The town of Louis definitely has its secrets.
For years there have been wild rumors of something in the swamp … something unnatural. Several people have even gone missing out there, never to be seen again. A lot of folks blame the Royce family, while others think there’s a monster rising from the dark waters of the swamp.
The night the Royce place burned to the ground, Caleb was just a child. But he saw something that night he can’t explain. Now, Caleb is grown up, and coming back home to take over as sheriff from his father. The shadow of the Royce family comes back home as well.
As Caleb works to figure out a strangely familiar crime, he comes face to face with the oldest mystery in the history of Louis … the legend of Catfish John.
Why we’re excited about this book:
A relative newcomer to the scene, A.C. Wise’s short stories have appeared in Clarkesworld, Tor.com, Shimmer, and the Year’s Best Dark Fantasy and Horror 2017. She has two collections,The Ultra Fabulous Glitter Squadron Saves the World Again, and The Kissing Booth Girl and Other Stories, both published from Lethe Press. Blending folklore and fable, monsters and myth, Wise’s work takes speculative fiction to new heights and extremes. Mike Allen (Unseaming and Aftermath of an Industrial Accident) says: “Folk tales give birth to new mythologies in A.C. Wise’s delightfully enthralling Southern Gothic novella Catfish Lullaby. Flooded with dark sorcery and white-knuckle suspense, Catfish Lullaby demonstrates the many ways saviors and devils can occupy the same body, whether it arises from the depths of the swamp or the dark of the grave.”
Why A.C. is excited about this book:
“First off, I’m excited about Catfish Lullaby because it’s my first foray into longer fiction. Up until now, my main focus has been on short stories, so it’s fun to stretch myself with a novella-length work. I also love stories where family—family by birth, and family by choice—play an important role, and both are central to Catfish Lullaby. On top of that, I threw in some monsters, a deep sense of place, and spent time exploring the line between myth and reality, truth and fiction, and how stories shape our lives and vice versa. Hopefully other people find those themes exciting too!”
Forthcoming from Broken Eye Books, Catfish Lullaby by A.C. Wise releases 3 September 2019 and is available for pre-order now.
BOB PASTORELLA