by Stephen Gresham
1986 Zebra Books
Yep, this one. I knew going in the story didn't match the cover (although there is a lot of banjo), that the story was more "quiet horror", but I'd go one further and say this isn't a horror novel at all. More folksy southern fantasy. Not that it's a bad thing - the story is well written and moves along nicely, but it's completely mispackaged.
Johnny Ray is a swamp boy who is taken up by the owners of a day care after his family disappeared in the swamp, killed by dew claws, some kind of water spirit elemental. Johnny Ray is possessed by the spirit of the dew claws and spends the book visiting various folk healers: a swamp doctor, swamp witches, snake handlers, and Indian shaman.
There's a good sense of menace but nothing resembling scares, and nobody is more than scratched the whole book.
Used paperback from Amazon
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