The Blackwater Saga's European Revival

The Blackwater Saga's European Revival

This article relates to Blackwater I: The Flood

When he died on December 27, 1999, Michael McDowell's name was barely recognized beyond the realm of horror aficionados. Despite Stephen King having once praised him as "the finest writer of paperback originals in America," his novels had fallen into relative obscurity by the end of the 20th century. In fact, the Washington Post titled its obituary "Screenwriter Michael McDowell Dies."

Indeed, McDowell was behind the screenplay for Tim Burton's Beetlejuice (1988), and collaborated with the filmmaker on The Nightmare Before Christmas (1993). Yet his work as an author was far more prolific: he published more than 30 novels, most of them set in his native Alabama, and many rooted in the Southern Gothic horror genre.

Among them is the Blackwater saga. Set in Perdido, Alabama, in the early 20th century, it follows the Caskey family over 1,000 pages divided into six installments. The first, The Flood, published in 1983. While the Los Angeles Times noted in its obituary that the saga was "extremely popular with readers and critics" after publication, concrete sales data from the time is elusive. By the 2010s, the series had all but disappeared from shelves—its only presence maintained through a 2017 reissue by Valancourt Books in a single-volume edition, which, according to BookScan, sold roughly 3,000 copies in the United States, as reported by Julia Steiner for CrimeReads.

The story might have ended there, had it not been for the French publisher Monsieur Toussaint Louverture. Editor Dominique Bordes discovered McDowell's work through a mention in Stephen King's introduction to The Green Mile and decided to take a chance. In April 2022, the publisher released Blackwater in France in its original serialized format—six compact, affordable paperbacks—accompanied by a meticulous and visually striking marketing campaign. By August 2024, according to Spanish newspaper El País, Blackwater had sold 1,150,000 copies in France.

The success sparked a European wave. In Italy, the saga was published by Neri Pozza, and has sold over 300,000 copies. In Spain, under the Blackie Books imprint, the first volume became the bestselling single title of 2024, according to consulting firm GFK, with 200,000 copies sold in Spanish and an additional 23,000 in Catalan. The entire saga sold more than 700,000.

These publishers, all independent, opted for a powerful social media campaign—with a special presence on TikTok—literary discussions, podcasts, and newsletters, and maintained the original format: six small paperbacks published every couple of weeks, with iconic covers designed by Madrid-based illustrator Pedro Oyarbide for the French edition, and retained in Italy and Spain. In September 2024, the phenomenon crossed the English Channel via Transworld, a UK Penguin Random House imprint, which has also kept the European covers. The Italian publisher described the campaign as "the most articulate marketing plan in the history of our company." In some cities, readers even queued at bookstores to get their hands on the next volume.

Blackwater's success cannot be attributed to marketing alone. Likely, its lively narrative, featuring both female protagonists and queer characters (McDowell himself was openly gay), and modern dialogue have contributed to its popularity. But above all, it's simple: they are entertaining, enjoyable books that pull readers in.

"There is no reason to read except for pleasure," McDowell said in the 1985 interview collection Faces of Fear. "You can make excuses that you are learning about things, but when it comes down to it, there is no reason to read but for pleasure—and that´s why I write." He never claimed to write for posterity. "I am a commercial writer," he stated proudly, adding that if any authors endured a hundred years into the future, it would be "those who people want to read now." It hasn't yet been a century. But today, readers around the world want to read Michael McDowell.

Covers of the Blackwater series novels designed by Pedro Oyarbide, courtesy of Penguin Random House

Filed under Books and Authors

This article relates to Blackwater I: The Flood. It first ran in the July 16, 2025 issue of BookBrowse Recommends.