Vincent Tirado is an Afro-Dominican Bronx native, says the back cover blurb on my ARC, and that makes him the perfect writer to craft this mystery with elements of horror that's populated by a toxic family with roots in the Dominican Republic who made their money in New York state. I got enough out of it by reading it straight for it to make complete sense, but I'm sure there are a lot of depths for anyone reading who's Dominican, not just their traditional prejudice for Haitians.

They're the Abreu family and it's Papi Ramon who started them on the road to riches through the company called A-B Millennium. That got him the gothic mansion abstracted on the cover that I'd happily buy for a dollar even if it feels sick when everybody arrives for the reading of his will. He's dead and Xiomara, his favourite granddaughter through his late daughter Josefina, isn't looking forward to meeting the rest of the family, who tormented her to death. Once I met them, I had a lot of sympathy for her, which isn't the only reason why she's one of only two characters we might actually like to spend time with. The other is Papi Ramon's maid, Naomi.

Josefina was one of five children, meaning that Xo has two aunts and two uncles, Tías Marisa and Aury and Tíos Rafael and Miguel. Neither aunt has children, but Rafael's daughter is Yaritza and Miguel's kids are Henry and Wanda. All of them show up, greedy for whatever they can get out of the old man, even though Manuel owns a megachurch and Aury a successful cosmetics business. It isn't about the money; it's about making sure nobody else gets it. Naomi took over as maid when her mother Julia was killed during a break in. With Ramon dead, she doesn't work there any more but his children are happy to order her about as if she does.

Ramon's lawyer is Roger McLaren but he doesn't show up for the reading, because he had a stroke that morning, so his son Mark attends in his stead. If you don't see that as a red flag, then you're not paying attention. There are lots of red flags here and the biggest one of all is the will itself. It isn't what anyone expects, for a start. It doesn't leave anything to anybody. It points out that one of them is a demon, el bacà, with whom he made a deal long ago that made the family rich. They now have twelve hours to find it and get rid of it. Stab it, he says, call it by name (which he doesn't provide) and verbally end the bloodline covenant. Otherwise, they're all damned.

Ain't that a kick in the head? Well, that's followed by realisation that none of them can leave the house because a storm to validate the "gothic" description on the cover has spun up and a letter arrives in the mail that says simply, "Confess your sins, or I will confess for you." If nobody makes a movie of this in the near future, I'll be absolutely shocked. It's tailor made for the big screen with its single cinematic location, its immediate hook and the mysterious and dramatic chaos that has to follow as inevitably as night follows day.

While the setting is gothic, the story is fundamentally a mystery drama. The horror element does appear but mostly through the off screen manifestation of el bacà, who attacks but doesn't kill a number of the family members. We're given the impression that it's some sort of monstrous dog or wolf creature, which works for me. What else works for me is that the letter, which isn't signed, absolutely delivers, through the news on Papi Ramon's television.

Every one of his children is an easy character to hate, so when the news starts to take them apart without them having any ability to even speak back is utterly joyous. In fact, we're likely to forget the mystery we're supposed to be figuring out while we enjoy the downfall of these poor excuses for human beings. Again, this sort of drama is perfect for a movie, where we can all cheer at their karmic downfalls and argue amongst ourselves as to who deserves to be next.

I won't talk about how their downfalls come about and I certainly won't talk about who el bacà is, let alone how everything works out, but I will comment on the title because it frankly invites that. There aren't a lot of moms in the book, especially given that neither uncle brings their wives with them and neither aunt is a mother. In fact, there aren't any moms present in the house, except in hindsight. We know about Josefina, Xo's mami, who was poorly treated by everyone else. And we know about Julia, who was murdered during a break in. Characters clearly should have been nicer to both of them.

So to which one does the title refer? Whatever the setup with Papi Ramon's demon, someone has a revenge story in play and they're enjoying taking down the various Abreu children (and some of their children), who all deserve it without reservation. But is it Xo seeking revenge for Josefina or Naomi seeking revenge for Julia? It can't be anyone else, which is quite a limiting factor, not least because Xo and Naomi are the only two characters we could possibly have any sympathy for. Does that mean that one of them is el bacà, that they're working with el bacà or that the whole el bacà angle is entirely coincidental to their revenge?

Well, I'm not going to tell you. You'll have to read this novel to find out and I'd recommend doing that before a studio snaps it up and turns it into a feature film. You deserve to picture every one of these characters before an actor is cast (or miscast) into playing them. And don't forget to put a list together soon into the book of who you want to be taken down a serious notch first, second and on down the line. You could even make a drinking game out of it, if you're feeling particularly optimistic. My only complaint is that there's a word missing from the description on the cover. It really ought to read "A Bitchy Modern Gothic Horror". ~~ Hal C F Astell