Thanks to Black Crow Books for providing me the chance to review.
Coffin Moon is a gritty story with punchy prose and violent scenes. At some points it felt like Quentin Tarantino and Stephen King (in his 80s era) both had a hand in this story.
Duane Minor returned from the Vietnam War a year ago, and, on the outside, appears to have settled into family life. But when a gang of bikers shows up at his in-laws bar, selling drugs and starting trouble, Minor can't help but get involved. When the bikers return and murder his wife, Julie, Minor begins a road trip for revenge.
I enjoyed this story, which, like I said above, had a Stephen King is his prime type feel about it. But there was something about the characters that I just couldn't connect with. Minor in particular, which is a shame as he is the main character, his dialogue just felt to mechanical, like a B-grade film script. A great idea for the plot, though, and I was impressed by the finale.

4.5 rounded up to 5
What a rollercoaster of horror, suspense and emotion all rolled up with a nice nostalgia bow on top. I’ve never read any of Rossen’s stuff before and was pleasantly surprised by this character driven romp into vampire territory that gave me full on Interview with a Vampire/moral dilemma vibes. Gritty and violent but also poignant, this was a fantastic read that sees the unravelling of Duane, as he hunts down the ferocious and mysterious Varley culminating in the ultimate face off. Give me more!

Title - Coffin Moon
Author - Keith Rosson
Release Date - September 2025
Page Count - 304 pages
Read/Listen Time - 8hrs
Brief overview - gruesome scenes, somewhat nostalgic, but predictable and nothing new
Rating - ⭐️⭐️⭐️ /3 stars

1975, and Vietnam vet, Duane Minor, is having a hard time. There's drug deals going down at his bar, and he's trying to do his best for his niece, who's moved in with them after her mother killed her stepfather. The last thing he needs is for the situation to escalate. But when a mysterious dealer takes revenge on Minor by killing his wife, it's only the beginning of his descent into hell as Minor discovers a world that exists in the shadows of his own, peopled by monsters that include the thing who killed his wife. But as much as he burns for revenge, his daughter burns even brighter, making a choice that will change their world forever...

A brilliantly judged mix of noir tropes, body horror, vampire lore and 70s aesthetics, COFFIN MOON is the kind of horror story that will resonate with those who loved Kathryn Bigelow's film, NEAR DARK. It's part small town thriller, part road movie, and all gripping drama as we watch our characters follow their best intentions to the darkest of places. The prose gallops along, the atmosphere grips and squeezes, and the twists come thick and fast in the final third. An absolute cracker of a novel, and now I know Keith Rosson's name, I'll be looking out for whatever else he writes.

Thank you Black Crow PR and NetGalley for the arc!

1970s vampire horror? I was intrigued and this delivered. It genuinely has been convinced I can maybe be a horror girly now 👀

Duane Minor returns to Portland from Vietnam, battling trauma, addiction, and a fragile marriage. His young niece Julia comes to live with him and his wife Heidi after a family tragedy, and so the three begin to forge a new life together.

But everything shatters when Duane clashes with John Varley: a monstrous figure with a violent past who sleeps during the day and grows teeth in the light of the moon. A murderous spree leaves Duane and Julia are consumed by grief and vengeance, setting off on a harrowing journey seeking nothing but revenge.

As they descend into a world of undead children, silver bullets, and haunted men, the line between justice and obsession blurs. In their pursuit of a creature born of nightmare, they must confront what’s left of their own humanity.

I could not put this down!! The pacing was really excellent, it had me gripped from the very start. The whole story was incredibly atmospheric - it felt so clear in my mind which made for a great immersive reading experience.

Duane and Julia's journey together felt raw and real. They are far from perfect, and both make incredibly questionable choices. They're brought together by unbelievable trauma and had to work out how to go on...and how to get revenge.

Varley's character was also fascinating. Like we can all agree he's genuinely awful, but I was also eager to learn more about him and his past.

Bloody, gory, intense. Coffin Moon is out in September!

Vampires! Horror! Blood! I loved this from the first to the last page. The book doesn't make any apologies and that feels good. It's not afraid to take it to another level.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for an ARC in exchange for an honest review!

Sinks its teeth in deep and shows no mercy. This irresistible vampire tale finds the beauty in broken things and the poetry in vengeance. Amid the blood-drenched carnage, its benevolent heart beats loud right to the very end.

COFFIN MOON by @rossonkeith 10/10 for Horror, Vampires, revenge and everything that I love in a book for fans of Salems Lot and The Last Of us 📕@blackcrow_pr @blackcrow_bks

kay this book was IT for me!! Keith Rosson I love you. I'm a biggg vampire fan and i'm so glad they're rising up again in these delightful horrors! This was absolutely wild in the best way, it had that 70's horror vibe I really love whilst having me being really emotionally invested in the characters! This was bloody and heartbreaking and I seriously couldn't put it down, I'm going to need to buy a physical copy asap!

