Quickly rising up the ranks in a law firm in New York, Andrew Larimer has finally settled into his new life. With a very pregnant wife, Andrew’s thoughts are far from Kingsport, the town where he grew up. Then he gets a phone call from one of his old friends, and suddenly Kingsport is fresh on his mind.
With no choice but to return home, Andrew has to face his late father’s house, which has seen much better days. It also means he has to lie to his wife about where he needs to be. Of course, he gets to see his old friends again: Dale, living in the shadow of a failed career; Eric, now deputy sheriff of Kingsport; Tig, his old childhood sweetheart; and Meach, driven to drugs and alcohol with his ravings how their little group is cursed.
These five friends must confront their memories, the horror, of one night. The night that changed everything. See, Andrew and his friends have a secret. For twenty years they’ve kept it to themselves. But the past is never dead, and Kingsport has secrets of her own.
One dark secret…
One small-town horror…
Why we’re excited about this book:
Ronald Malfi has proven over the past few years that he knows horror, and seems to get better and better dealing out the scares with each new release. The author of The Ascent, Floating Staircase, December Park, The Night Parade, Mr. Cables, Come With Me, and Black Mouth, among others, Malfi also has two novella collections: They Lurk, and Ghostwritten, and a short story collection, We Should Have Left Well Enough Alone. With his latest, Malfi takes the ‘secret from the past trope’, fills it with damaged and desperate characters, and cranks the horror volume all the way up. Lindy Ryan (Cold Snap, Bless Your Heart) says: “With strokes of King and shades of Jackson, Malfi burns bright in Small Town Horror.” Gabino Iglesias (The Devil Takes You Home) says: “Malfi is horror’s Faulkner, and Small Town Horror might be his best novel yet. Stylish, dark, and with a haunting, salty atmosphere, this is a superb novel about how the ghosts of the past always dance with those of the present.”, and Eric LaRocca (Things Have Gotten Worse Since We Last Spoke) says: “An eerie and deeply unsettling horror epic with faint shadows of Peter Straub and Robert R. McCammon flickering at the periphery … Small Town Horror is the kind of masterful and deftly written horror fiction that makes me fall in love with the genre all over again.”
Releasing from Titan Books 4 June 2024, Small Town Horror by Ronald Malfi is available for pre-order now.
BOB PASTORELLA