American Gothic: Family Written by W. T. Quick Summary by Loren Collins

American Gothic was a CBS television program during the 1995-96 season. Created by Shaun Cassidy, it was a dark series that chronicled the lives of the souls of Trinity, South Carolina, whose sheriff, Lucas Buck, would appear to be nothing less than the devil himself. Despite critical acclaim and a very loyal fanbase, the show was cancelled after a single season for lack of ratings.

As with many cult shows, fans wanted to see more, and in 1996 their pleas were answered. A single novel, American Gothic: Family, written by author W.T. Quick, was published as a prequel to the show. It told the backstory of how Lucas inherited the Buck legacy from his father, and how Caleb's parents, Gage and Melanie Temple, came to be wed. The back cover of the novel reads as follows:

Trinity is a place like no other. Remote in America's Deep South, it has dark secrets all of its own. Good souls depart the town for their promised reward but the evil ones remain behind, pooling and growing stronger, unwilling to face their eternal damnation.

The Buck family have run the town for years. They are possessed by Trinity's soul, and that soul is evil. Now the preacher, Christopher Buck, is dying and their authority needs a replacement. His son, Lucas Buck, is the next in line, but he is not ready to receive the power which requires a human home, to protect and serve its needs.

For Lucas has some streaks of goodness left in him. But the forces of evil are strong and will not be denied. All too soon, his life has become a battlefield on which an epic struggle must be fought. His friends and lovers become pawns in a great game and before long even a small boy, Caleb, will be subjected to powers which he cannot understand and will find it difficult to resist.

Although an intriguing summary, this bears only a passing resemblance to the story told between the novel's covers.

Unfortunately, this novel was published only in Britain, and was never released in the United States. I managed to obtain a copy of the book at a British used book sale in 2000, and in the interests of my fellow American Gothic fans, I have below summarized the events of the book.

Chapter One is a retelling of that notorious night, depicted in the series, when Sheriff Lucas Buck made a visit to the Temple household. Five-year old Merlyn answers the knock at the door, and calls back into the house, "Mama? Someone's at the door�" Sheriff Buck proceeds to rape Melanie Temple, as Merlyn watches in terror, and then he takes his leave. The chapter's final line is worth noting: "That was when Merlyn Temple began to scream, and she never really stopped as long as she lived."

Chapter Two, and all that follow, take place in Trinity, South Carolina, 1972 (population: 9657). Lucas Buck is twenty years old and his father, Preacher Christopher Buck, is almost fifty. Neither believes in God, despite appearances to the contrary. After the funeral for Sydney Carpenter, Trinity's third Vietnam casualty, the preacher returns to the parsonage and Lucas takes his firehouse-red Pontiac GTO convertible to the outskirts of town on a hunch. Along the way he picks up Ben Healy.

Walking the road out of town are 16-year old Melanie Hankings and Larry Rosenweig. Mellie's sister, Christine Hankings, had married Peter Emory, who now owned the Trinity Guardian, and Mellie knew that leaving town was the only way she'd ever find a man of that caliber. Larry is a drifter of sorts, fleeing the persecution that his Jewish father tolerates in the north.

Lucas speeds down the highway and stops beside Mellie and Larry. He questions them on why they�re leaving town, and then proceeds to threaten and intimidate Larry until Larry pees in his pants and is willing to "trade" Mellie for his own safety. Lucas then has Ben drive Larry out of town, while he stays to talk with Mellie. When Ben lets Larry out, Larry kicks a dent in the side of Lucas' car.

While talking to Mellie, Lucas learns that she has been seeing Gage Temple as of late, but she has no desire to make anything serious of it. Unfortunately, she has heard that Gage is going to propose to her, so she makes a deal with Lucas, and he tells her that she won't have to worry about Gage any more.

Soon enough, Lucas makes a visit to Gage's home, and tells him about how he found Mellis leaving town with a "hippy Jew boy." Gage is outraged, as he has already purchased an engagement ring. He thanks Lucas for stopping Mellie, tells him he owes Lucas one, and Lucas responds with "Deal. Maybe someday you can do me a little favor."

After a big dinner at the parsonage prepared by Preacher Buck's maid, Marie (who, it should be noted, carries on an illicit relationship with the Preacher as well), Christopher Buck asks his son if he's ready for the duties and responsibilities that he will one day bear as all Buck men in Trinity have done for generations. Lucas tells him that although he's already making good deals, he's not ready for what the Buck legacy demands.

Gage picks up Mellie from her home one night to talk, and drives her out to the river bridge. Unknown to either of them, Lucas is silently cruising the streets nearby. Gage shows Mellie the ring and proposes to her, and she tells him no. Gage throws the ring into the river, and then forces Mellie to the ground, where he rapes her, accusing her of cheating on him with Lucas (for he believes that Lucas concocted the Jew story). During this time, Lucas walks up and Gage stops. Lucas refuses to intervene, citing the "fine print" of his deal with Mellie, but when Gage comes at him brandishing his razor-sharp belt, Gage falls to the ground and knocks himself out. Lucas takes the belt, pulls the ring from the riverbank, and drives Mellie home, where Mellie proceeds to give herself the most thorough cleansing of her life. She doesn't tell her parents, Joshua and Hepzipah, what happened.

