When the Devil Climbs by Drake Vaughn

When the Devil Climbs is a gritty psychological thriller with some good horror elements mixed in. Four ex-cons are putting up a massive billboard known as Big Bertha. It’s just a typical day until a group of pigs that are carrying some sort of disease show up and kill one of the men. From that point forward, the remaining three are stuck on the billboard as the pigs circle around down below. Without a working cell phone, they are cut off from the rest of the world with no real way of escaping, lest they take their chances with the pigs. All Russ Grote wants to do is to go see his estranged son, who he has not seen in years after being in jail for a spell and going through drug and alcohol addiction, but his goal remains elusive.



I had a chance to get a look at this novel when it was still in its developmental stages and got to see an evolution in Drake Vaughn’s writing, one that in the final stages shows maturity and strength. The novel is tough and gritty, not an easy, uplifting read by any means but one that shows a great deal of realism in its characters. Despite his many flaws, Russ has a sense of humanity, a real underdog. You would like to see him reach his goal of surviving and seeing his estranged son, but there is lingering doubt as to whether that will ever happen. The ending kind of fit the tone of the rest of the novel. This is a good, tight read for fans of thrillers and horror.