Black Harvest is set in a small Texas town where an annual display of mysterious lights has given it a Roswell-like following among UFO enthusiasts. When one investigative journalist (for an Internet blog, not the New York Times) comes to town to take his own look at the phenomenon, be runs -- literally -- into a young woman who vanished three years before and now has returned under questionable circumstances.

The book by Josh Howard (of Dead@17 fame) manages to create, through both its writing and its art, a spooky, X-Filesesque atmosphere that deals with aliens, widescale paranoia, secret organizations, cover-ups and unnatural pacts.

The book builds tension nicely, but be prepared for a letdown by the end. I enjoyed the journey -- Howard is a talented writer and artist, and he tells a good story -- but the destination is a disappointment. Questions go unanswered, the climax is a dramatic cop-out, and I closed the book thinking, "That's it?"

If you don't mind a flawed ending, however, most of this book is an enjoyable read.