Set against the bleak winter of 1975 Portland, Coffin Moon is a gritty vampire revenge story with moments of vivid horror, bursts of violence, and a heavy atmosphere of grief and rage. The setup is strong: Vietnam vet Duane Minor is trying to keep his life together when tragedy strikes, setting him and his teenage niece Julia on a blood-soaked path of vengeance against John Varley, a criminal with a supernatural edge and a terrifying history.

The concept is great, and I appreciated the mix of vampire mythology with themes of trauma, addiction, and the long, corrosive burn of revenge. There is a heavy sense of decay in the world Rosson has built — emotional, physical, and moral — and when the horror elements hit, they really hit. The body horror moments, in particular, were memorably grotesque in all the right ways. There is a certain slow-rot dread to the way everything unfolds, with some beautifully written, quietly horrific scenes that land hard.

That said, I never quite connected with the characters. Duane and Julia are interesting on paper, but I found them difficult to get close to, and they remained a bit emotionally opaque throughout. I wanted more from their dynamic, especially as the story pushed toward its conclusion. The pacing also felt uneven to me. While the build-up simmered effectively, the final stretch of the book felt rushed, with several threads resolved a little too quickly for the weight they carried.

Still, there is a lot to admire here. The setting is well-rendered, the writing is confident, and Rosson handles the genre’s darker elements with style. It didn’t quite hit me emotionally, but if you are into gritty, visceral horror with a side of vengeance and vampire lore, this is worth checking out.

The modern vampire novel that you have been waiting for!

This exceptional novel mostly follows Duane, a Vietnam vet, through a plethora of horrors and tribulations. When a series of horrific events decimates his family, Duane sets off in search of answers and retribution.

This book shocked me, I hadn't expected it to be such a beautifully tender and yet excessively brutal tale.
Excuse the pun, but there is plenty to get your teeth into, from gruesome scenes of violence and moments of beauty and awe to extremely tender and heartbreaking events, which made me think deeply about my humanity. This novel has it all!

Rosson has created an absolute masterpiece here and one that'll live in my memories for a long time.

Coffin Moon is a triumphant return to the atmospheric vampire horror I've been craving. From the outset, it sinks its teeth in and refuses to let go. The protagonist’s journey is compelling—flawed and shaped by trauma, yet deeply relatable, making his path all the more immersive.

The novel masterfully portrays terror, weaving moments of dread with pulse-quickening action and intriguing mysteries. There’s a raw emotional depth that grips you, paired with a profound exploration of fear that lingers long after the final page.

The nostalgic setting enhances the novel’s intensity, while the simmering rage coursing through the narrative adds an extra layer of tension. Dark, gripping, and thoroughly unmissable—Coffin Moon is everything vampire horror should be.

This was a refreshing story which u didn't expect to be so fresh. I have read few books of the same themselves in the last few weeks and this is the first one that had me on the edge of suspension.
The characters are surprising with each turn of the pages. The setting is simple and yet full but doesn't let you longer for too long so you don't get distracted. But it really does feel like you're there with the people and the story.
There are plenty of themes in this book and I feel like each of them are shown their own spot light just long enough to make you think about it but enjoy the story without the feeling of being preached upon.

Amazing story with great characters.
There were some minor issues with the spellings and the format I was reading through but that just comes with early arc. I had a great time and I will definitely be keeping an eye on more works from this author. Until then I'll check out their back log as well.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for an early access to this title.

I absolutely devoured this
Thank you so much for letting me read this early!!! It was such a good read for me and I read it all in one sitting

ARC Review: Coffin Moon by Keith Rosson
Release Date: September 9, 2025
Publisher: Black Crow Publishing
This is my first ARC and adult horror/thriller book review! Thank you to NetGalley and Black Crow Books for the opportunity to review this incredible ARC. Coffin Moon will be released on September 9 — be sure to keep an eye out for it! 👀

Coffin Moon is a haunting and visceral horror-thriller that follows Duane Minor and Julia, two deeply scarred characters bounded by grief and vengeance. After Minor has a fateful confrontation with the ruthless John Varley, he quickly discovers the devastating consequences: the brutal murder of his wife, Heidi, and in-laws, Joanne and Ed. Driven by pain and a thirst for justice, Minor and his niece Julia embark on a relentless hunt to track down the bloodthirsty man who shattered their lives. But will they come out unscathed once they come face-to-face with the two-fanged killer? Or will they soon join the same gruesome fate as the rest of their family?

I’ll admit — in the beginning, I struggled to connect with Minor and found it difficult to stay engaged. However, as the story progressed and more characters were introduced — especially a chilling complex villain like John Varley — I found myself completely drawn in. So intrigued by his human past and the world of the undead. The story definitely sank its teeth into me (no pun intended), and I was soon flying through the pages! The writing was gruesomely vivid, and the faces I made while reading in public definitely showed how effectively Rosson brought these scenes to life.

I also loved the exploration of grief and vengeance, and how these themes intertwined with the characters’ humanity as they pushed the limits of what they were willing to do for revenge. This emotional depth left a lasting impression on me, especially with Julia’s character.

Overall, Coffin Moon is a horrifically beautiful novel — a stunning introduction to the genre and a story I won’t soon forget.

