Story Unlikely, November 2024

“The Whiteout Murders” by Mack Mani

Reviewed by Victoria Silverwolf

The protagonist of “The Whiteout Murders” by Mack Mani buys a battered, heavily annotated paperback true crime book about the unsolved killings of the 1970’s named in the title. Tracking down clues left in the book, he figures out that it belonged to the murderer. Further investigation leads to supernatural happenings and a final encounter with the killer.

The contrast between true crime narrative, in the form of multiple lengthy quotes from the imaginary book, and impossible happenings that distort space itself is disconcerting. The story reads like a mixture of a gruesome suspense novel and a tale of cosmic horror. Although these genres do not always blend gracefully, one can appreciate a climax that is not what one might expect.

Victoria Silverwolf reads a lot of old paperbacks.