Sheriff Kotto, Where Justified Meets the X-Files

It should come as no surprise to you, dear listener, that we’re still trying ploughing through books from last year – or even four years back. But this time we have a surprisingly current mention of Jonathan Raab’s Sheriff Kotto, hero of the brand new anthology Freaky Tales From the Force: Season One (Muzzleand Press, 2019).

So, straight to the Raabmobile! We first meet Sheriff Cecil Kotto in the novel, The Hillbilly Moonshine Massacre (2015):

“When the arrest of known moonshiner (and possible alien abductee) Larry “Bucky” Green goes south, several cops are left dead and Bucky goes on the run. His latest batch of moonshine is driving the locals mad—literally. Anyone who drinks it falls victim to some terrible form of mind control. They start tearing each other apart and building strange altars to forgotten gods. Strange lights in the sky, mob violence, militarized police, creatures from beyond time and space, and sinister government agencies descend on the idyllic autumn countryside, sowing chaos and terror in their wake.”

But none of this matters, really, because the real stars are Sheriff Kotto himself, his newly recruited deputy Abraham Richards, and a frustrated local TV reporter, Veronica Cartwright.

With the entire police force of Cattaraugus County, New York, indicted for various meth lab-related corruptions before the book starts, State Troopers take the strain. Or would do, except for the annoying Sheriff Kotto, elected into a position no one wants, barely funded and barely tolerated. Cecil Kotto is both startlingly mad, and ingeniously sane, with a belief that there is something to almost every conspiracy theory ever concocted, including Government black ops, the Illuminati, Little Grey Men and a host of others. What’s more, he spouts about his beliefs on his radio show.

In The Hillbilly Moonshine Massacre, Kotto manages to persuade Sergeant Richards, Alpha Company, 1-107th Infantry, New York Army National Guard, to join him in the Sheriff’s Department – creating a mighty force of two. Their antics, and a series of bizarre occurences in Cattaraugus County, draw the attention of Ms Cartwright, the aforementioned reporter.

From there on, the book is a hoot. Richards is newly back from Afghanistan, and has no idea what he’s doing, or what to believe, but working for Kotto is better than the shitty job he’s in. Probably. There are dark bits, totally crazy bits, and very funny bits. Sometimes these are in the same passage, or even the same sentence. The best summary of what you might expect is given later in the book itself:

“So, let’s lay it all out,” Veronica said. “We’re dealing with an Illuminati government agent who is using the dark power of Hell to manifest UFOs, alien abductions, and create mind-control moonshine in order to cause fear in the population, which in turn contributes to their supernatural power, which leads to civil unrest, which will justify a government implementation of martial law and suspend American freedoms and the democratic process. Am I missing anything?”

“I’d say that about sums it up.”

“Shit,” Veronica said. “I don’t think I’m on board with this.”

“What choice do we have?” Kotto asked. “You’re on board whether you want to be or not, missy! And this ship is sailing straight into one hell of an iceberg!”

“So what does all that mean?” Richards asked. “What’s our next move? Does it involve more drugs? Please don’t say that it involves more drugs.”

As to how much of the above summary by Ms Cartwright is true, you’ll have to judge for yourself. You can read this book as a wry and weird ‘back country’ adventure tale – a nuts small community in action – or as a vindication that every conspiracy you favour really exists, and is out to get us NOW. It flows as smooth as a good pale ale, and has some great characters. Offhand, we can’t think of any reason not to read this book.

The Lesser Swamp Gods of Little Dixie, a shorter novel, followed at the end of 2016. Good stuff, but a slightly different slant, and it depends what you’re looking for – this one has more depth on Kotto, which is a plus, but not on Abraham Richards, who we did like. A variant on the madness, if you like – and it still works, we hasten to add.

“Drawn into the haunted heart of southern Oklahoma by the promise of a mysterious inheritance, conspiracy theory radio show host turned county sheriff Cecil Kotto finds himself thrust into the depths of a horrifying occult mystery.”

And now, to compliment the two books above, we have Freaky Tales From the Force: Season One, which is an anthology involving not only the original conspiracist Jonathan Raab, but also contributions from S L Edwards, Charles Martin, Jared Collins, R. Crihfield, Matthew Bartlett (swoon!), Sean Thompson, Tom Breen and Colin Scharf.

Freaky Tales From the Force: Season One came out on 30^th May 2019:

“To document his war against the paranormal, Kotto stars in Freaky Tales From the Force, a local documentary-style public access television show produced by reporter Veronica Cartwright. Join Sheriff Kotto, his intrepid deputies, and the public access television crew as they investigate a variety of supernatural threats including wendigos, a lizard boy, evil clones, a haunted numbers station, flesh creepers, the wreckage of neoliberal economic policies, a Nazi sorcerer, a spectral locomotive—and a season-spanning threat: cosmic bloodsuckers from outer space!

“Each story in this anthology represents one episode of Freaky Tales’ inaugural season, capturing all the high-octane, hard-drinking, high-strange action. Featuring special guest star writers and a new long-form story arc, Freaky Tales From the Force: Season One is the perfect book for readers new to the Kottoverse and long-time fans alike.Tune in, crack a beer, watch the skies—and support your local sheriff!”

As a bonus, later this year Occult Detective Quarterly will be including a short interview where Jonathan Raab talks about Sheriff Kotto with author Sam L Edwards. Not only that, but ODQ will be featuring the Raab/Bartlett collaboration, with both Kotto and Richards, to help plug as many people as possible into the Sheriff’s paranoid world. We’ve read ‘Pause for Station identification’, and it’s a terrific dark tale.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B07SLKHC5Z/ref=cm_sw_em_r_mt_dp_U_fjrfDbGHCTVGQ

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07SLKHC5Z/ref=cm_sw_em_r_mt_dp_U_sarfDbAHEYNTH

The Hillbilly Moonshine Massacre and The Lesser Swamp Gods of Little Dixie are both available at a bargain price in Kindle format at the moment, by the way, Just click the first link for the UK, or the second for the US:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B01MTVG69U/ref=cm_sw_em_r_mt_dp_U_H1qfDb3QT5MCC