Not knowing what to expect from a Keith Rosson vampire novel, I ended up getting exactly what I would expect from a Keith Rosson vampire novel. Much like his brilliant duology of Fever House and Devil by Name, Coffin Moon injects a brutal, gritty magic into an otherwise realistic world, allows all hell to break loose, and offers us real, human characters, all facing the worst days of their lives.

I loved every second of it.

When we meet Duane Minor, it’s 1975, and the Vietnam vet is back home, working at his in-laws’ bar, clean and sober, parenting Julia, his thirteen-year-old niece. There’s a lot of anger in Duane, and that’s led to some bad decisions on his part, but at this moment, things are about as good as they can get. He’s madly in love with his wife, and Julia (who shares some of Duane’s anger issues) is starting to open up, starting to act like a regular kid.

Obviously, there’s nowhere to go but downhill.

Minor tries to do the right thing, kicking some drug-dealing bikers out of the bar, but that puts him up against John Varley, a spooky kind of criminal with his own anger issues. Trouble is, when Varley gets angry, people tend to die.

In a brutal act of revenge, Varley kills Minor’s wife and in-laws, leaving him and Julia alone and bereft. Minor’s pretty sure he’s hit the nadir, rock-bottom, but Rosson has other ideas.

As the unlikely pair set out to hunt John Varley and enact their own revenge, it becomes clear that Varley is more than just a dangerous man. He’s a powerful vampire with a long history of violent massacres.

More bad decisions are made, and soon we’re on a supernatural revenge roadtrip across the nation’s northern edges: two broken people with only one idea to keep them moving forward.

As you might have inferred from the above, Coffin Moon‘s universe is an angry one, where hurt people hurt people, taking place in a long series of dingy motel rooms and even dingier bars. Rage, and its capacity to destroy what is beautiful, is a bright red thread strung through this tale, but as in Rosson’s earlier work, so is love. Family bonds, even when tenuous to begin with, are central. Varley, who in many ways plays Minor’s foil, is different in just this way. He doesn’t understand love, so he can’t understand loss. It might be this fact that makes him truly monstrous.

There’s a little Salem’s Lot in Coffin Moon, with a dash of Let the Right One In, but Rosson creates a unique take, and his nocturnal Portland is a haunted place filled with nightmare children, labyrinthine houses, dark magic, and a whole lot of people just trying to get by. And in the end, it’s the relationship between Minor and Julia that carries Coffin Moon to its inevitably bloody conclusion.

Vietnam War veteran-turned-bartender Duane Minor and his teenage niece Julia seek revenge on biker John Varley, who dismembered their family. Reigning since 1931, the mysterious figure is none other than a vampire, who has “a face like a cloud when photographed”. Julia, who voluntarily became a vampire at the age of thirteen, tirelessly hunts down the murderer with the help of her uncle, who trades his blood for information. A mix of the Coen brothers' “True Grit” and Joel Schumacher's “Lost Boys”.
An absolutely brilliant book, Rosson's best to date, both because it strikes the right balance between dark humor and drama, but also because it makes us question our attachment to the antagonist, capable of love.
A review of this book was broadcast on French radio on April 13th, in the show "Mauvais Genres", as a way to make French people aware of Rosson's work and great upcoming title.

What do you get if you take The Lost Boys, wind the clock back 10 years, and pile on the gore? You get Coffin Moon.

Rosson’s writing and character development was utterly enthralling, dealing with some difficult themes of PTSD and grief yet handled remarkably delicately for a horror book.

Our main character Duane is a Vietnam vet, enveloped in anger and self-loathing, who is thrown into the midst of utter carnage when he crosses paths with John Varley, a mysterious and dangerous man who seems to leave a bloody trail of destruction wherever he goes. And when Varley strikes against Duane’s family in an act of gruesome retaliation — Duane and his niece Julia, united in grief, head out to get vengeance.

This was in equal parts: compelling, brutal, and tragic. Thank you to the author, publisher, and NetGalley for providing me with an advance copy of this book.

Not my usual style of book however I was very interested! I feel like the start of the book was abit slow but it did end up picking up towards the end. Great writing and the characters in the book have you captivated!! This was my first read by Keith Rosson and won’t be the last!!

Thank you to Black Crow Books and NetGalley for an ARC of this book.

Coffin Moon was an incredible story, beautifully written and captivating. This is the first novel I’ve read by Keith Rosson, but I will definitely be reading the Fever House duology soon.

I loved the setting of the book, the characters and the time period. Coffin Moon is the best vampire novel I have read so far in my reading journey, and it was absolutely everything I wanted from a story like this (unlike other disappointments - I’m looking at you Salems Lot 👀).

This book had a bit of everything, from horror to comedy to heartbreak. Minor and Julia’s story was great, and the character development from both of them had me feeling quite emotional at points. Varley was an excellent villain, very scary but with depth to his character.

I’m struggling to find the right words to describe how much I truly loved this book, but I am so grateful for the opportunity to have read this as an ARC. This could possibly be up there for my favourite book of 2025! I will definitely be purchasing this book for my fiancé as I think he will love it.