Leviathan

Leviathan: A Matthew Corbett Novel 

By Robert McCammon 

Lividian Publications, 2024 

Hardcover: $39.95; eBook: $17.99 

Genre: Historical Fiction, Horror, Suspense Thriller 

Reviewed by Edward Journey 

Leviathan, the tenth and final volume of Robert McCammon’s Matthew Corbett series, was recently released to much anticipation. The ebb and flow of Robert McCammon’s macabre and fascinating fiction is hard to resist. In the saga of Matthew Corbett novels and a volume of short fiction, McCammon follows the clever and charismatic “problem solver” Corbett, “the Early American James Bond,” through multiple adventures in the American colonies and Europe with a remarkable sense of detail. Corbett and his cohorts make for entertaining companions as they consciously confront danger. McCammon, who will soon be inducted into the Alabama Writers Hall of Fame, lures the reader with an enticing cavalcade of unpredictable events, narrow escapes, and memorable villains. 

Among those memorable villains are Leviathan’s Mars and Venus Scaramanga, the Grandmaster and Grandmistress of Famiglia Dello Scorpione, an Italian crime family. Leviathan opens with a gory Grand Guignol Prologue introducing the Scaramanga twins, who are on a quest to locate the elusive mirror that can summon demons of the underworld. The Prologue also introduces the giant wolf-masked Lupo, the primary henchman for the Scaramanga family and a brutal, monstrous presence. 

After the sadistic display of the Scaramangas’ use of torture, Chapter One finds Matthew Corbett being held prisoner by the Spanish, who occupy the island of Sardinia in 1704. The imprisonment is a lax one, and the prisoners generally come and go as they please. Corbett’s task on the island is basket-weaving. His great friend and colleague, Hudson Greathouse – one of McCammon’s most entertaining characters – is also held captive on Sardinia. Mentally and physically diminished since their captivity and escape from Golgotha, Corbett is further occupied with Greathouse’s rehabilitation, and with finding a way to get back to New York and his great love, Berry Grigsby. Among the other English captives on Sardinia are two of McCammon’s most familiar villains – Professor Fell and Cardinal Black. The ghoulish Cardinal Black is still as ominously creepy as ever, but the driven Professor Fell seems to have softened since the Golgotha escape, occupying his time with scholarly pursuits, communion with nature, and painting in his well-furnished cell. 

Santiago, the Spanish governor of the island, is charged with pursuing the Spanish government’s desire to find and seize the hell’s gate mirror. The assembled team includes Matthew Corbett, Professor Fell, Cardinal Black, and a handful of Spanish soldiers to travel to Venice to begin their search. They are to be joined by enticing Spanish “witch-hunter,” Camilla Espaziel, who is in possession of the book containing the demonic spells. For his participation in the quest, Corbett negotiates the inclusion of Hudson Greathouse on the team and the prisoners’ release upon completion of the quest, whether they find the mirror or not. 

From these circumstances, the next Matthew Corbett adventure commences. Leviathan offers the masterful plot developments we have learned to expect from a McCammon novel. Episodes of regret and redemption, the ugliness of warfare, Corbett’s skepticism despite his own supernatural experiences, and scenes of brutal violence and vivid depravity enhance the story’s pace and suspenseful resonance. As always, Good vs. Evil is an ongoing theme. In the case of Dr. Fell, a change of heart does not necessarily mean a loss of edge. And Corbett’s quest to be reunited with Berry is never far from his mind. 

As always, McCammon’s sharp sartorial eye excels in episodes when clothes often do define the wearer. His vivid descriptions – of war, of torture, of Corbett’s first view of Venice, for example – are vivid and historically valid. Even so, his anachronistic playfulness occasionally pops up; in 1704 Venice, for example, they’re saying “E quello che e” – “It is what it is.” 

McCammon’s legion of readers may regret the end of the addictive Matthew Corbett series, but McCammon makes sure that Corbett goes out in style, providing reminders of past adventures and cameos from characters’ past. McCammon has dozens of books in print – prize-winners and bestsellers among them – and it is doubtful that his prolific output is ending with the Corbett books. His many readers are eager to see where his singular imagination will travel next. For the moment, Leviathan is a worthy finale to the Hall of Famer’s Corbett canon.       

Edward Journey, a retired university professor and theatre professional living in Birmingham, regularly shares his essays in the online journal “Professional Southerner” (www.professionalsoutherner.com).