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Limekiller contain six of the Limekiller stories set in the British
colony of British Hidalgo in Central America.
The country of British Hidalgo exists on no map known to contemporary
geographers, yet this tiny Central American country is richly evoked in
the writings of Avram Davidson (official
web site). The stories featuring Jack Limekiller are rooted
in Davidson's two-month visit to British Honduras in 1965 – 1966,
when the question of independence was a burning issue in the colony. Davidson
also drew upon his experiences during a prolonged period of residency
circa 1968 – 1969. Not long after Davidson's visits, British
Honduras became the independent country of Belize.
| "Too often books published after the death of their author
are ill-considered tribute volumes or collections of stuff that
should have been allowed to languish on an abandoned hard-drive.
Limekiller is something else. It is a book that
has slipped through time, a major book by a writer at the height
of his powers that should have been published during his lifetime,
but wasn't. It ranks easily amongst the best and most important
books of the year, and we owe our grateful thanks to the publisher
for finally allowing us to see it." |
| — Jonathan Strahan, Locus
November 2003 |
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| "It's been a sadder world since Avram left. But the publication
of a new Davidson collection turns the sun on for awhile. The Limekiller
stuff is prime Avram" |
| — Harlan Ellison |
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| "What I myself love most about Davidson is his prose, conversational,
digressive, stippled with archaisms and odd learning. Yet
this restless voice — a style with a kind of attention deficit
disorder — can also mimic every sort of speech. In "Bloody
Man", for instance, Davidson dazzles by offering a half-dozen different
registers of English, from the high-tone British university diction
of an archbishop to the Caribbean inflected slang of the black Baymen
— and he gets them all down perfectly in a strange tale about
a wounded ghost in need of benediction. There are five other
stories here, equally idiosyncratic and unforgettable, including
the spooky, wonderfully titled "Manatee Gal, Won't You Come Out
Tonight?" |
| — Michael Dirda, Washington
Post Book World, 7 December 2003 |
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| "Avram Davidson's Limekiller stories, filled with high-intensity
language and a rainbow imagination, show him at his exotic best.
If this is a rediscovery, we hope for more like it." |
| — Lloyd Alexander |
 Acid-free
paper • Smyth-sewn binding • ISBN 1-882968-26-3 • $30.00
USD
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