“Blending crime and horror, Venturini takes on the occult detective genre in the form of a mob hitman with all the visceral details and emotional gut-punches his readers expect.”
When Curtis Quinn’s girlfriend disappears, he follows the trail to Harlow. Run by a mysterious overlord they call “the Mayor” Harlow is an occult town, and once you get there, they won’t allow you to leave. Quinn’s particular set of talents make him legendary in the Chicago mob world, and those talents have placed a price on his head. But there are no rules that will keep Quinn from finding his girl.
In Harlow, teenager Beth Jarvis is just learning the strange ways of her town, including the weird ceremony awaiting her on her eighteenth birthday. Desperate to escape Harlow, Beth is also trying to learn the truth of her sister Kate, who managed to escape Harlow ten years ago.
Curtis Quinn and Beth’s paths collide. Unknown to him, Beth’s sister Kate is his missing girlfriend, and she’s on the run from a threat much worse than the mobsters that want to kill Curtis. For him to be reunited with Kate, Curtis has to face the Mayor of Harlow, who may not even be human, and will be the hardest target he’s ever tried to kill.
Why we’re excited about this book:
Fred Venturini should be no stranger to readers of dark, hard-hitting fiction. The author of The Escape of Light and The Heart Does Not Grow Back, his short fiction is featured in Morpheus Tales: Best Weird Fiction Volume 2 and 6, and in the Booked. Anthology. Blending crime and horror, Venturini takes on the occult detective genre in the form of a mob hitman with all the visceral details and emotional gut-punches his readers expect.
Richard Thomas (Breaker, Disintegration) says: “To Dust You Shall Return is a sprawling, haunting, unsettling story of hunger, abuse, and power. The vibe is Angel Heart meets The Walking Dead, via a Southern Gothic filter that oozes with a depraved history and terrible secrets. Welcome to the horror of Fred Venturini, one of my favorite authors writing today.” and Philip Fracassi (Beneath a Pale Sky) says: “To Dust You Shall Return is a wildly entertaining, mythic-level battle royale fought between a monstrous hitman with a busted spirit and a wanna-be king with supernatural powers. When the two forces collide on the small-town stage of Harlow, blood bursts from the dust like geysers and you can hear the bones snapping from outer space. Venturini has created a modern-day clash of the titans, an epic tale of revenge that’s more Penny Dreadful than Homer and has the body count to prove it. A masterful tour-de-force of violence and terror; a gruesome, gory reveal of the dark which lies hidden deep within the meat of the human heart.”
Forthcoming from Keylight Books 22 June 2021, To Dust You Shall Return by Fred Venturini is available for pre-order now.
BOB PASTORELLA
