Fresh out of college and eager to begin her research and write her magnum opus, Katy heads to the Australian outback to investigate a string of disappearances. There she meets Kip, a guitarist looking to get out of the outback and head to the city, which proves her hypothesis: the youth are leaving the area and going to the city.
Katy realizes she’s wrong … so wrong. A killer lives in the outback, convinced the creature that lurks in the swamps near his property is a God. The floodwaters are rising, and he needs sacrifices to allow the entity to rise from the morass and cleanse the world of sinners. Katy and Kip are those sacrifices.
Desperate to escape, Katy and Kip fight to survive against their captor. They begin to see the killer is not crazy. No … his god is real, and it’s very hungry, and screaming to be reborn.
Why we’re excited about this book:
Australian writer Zachary Ashford has become one of the must-read writers working in horror fiction today. The author of The Encampment by the Gorge & Blood Memory, Sole Survivor, Sole Survivor II, Autonomy Cocktail, and When the Cicadas Stop Singing, Ashford’s short fiction has been featured in such works as Among the Headstones: Creepy Tales from the Graveyard, among others. With his latest, Ashford takes us on a horrifying trip to the outback, face to face with a demented killer sacrificing the youth to appease his monstrous god. Beau Johnson (All of Them to Burn, Brand New Dark) says: “There is darkness. There is pain. And then there is The Morass. Full disclosure: Ashford has a banger here. Tread lightly.” Jamie Blanks (director: Urban Legend) says The Morass is “A terrifying descent into a nightmarish scenario, rendered with skill, imagination and a merciless desire to immerse the reader in undiluted horror. This is a terrific work of horror fiction by one of Australia’s best genre writers. I couldn’t put it down.”, and Nick Kolakowski (Absolute Unit) says: “The Morass combines the best of a Wolf Creek-style serial killer thriller with the most berserk creature feature you can possibly imagine, resulting in a lightning-fast horror novel you’ll never forget.”
Forthcoming from Crystal Lake Publishing 14 July 2023, The Morass: Servant of the Fly by Zachary Ashford is available for pre-order now.
BOB PASTORELLA