Detective Lauren Medina finds a calling card while investigating a murder scene in Chicago.
The Pied Piper has returned.
Another body turns up, this time at the exact location Lauren’s sister’s body was found years ago, and Lauren knows that not only has the Pied Piper returned, but he’s looking for payment from her.
Torn between protecting the city and keeping a promise she made to her sister’s murderer, Lauren faces ruin in exposing her secrets and lies to stop the Pied Piper before he can collect.
Why we’re excited about this book:
Cynthia “Cina” Pelayo is relatively new to the horror fiction scene, but has already made a lasting impression with readers. Pelayo is the author of Santa Muerte, Loteria, Poems of my Night, and The Missing, and edited the Latinx Screams anthology with V. Castro, as well as the We Are Wolves anthology with Gemma Amor and Laurel Hightower. Her latest poetry collection Into the Forest and All the Way Through focuses on true crime, specifically the epidemic of missing and murdered women in the United States. She has been nominated for the International Book Award and an Elgin Award, and her short fiction graces the pages of numerous anthologies. In her latest, Pelayo resets the classic Pied Piper fairy-tale in modern times with a tale of deadly secrets and horrifying promises. Publishers Weekly says: “Pelayo masterfully ratchets up the tension and the scares. Robert McCammon fans will be pleased.”, and Kealan Patrick Burke (Sour Candy, Kin) says: “Part police procedural, all horror, Cynthia Pelayo’s Children of Chicago is an immensely entertaining and thoroughly chilling novel, which just so happens to combine two of my favorite things: Chicago and fairytales. I challenge you not to have a good time with Pelayo’s book. The confidence and style on display here say she’s destined to become one of the greats.”
Forthcoming from Agora Books and releasing 9 February 2021, Children of Chicago by Cynthia Pelayo is available for pre-order now.
BOB PASTORELLA