"The Buffalo Hunter" | Reviewed by Jennifer Johnson

Etsy Beaucarne didn’t know her great-great grandfather, didn’t know that he even existed, but when his crumbling manuscript is unearthed from within the walls of a parsonage and provided to her by the University of Montana, Etsy discovers a family history she didn’t anticipate. In fact, it may be just what her stagnant life needs to propel her forward. 

Arthur Beaucarne’s journal takes us back 100 years to 1912 when desecrated bodies have begun to turn up in Miles City, Montana, drawing concern and intrigue from the people of the town. Pastor Beaucarne—as we learn is the vocation of Etsy’s distant relation—is disturbed by the violence enacted on the poor victims and is further unsettled when, on the heels of the gruesome discovery, a stranger donning long black robes and darkened spectacles appears in the back of his chapel.

The “Indian Gentleman,” a Blackfeet man, Good Stab, introduces himself to the pastor and states that he wishes to confess his sins to “Three Persons” as he addresses Beaucarne as the “Father, Son and Creator.” Is his arrival coincidence or is it linked to the flayed bodies piling up in the Miles City well house?

Disturbed but fascinated, Arthur continues to meet with his visitor, transcribing the man’s life story along with his own account of the carnage befalling the people of Miles City. As Good Stab recounts his terrifying encounter with the unworldly creature who infected him with the affliction that plagues him—long teeth, sensitivity to light and a thirst for blood—Beaucarne struggles to remain skeptical of his guest’s claims of vampirism.

The transformation from Good Stab into Takes No Scalps creates a burden of guilt for him as he fights his urges and ultimately seeks vengeance upon the colonizers who seized and pillaged his people and their buffalo. Beaucarne’s continued discomfort and increasing acceptance of his nightly companion’s narrative slides into horror as he slowly discovers the true motive for Good Stab’s confession and the unavoidable linkage that brings their stories together. 

“The Buffalo Hunter” is the latest novel from Stephan Graham Jones and is like no other vampire story. Perfectly blending historical fiction (the Marias Massacre of 1870) into the tale of a bloodsucking revenant who takes on the traits of whomever (or whatever) he drains, this vampire revenge epic creeps off of the page as the two voices documented in the passages of Arthur Beaucarne’s manuscript slowly peel back their vestments to reveal their true selves, leaving one to ask who the real monsters are.  

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