This is a light entertainment told in 31 chapters, one for each day of October. The author plays with characters from a number of stories and legends setting them and their animal companions in a game that decides whether ruin comes to the Earth every few decades or so. Much of the story is told in dialogue as experienced by the hound Snuff who can speak with his sorcerous master Jack the after midnight only. The talk is about magic artifacts, about closers and openers, leading up to a climax on Halloween night according to how the players have conducted themselves up to this point. In the course of the novel, there are attacks and killings shifting the balance, but also friendships and enmity. The author's style is to suggest things without spelling them out openly, to keep the reader's interest. Deceptions keep the story lively too, along with the black and white line drawings by the late Gahan Wilson in his inimitable style. One of the chapters is an homage to one of the worlds invented by H. P. Lovecraft and there are a few other references to entities of his mythos throughout. On the 31st there is the big showdown with a couple of twists I didn't see coming, and an abrupt ending.

I was glad to have been able to read this during the month of October as a number fans have done year after year, but I think fans of experimental fantasy can enjoy this at any time.