Book Summary and Reviews of Coffin Moon by Keith Rosson

Coffin Moon by Keith Rosson

Coffin Moon

A Novel

by Keith Rosson

  • Critics' Consensus (5):
  • Published:
  • Sep 2025, 320 pages
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About this book

Book Summary

From the author of the "exciting, suspenseful, horrifying" (Stephen King) Fever House, a Vietnam veteran and his adopted niece hunt—and are hunted by—the vampire that slaughtered their family.

It's the winter of 1975, and Portland, Oregon, is all sleet and neon. Duane Minor is back home after a tour in Vietnam, a bartender just trying to stay sober; save his marriage with his wife, Heidi; and connect with his thirteen-year-old niece, Julia, now that he's responsible for raising her. Things aren't easy, but Minor is scraping by.

Then a vampire walks into his bar and ruins his life.

When Minor crosses John Varley, a killer who sleeps during the day beneath loose drifts of earth and grows teeth in the light of the moon, Varley brutally retaliates by murdering Heidi, leaving Minor broken with guilt and Julia filled with rage. What's left of their splintered family is united by only one desire: vengeance.

So begins a furious, frenzied pursuit across the Pacific Northwest and beyond. From grimy alleyways to desolate highways to snow-lashed plains, Minor and Julia are cast into the dark orbit of undead children, silver bullet casters, and the bevy of broken men transfixed by Varley's ferocity. Everyone's out for blood.

Gritty, unforgettable, and emotionally devastating, Coffin Moon asks what will be left of our humanity when grief transmutes into violence, when monsters wear human faces, and when our thirst for revenge eclipses everything else.

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Reviews

Media Reviews

"Rosson expertly balances action and character development to craft an edge-of-the-seat thrill ride. Readers will be hooked." —Publishers Weekly (starred review)

"A blood-soaked and bittersweet masterpiece ... The remarkably well-written book convinces readers to invest emotionally in all the characters, while also giving horror readers the gruesome gore they crave." —Library Journal (starred review)

"A pulpy, entertaining throwback about bad men and real monsters." —Kirkus Reviews

"Coffin Moon is a vividly grimy and ruthlessly rendered tale of vampires and vengeance with two human hearts at its core... . Unflinching, skillful, and suffused with dread." —Chuck Hogan, New York Times bestselling author of Gangland and The Town

"Coffin Moon is a road trip to hell, fueled by the madness of grief, through a charred landscape where the pavement is slathered with blood and the red sky above is saturated with revenge." —Philip Fracassi, author of Boys in the Valley

This information about Coffin Moon was first featured in "The BookBrowse Review" - BookBrowse's membership magazine, and in our weekly "Publishing This Week" newsletter. Publication information is for the USA, and (unless stated otherwise) represents the first print edition. The reviews are necessarily limited to those that were available to us ahead of publication. If you are the publisher or author and feel that they do not properly reflect the range of media opinion now available, send us a message with the mainstream reviews that you would like to see added.

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Author Information

Keith Rosson

Keith Rosson is the author of the novels Fever House, The Devil by Name, Smoke City, Road Seven, and The Mercy of the Tide, as well as the Shirley Jackson Award–winning story collection Folk Songs for Trauma Surgeons. He lives in Portland, Oregon.

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