Don't Fear the Reaper (The Indian Lake Trilogy, #2)

by Stephen Graham Jones

The Golem, which is another graft from Judaism. This is the hulking protector or “revenger” that gets pitted against those who would harm or oppress the Jewish people. Made of clay, supernaturally strong, and animated by magic, the Golem is a fearsome presence, to be sure, but also something of a mindless automaton, in that it’s controlled by the wronged and desperate person who raised it—and nearly always, of course, loses control of it, leaving it to, as Dark Mill South does, rampage until forcibly stopped. Grendel, the monster of the Old English poem Beowulf. Grendel is less a rampager, more a ravager—specifically, of Heorot, a mead hall and occasional dormitory for warriors. Like the Golem, Grendel can only be stopped with force, by someone pure of heart and intention. Dark Mill South being identified with Grendel, then, is of course an indictment of law enforcement, in that, were any of them pure of heart and intention, then Dark Mill South would have been stopped years ago, rather than ducking into state after state, and killing at will.