The Great Work

Debut novelist Costa sets this astounding tale of alchemy, prophecy, and adventure in Washington’s Olympic Peninsula in 1889. Gentle Montgomery and his mentor, Liam O’Kelly, make their living as embalmers while Liam endeavors to complete the Great Work of alchemy, “the conquest of death.” When Liam drowns in Dalton Lake, the rumored home of a water-dwelling dragon, Gentle is determined to carry on Liam’s work and certain that the dragon’s own blood is the final ingredient necessary to resurrect his dead friend. His 14-year-old nephew, Kitt, arrives unexpectedly from Ohio, fleeing his abusive father, Gentle’s brother, and insists on hunting the monster with Gentle. The pair embark on their quest with a goal but no determined path, plagued along the way by disturbing dreams and accompanied by their faithful mule, Abe, who carries Liam’s embalmed body in a casket. What follows are a series of wonderfully strange episodes, reminiscent in timbre of The Odyssey or Huckleberry Finn. Colorful characters met as they track the monster through the Pacific Northwest include “unlikely hunter” Hercules Belmont and the Sons of Adam, a group who believe themselves to be the “Leviathan’s chosen.” This is a weird western done right: surprising, bizarre, occasionally grim, but ultimately life-affirming. (Nov.)