Swallowing the Muskellunge
Lawrence P. O’Brien
LoonCE (2025)
ISBN: 978-1777815554
Reviewed by Paul Knobloch for Reader Views (12/2025)
Lawrence P. O’Brien’s Swallowing the Muskellunge delivers a supernatural thriller that hits all the right marks, giving us a gripping narrative about a sleigh ride north that could mean a new life and a world of possibilities for London Oxford, a Black man and former slave with dreams of a better life. Unfortunately, although Massachusetts is a free state, living with the Wrights means London and his family are still not fully free or secure.
At the promised land, London reminds Philemon Wright that he wants the same share as the other men, but in turn, he’s threatened:
“London, I have a copy of a warrant for the arrest of an Oxford who stole some shoes from my
brother.”
“Missa Wright, you know that piece of paper was written for my brother and not for me…”
London’s pleas initially fell on deaf ears: Philemon’s threat is crystal clear. After the reading of Thomas Wright Senior’s will, the Wrights move north, and London decides that he and his family will join them:
“I’m sure going up there will be a lot better for us. Land is cheap, and there’ll be lots of work.
And those boys have been making a lot of promises.”
Unfortunately, something evil lurks out there in all the snow and cold. There are two supernatural beings out in the snowy wilderness: a monster who goes by “Matthew,” and a shapeshifting indigenous man, Wìsakedjàk, who ends up saving the Oxford children when they get lost in the snowstorm:
He heated the snow in a wooden bowl and dropped bits from a pouch he carried.
“Is this better?”
“Yes, sir. Thank you kindly.”
“That’s a little soup I’m making, in case you’re wondering.”
“I’m Abner, and this is my sister Rachael. What’s your name, sir?”
“Some call me Wìsakedjàk.”
If he hadn’t shown up, they might have frozen to death. It’s a heartwarming scene, but there is more brutal combat around the corner. Mathew, with his creepy tendrils, murders a member of the church congregation where the Wrights and Oxfords worship, and after the group sets off on their journey north, he becomes obsessed with Jane Oxford, stalking her. Matthew believes that someone named Coffey acquired a special stone from the Wìsakedjàk, and he is certain that London’s family has acquired it.
When the children get lost, London sets out into the wilderness, where the showdown with evil will take place.
This is a complex plot, but one handled with a measured hand by the author. Furthermore, the commentary on race and the indigenous population is not didactic or preachy. It fits perfectly with the narrative and helps the world-building, which is at times both magical and realistic. This is a smart and compelling take on the supernatural horror/thriller.
Lawrence P. O’Brien’s Swallowing the Muskellunge is a work that poses deep questions about race and identity, survival on the frontier, and the overwhelming power of nature. What this novel most reminds me of is a book written in the 1800s by a man named Henry Tuft, The Autobiography of a Criminal. O’Brien mines similar territory in Swallowing the Muskellunge, showing us the history of a nation forged in violence and crime, where poor blacks and whites are pitted against each other for survival in a tough new world and a violent frontier. It puts the ugliness of human nature and the messiness of empire-building in a stark light, and it forces the reader to ask themselves if the price we have paid for our country was not perhaps a bit too steep.
In the end, O’Brien’s work left me with as many questions as it did answers, and I like books that do exactly that.