beast Within" follows David Keller, a college professor who comes to the fictive City of Ancroft (hugging Lake Michigan). Ancroft is a sleepy harbor town throughout most of the year, but it livens up dramatically during tourist season -- which just so happens to coincide with the opening of the story. As the tourists descend upon Ancroft, the secret on which the city was built sleeps fitfully. And the dramatic public death of Frank, David's brother, causes the city to stir... The slightest nudge could wake "The Beast Within."
David comes to Ancroft in order to set his late brother's affairs in order, but as he delves deeper into Frank's secrets -- and the mysterious circumstances surround his death -- he finds much more than he bargained for. Frank's house, built on a sprawling field he'd planned to transform into a golf course, is a den of dark secrets. David relies on the help of Frank's ex-wife and a few key allies to get at the truth. But things quickly get complicated... and dangerous.
If sanity were a map, "The Beast Within" lives on its edge-- Here There Be Monsters. The action takes place at the turn of the 21st century, which is fitting, as the novel boasts a strong secular millenarian quality. Make no mistake, by the end of this book, David and you will have come face to face with a threat of apocalyptic proportion.

This is a thriller/horror story that nods towards the classics, the works of the greats. Most notably, there are strong undertones (and even overtones) of the Cthulhian (Cthuluan?). Fans of the late great H.P. Lovecraft will find many references to the master's books here. First and foremost, Frank's dying words are a mad jumble of (what appear at first to be) nonsense syllables. This chant, central to the development of the plot, unravels in tandem with David's own mind, revealing layer after layer of truth, defying reason. Even though there exists a hauntingly real external threat in Ancroft, "The Beast Within" is a story *about* madness, in a way, which is quintessentially Lovecraftian. There are several tropes -- the house, the private detective, the rambling man near death -- that follow suit, nodding vigorously toward Lovecraft, but Rowland definitely makes this story his own thanks to the twists and turns it takes, right up until the very end. The ending, in fact, is the most unique part of the whole story, and it actually undercuts the Lovecraftian overtones. I mean that in a good way: Rowland sets you up with what you think must obviously happen and then does something utterly different. Without getting into specifics, and spoilers, that's as much as I can say.

"The Beast Within" does experience a slump in its second act as David struggles to figure out what to do next. There were a couple of chapters where I felt the action lag, the hero flag, and the story dragged its feet a bit. This might have been a by-product of Rowland's attempt to build a realistic "every-man" narrator -- we're not all genius detectives, right?, so it would make sense that not every main character can immediately access all the answers -- but there is definitely a short stretch where the reader might want to reach into story world and slap David across the face to get him back on track.
That being said, the brief lag is by no means a deal breaker.
The structure, diction, word choice -- all the technical stuff -- are in order and handled well, which is why I didn't bother mentioning them. Except I did just now. And now I'm still talking about them. And now I'm talking about talking about them. I suppose I could stop, but I enjoy dragging out a joke until it's lost all potential for being funny. Aaaand here we are.

Rowland's respect and love for the genre are evident throughout. "The Beast Within" is a reverent homage to classic horror and its healthy dose of Lovecraft is certainly welcome in an age of sparkling vampires, burly alpha werewolves, and so on. I'm not knocking those genres, I just prefer and miss the more epic-in-scope tales, of which "The Beast Within" is certainly one. If you're a fan of mystery, enjoy a good thriller, crave a suspenseful and rather quirky horror story, than you can't really go wrong with Rowland's "The Beast Within."

[Christina Rowland · Rating 5 out of 5]

Everything I love about creepy books in small towns.