Cooling Off

Seven years ago, a young woman named Beatrice was buried under snow in a car-crash, then dug out in frozen splendor. So now she's ""The Frozen Lady""--driven from parking lot to parking lot in a van that holds a body-sized freezer with glass sides, into which (for a fee) Beatrice will lie suspended in a frozen semi-animation for as long as the local lot-owner thinks he can keep the curious filing in. And the driver of the rig is Fred C. Barnes, Beatrice's manager and boyfriend and savior, who oversees and shills simultaneously. A good seam? Indeed. But, ever since The Frozen Lady's appearance not long before in Shreveport, Beatrice and Fred have been stalked by murderer/madman Elliot Tophet, a rheumatic, misshapen troll who has already once offered to buy Beatrice for $10,000. And now he's singlemindedly determined to steal her if he can figure out a way to do it. McCool, in his first novel, thus brings Gothic dread and modern-huckster manners into a mix that includes flavors of both Cormac McCarthy and Harry Crewes. Surprisingly, pleasingly, much of the hybrid works--Elliot is a true horror, the carny outrageousness of the stunt is genuinely funny. And, if this bizarre tale lacks the unity of style and tone that would have taken it beyond the odd, it's nevertheless a firm, clear, promising debut.