BOOK REVIEW: The Mailman

I may never check my mail again after reading Bentley Little’s book THE MAILMAN. Bentley Little has been the recipient of the Bram Stoker Award and he has my vote for capturing the sense of the macabre as well as any author that I have read.

The residents of a tiny town in Arizona liked the man who delivered their mail; he was friendly and punctual. His suicide was a complete shock.

Very quickly a new mailman was hired and the nature of the mail changed. At first everyone was delighted. The bills and junk mail are no longer in the mailboxes. Now letters are coming from long-lost friends; sweepstakes are being won. Now the mail has become an adventure of only good things.

Soon the once anticipated mail becomes something to fear. Letters full of hate, accusations, and ugly, gruesome pictures start to arrive. Then the killings begin.

English teacher Doug Albin had been ready to spend the summer reading and doing some chores that his wife had been waiting for him to get done around their rural home. His son was just glad that school was over for the summer. He and his friend had built this terrific fort in the back yard and they were going to spend most of their time in it. The new mailman had different ideas for the three of them as well as for the town.

Little does everything right in building the horror of this story. The Albin family is a typical family, nice, but not perfect. The town is small enough that people know the good and the not-so-good about each other. Everything starts so peaceful and then small things start to happen. At first there are sensible explanations, but the author then takes the reader into the horrific unexplainable.

THE MAILMAN gives a new meaning to the expression “going postal”.