During this time, Preacher Buck has learned that Lucas has accumulated over a million dollars to his name. He walks into the old graveyard behind the parsonage, and listens as the tombstones glow and the spirits of Trinity speak to him. He knows what to do about Lucas. Soon thereafter, he proposes the construction of the Trinity Vietnam Veterans' Memorial Project, and the church ladies begin raising funds.

Larry, now a ways from Trinity, realizes that he can't simply run in fear if he expects to live a normal life, and returns to town to confront Lucas. Meanwhile, Gage awakens in the house of his friend Marvis, and makes it clear that he intends to kill Lucas Buck.

Lucas sits in his family's Victorian house where he has lived alone for the past five years, after his father moved into the parsonage when his mother, Hester Buck, died in 1967. He gets a call from his father regarding the Veterans' project, and he then makes a call to his shell real estate company, the Renaissance Group, and begins to give them instructions.

Larry returns to town and finds himself a place to stay at Ethel Bates' bed and breakfast. He runs into Mellie, and the two of them begin planning a protest of the Vietnam memorial.

That evening, Lucas makes a visit to his father's home. His father, using his powers, calls him to the back of the house, towards the graveyard bathed in witchlight. Preacher Buck begins to talk of the family obligations, but Lucas says he has no intention of keeping the deal his ancestors made. The preacher reminds his son that he has already benefited from having his powers and assaults him mystically, but Lucas refuses to submit and goes so far as to renounce the deal. Lucas is then renounced by his father, but he is content with the knowledge that he is free from his ancestors' unholy pacts.

Gage hears about the Vietnam protests, and asks Marvis to arrange for his KKK cousins to come into town to take care of these "Communists." Not long after, Lucas drops by the B&B, to Larry's surprise. He tells him about the KKK threats, and Larry, having temporarily lost his anger at Lucas, makes a deal so Lucas will tell him if he finds anything out.

When the KKK do arrive in town, they come across two basketball-playing youths and assume that they are the Communists they're after. They beat LaVelle Baker to death and Calvin Hendricks is left a vegetable. When Georgina Hendricks, who owns a fair deal of property in Trinity, learns of her nephew's fate, she decides to sell her properties and leave town. She arranges, through Lucas, to sell to Christopher Buck. Preacher Buck then arranges a somewhat illegal plan with the bank to use all his savings to purchase Mrs. Hendricks' property, leaving himself penniless for the 45 days until the deal is finalized.

Larry is convinced that the KKK attack was Lucas' work. While Ben Healy is looking at class rings, Larry approaches him with a note he says is for Lucas. It reads: "I know those two kids were your doing. Meet me out on the highway beyond the river bridge tonight at midnight. We'll settle this once and for all." Soon thereafter, Lucas delivers the same note to Marvis Pickney, and tells him it is for Gage. When Marvis gives Gage the note, he also gives him a burlap sack containing a baseball bat and more that the KKK fellows left behind.

Larry is waiting by the bridge, planning to take on Lucas, when he is attacked from behind by Gage. Thinking Larry is Lucas, Gage proceeds to beat Larry senseless, and when he realizes his mistake, he runs home where he drinks himself unconscious. Lucas then strides up to Larry, reminds him of the deals they made and the dent Larry put in his car, and after biding a few minutes time until Larry dies, he wraps Gage's belt around Larry's neck.

Gage awakes in jail, and the town sees the case against him as airtight. Lucas picks up Mellie at her house and while talking about the murder, Mellie remembers that Lucas had taken Gage's belt after her rape. "You," she says to Lucas, "It was you!" Lucas tries to sway Mellie without actually denying the charge, and he offers Mellie the chance to drop her two earlier deals in favor of a new one that will allow Gage to go free. Lucas tells her "if you want to save Gage Temple, Mellie, the you are going to have to keep him," and that she owes him a son, for whom he will come when he's ready, and she reluctantly agrees.

Lucas and Mellie go to the prison, and speak with Sheriff Hank Culpepper, who owed a fair bit of his success to Preacher Buck. The two give the sheriff an alibi for Gage (he was proposing to Mellie that night), and put him on the trail of Marvis' cousins and the burlap bag. Lucas goes to Gage's cell to congratulate him on his engagement, to Gage's astonishment.

Lucas, after dinner with his father that night and the cross words between them, surprises his father with the news that the Renaissance Group has bought the mortgage on the graveyard behind the parsonage and plans to tear it down. And as all of Preacher Buck's money is tied up in the Hendricks deal, he can't afford to pay it off. The graveyard, the center of the Buck family's cursed pact with the evil soul of Trinity, is doomed. Finally, Christopher Buck tells Lucas that he has won, and submits to him. The power is now in Lucas, a master of the kind that Trinity has never seen before. He takes his father and tells him "Come on Daddy. Let's go home."

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