Book 27 for my 2026 goal of 36 books for the year! Still comfortably ahead with my reading. My link to the book is through my bookshop.org affiliate account, which means I may earn a small commission if you buy from there.

It is almost impossible to imagine how horrible life must have been during the Black Death. The plague killed between 30% and 60% of the population of Europe rapidly and in particularly nasty ways, causing a complete collapse of the social order and infrastructure. I cannot even fathom struggling to find food when you can’t even go to your neighbors for help because they might infect you with an illness that will kill you faster than starvation.

To the people of the era, it must have felt like they had been abandoned by God; in his 2012 horror novel Between Two Fires, Christopher Buehlman weaves a story that treats this quite literally.

The novel originally came out in 2012, but it was rereleased this year in a lovely new edition with a foreword by Joe Hill and a gorgeous cover and sprayed edges. I’ve seen it on the shelves for a few months and finally decided I needed to read it.

Thomas is a former knight, excommunicated from the church, and now little more than a brigand raiding the countryside with three accomplices in order to survive amidst the death and desolation. When the group comes across a young girl by herself, Thomas saves her from his colleagues using brutal force and becomes her unwilling guardian.

The girl insists that she is on a higher mission and that Thomas must escort her to the city of Avignon for an unknown purpose, somehow related to stopping the evil all around them. Thomas is skeptical of this tale, and at first all the death and misery seems to be of natural origin. Then the pair meet a priest who asks for help in killing the monster in the local river, a giant creature that has been eating all the townsfolk who come to fish…

The book starts with an introduction that leaves no doubt what is happening in the world. God has been missing and in his absence the legions of Hell have decided to test his power, unleashing plague and worse horrors upon humanity. During their journey, Thomas and the girl will face an imaginative variety of supernatural horrors, all very compelling and right at home with the medieval setting of the book. In fact, at least one of them sounded familiar to me and may have been adapted from classic folklore — or at least classic horror.

I must admit I almost quit the book before it truly began! It starts with the slaughter of a farm animal and the near assault of the girl, and this felt like it might be a little too gritty for my enjoyment. But though the novel is definitely grim and dark, it never quite reaches a level of cruelty that would make it unpalatable. I became utterly captivated by the duo and their quest and the vivid picture of a world in upheaval that felt like it might be a work of Hieronymus Bosch. And, throughout, there is a glimmer of hope that, one day, things might actually get better again.

I was previously unfamiliar with the work of Christopher Buehlman, though I now see that he is quite an interesting figure! He has not only written multiple novels, he worked for decades as a comedian at renaissance festivals. He has also written poetry, plays, and an episode of the modern revival of Creepshow for Shudder (which I recommend).

I can’t think of many horror novels that are set in medieval times. The only one that comes to mind that is even close is The Hole of the Pit by Adrian Ross (1914), which is set in the much later era of the 1600s. (But which I can also recommend.) I imagine it is difficult to write such a novel simply due to the challenge of making it even remotely historically accurate, which Buehlman seems to have done exceptionally well — his time at renaissance fairs probably helped! While I’m thinking of books set during the Black Death, I can also recommend Doomsday Book by Connie Willis, which is an incredibly moving — and horrific — science fiction novel.

Between Two Fires captivated me throughout. It kept me guessing because I never knew what new obstacle the characters would encounter, what new people they would meet, or what new horrors they would face. All the twists were incredibly rewarding. The writing is vivid and detailed and makes you feel like you’re struggling to survive in the medieval plague right along with the characters. I can highly recommend this book.