Donald Michael Platt's A Gathering of Vultures was published by DarkHart Press (an imprint of Briona Glen Publishing LLC) in 2012. This novel was originally published in 2007.
Donald Michael Platt is an American author. Click here to visit his official website.
Here's a description of A Gathering of Vultures:
MURDER, MUTILATION, CARRION... IN PARADISE?
"There shall the vultures also be gathered, every one with her mate." – ISAIAH 34:15
Professional ballroom dancers Terri and Rick Hamilton aspire to be world champions. Unfortunately, Terri's recurring back and health problems place that goal well out of reach.
They travel to Terri's birthplace, Florianópolis, on the scenic island of Santa Catarina off the coast of Brazil to vacation and visit their best friends and mentors.
Along the picturesque beaches, dead penguins and eviscerated bodies wash up on the shores of paradise, and Antarctic blasts play counterpoint to the tropical storms that rock the island. The scenic wonder is home not only to urubús, a unique sub-species of the black vulture, but also to a clique of mysterious women who offer Terri perfect health and the promise of fame – at a terrible price.
Rick fears Terri is being drawn into a cult and that his own life may be in danger. Will it be too late when he discovers something even more terrifying lives beneath the tranquil, tropical veneer of the island?
Idyllic one moment and nightmarish the next, you never know what you'll encounter in the city of Florianópolis – murder, mutilations, carrion, or the lure of eternal youth.
A REVIEW OF DONALD MICHAEL PLATT'S A GATHERING OF VULTURES
A Gathering of Vultures was a nice surprise for me, because it's an interesting and original combination of dark fantasy and horror elements. It can be categorized as dark fantasy and horror, but it's mostly weird fiction, because it contains plenty of elements which are associated with weird fiction.
It's always a pleasure to find new and talented authors who write fascinating horror and weird fiction, because there can never be too many talented authors. Donald Michael Platt is definitely one of these new and talented authors, because A Gathering of Vultures is "something different" and it offers lots of thrills and entertainment for horror readers.
Here's a bit of information about the story:
The events take place in Florianópolis. Terri and Rick are professional ballroom dancers who travel there to visit Martin and Irene, who are their mentors, friends and Terri's surrogate parents. When they meet Martin, Irene isn't with him and he doesn't talk about her. Another strange thing is that Martin's appearance has changed a lot. Everything else also seems weird to Terri and Rick, because things aren't exactly as they should be. Florianópolis seems to be a beautiful and ideal paradise, but danger and fear lurk beneath the beautiful surface and vultures can be seen everywhere...
The author writes amazingly well about the characters, their lives and their fears. For example, Terri's back pains are totally believably and the stress that it causes Terri feels realistic, because she feels that her health prevents them from becoming champions. Reading about Rick and his feelings is also very interesting (I'll write more about this later).
Another good example of the author's writing talents is that he wrote interestingly about Terri's father, who was a murderer. What happened to Terri's father and how he lost his sanity will be explained by the author, but I won't reveal what caused his insanity, because I want to avoid writing spoilers.
I was amazed how convincingly Donald Michael Platt wrote about ballroom dancing. He wrote how competitive and brutal dancing can be and how much work the dancers had to do in order to work their way up the pecking order, and showed that success doesn't come easy to them.
The prose in this novel is so good that at times it is almost lyrical in its descriptiveness, which is very nice, because I appreciate authors who write this kind of prose. I like the way the author writes about the happenings and keeps the story flowing, because his writing feels effortless, inspired and energetic.
Donald Michael Platt manages to create a nice sense of dread with his elegantly flowing prose. The feelings of fear that Rick begins to have are handled nicely. It's interesting to read how he notices changes in the people around him and in his wife, and begins to wonder what's going on and what's causing the changes.
The strange deaths and eviscerated bodies that wash up on the shore add a nice element of dread and weirdness to the storyline. The atmosphere is strangely melancholic, gloomy, weird and threatening - this kind of a combination is seldom found in modern horror novels. (The atmosphere in this novel reminded me a bit of the atmosphere in Laird Barron's The Croning.)
Donald Michael Platt writes believably about Brazilian way of life and manages to convey the atmosphere of a tropical paradise to the reader. It's easy to believe that the characters are spending time in Brazil.
The author also has a way of adding tension and weirdness bit by bit, which is very nice, because this kind of storytelling is addictive to horror fans. I think that readers, who are familiar with the works of old masters of horror and their way of writing about horrible and unmentionable things, will love this story. (Because I've always loved horror stories, which unfold slowly and gather momentum towards the end, I was impressed by the author's writing style. I'll write more about this in the next paragraph.)
Because I'm a big fan of quality weird fiction and dark fantasy, I was captivated by Donald Michael Platt's descriptions about the threatening atmosphere and the weird happenings. It's simply amazing how easily he builds up tension by writing about little things and makes the reader wonder what is happening and how the story will end.
The sub-species of black vulture, urubús, is an interesting sub-species. The vultures add a wonderfully unsettling element to the story, because they seem to be watching people. I was fascinated by what was revealed about the vultures, because the myths concerning vultures are fascinating. The strange scent of decay and rot, which hangs in the air, also adds a nice element of dread.
In my opinion, the ending of this novel was a bit different kind of an ending. I loved it, because it was a satisfying and imaginative ending.
A Gathering of Vultures contains echoes of Lovecraftian weirdness (the story starts normally, but then it takes a fantastic plunge into the realm of dark fantasy-based weird fiction). I think that H. P. Lovecraft's stories have been a great source of inspiration to the author, because there's similar kind of threatening and unsettling weirdness in this novel as there is in Lovecraft's stories. The author mentions certain Lovecraftian and Lovecraftian-like terms, which will delight fans of weird fiction. I think that readers, who have read Lovecraftian stories, will recognize these Lovecraftian terms and will be impressed by how easily the author uses them to his advantage.
I think it's good that there's a map in this novel, because it's useful to the reader. I also liked the vulture alphabets by Peter Szmer, because they looked great.
I sincerely hope that Donald Michael Platt will write more horror novels, because A Gathering of Vultures is one of the best horror novels I've ever read. It gets full five stars from me. (Because A Gathering of Vultures was a good horror novel, I became interested in the author's historical novels. I think I'll read them in the near future.)
A Gathering of Vultures is a gem among modern horror novels. It will be of interest to dark fantasy and horror readers, because it's a deliciously macabre and entertaining reading experience (fans of weird fiction will be pleasantly surprised when they read this novel). If you like good and well written horror novels, do yourself a favour and read this novel.
Highly recommended!