Cold Front by Barry Hammond (re-issue coming early 2025)

Originally published in 1982 by Signet

There is a reissued version which is set for release in Jan/Feb of 2025 and you can pre-order it now from fathompress.com.

The original art was done by Tom Hallman

The reprint will have a new cover done by Stephen Andrade who has already done some fabulous covers for previous Fathom Press re-issues.

Here is the review in video form plus it has a showcase of some of my other winter horror novels. Keep scrolling for the written Cold Front review!

The basic premise: Three oil riggers in Canada are drunk and broke one night. While trying to acquire more drinkin’ money some dire mistakes are made. They venture out to the wilds for a bit. They get stranded in the middle of nowhere. Come upon a cabin with a lone creepy girl. Horror ensues.

Before we even get started, I had a difficult time trying to put my finger on how to describe the writing in this. There was something familiar about it. In my notes I wrote, it’s almost literary with sparse quick prose. But that wasn’t exactly it. And then I read Barry Hammond’s afterward, and he mentions one of his influences for this book was Charles Bukowski. He says, “I aspired to art that could be low-brow and high-brow at the same time…” And then it all made sense. It is oddly poetic and very crude but it’s also clever.

It starts with the setting; snowstorms, a shitty car and three hardened oil riggers from different ethnic backgrounds. One is native. One is French. One is Ukrainian. All three love to drink and are out of money. They ask for an advance from their asshole of a boss. He insults them and they kick the shit out of him. While unconscious the boys ransack the room and find a huge stack of cash and a bunch of liquor. They figure, well, we might as well kill him and keep all of it. They throw him in the trunk and head out to the sticks to dump the body figuring the snow will keep him covered until spring and they’ll be long gone.

One by one they pass out. The next morning, they look around and don’t know where they are. And the car is dead. And the body is missing from the trunk. They have no choice but to start walking. Eventually they come upon a lone cabin. It seems abandoned until they find an extremely attractive, very white, barely clothed woman.

One of the best aspects of this book is the suspense. Where it is going is obvious but why it’s going there is the mystery. And you feel right there with them as the weird unfolds. They are seemingly not in immediate danger at first. But they are trapped and unable to run or know when to run. It’s like when you’re sick but it’s not knocking you on your ass. It could be serious, maybe I should go now? But it could be nothing and I’m making myself worry for nothing.

Our three main characters aren’t even anti-heroes, they’re totally despicable people. Except for maybe Jimmy the native guy. I mean, he’s all in for the debauchery but he has a humorous apathetic view on everything that is happening that makes him completely endearing. John is a huge brute, who hates women, specifically his lesbian ex-wife (his words) and his child and the world in general. Ken is the Frenchman. He has the most sense about him but it doesn’t stop him from doing what needs to be done. He is also completely enamored with the strange woman.

The woman in the cabin is beyond creepy. Completely unsettling. She stares off into space and answers in short sentences. The fellas think she is mentally disabled. She also has a little smirk on her face like she knows something you don’t. She’s so white she’s practically translucent and often she runs around outside with no clothes on.

Up until the final leg of the story the book reminded me of Denis Johnson’s Jesus’ Son in that each chapter is a little short story itself. Not to mention, every character in this is a total shitty human being. What they talk about is crude and crass. The way that they talk to each other is working class tough. They have thick skin and drink hard liquor constantly. There was absolutely zero filler in this which is what I was saying about it being literary. All fat has been trimmed.

The end is a fever dream nightmare worthy of a David Lynch movie. What even is reality anymore?

I cannot believe how much I loved this. I know you’re thinking, yeah right Nick, we know Fathom Press sent this to you to review so your playing it up. I’m not. This is one of the best horror books I’ve ever read. The atmosphere, the violence, the lore, the language, was perfect. I’m telling you this was written for me. It was everything I love and the way it was written is exactly how I hope a book will read. The only way I could be more of the target demographic for this book would be if I was Canadian.

Go order it now: Cold Front