Memento meets Dracula in this heart-thudding, unpredictable, and beautifully crafted novel of a man exposed for crimes he doesn’t remember committing, and the monsters that dwell at the heart of us all, from celebrated and critically acclaimed author Michael Wehunt.

One rainy night on a first date, Luke Oshel’s new crush never comes back from the restroom. But she leaves an old photograph under her napkin—Luke as a child, a dead body in the shadows of his bedroom, and a terrifying masked man. He has no recollection of this event.

Then more photos disrupt his life—Luke posing with murder victims, covered in blood—and he falls back into the deep paranoia and repressed memories he’s tried to leave behind. All the drugs and alcohol, therapy, and hypnosis sessions have never conquered his deepest fear—that he hasn’t escaped the hidden legacy of his father, who killed his victims by exsanguination before his own death. But now there is a new string of serial killings, and the evidence all points to Luke.

As his journey to uncover the truth unfolds in the North Georgia Appalachians, a threat arises that will risk everything he holds close, including his ex-wife and their young daughter. Now Luke must chase his father’s darkness through a centuries-old secret and learn what monsters truly are. And decide if he’s one of them.

I received an advance copy of this book courtesy of the publisher. All thoughts are my own.

I read and loved Wehunt’s October Film Haunt last year, so I had high hopes going into this one. And believe me when I say it delivered. This one was creepy AF!

Luke (the MMC) is out on a date with a woman. She gets up and leaves at one point, but never comes back, but leaves behind an old photograph under her napkin. The picture is of Luke as a child, standing near a dead body in his own bedroom, with a masked man lurking in the background. He has zero memory of this ever happening. Was it photoshopped? AI? But then more disturbing photos start showing up. All are images of him as a kid posing with murder victims, covered in blood. Slowly, Luke finds himself being dragged back into the horrors of his childhood. He knows his father was a murderer and killed his victims through exsanguination. Luke’s father is dead, but a fresh string of murders similar to his father’s have started cropping up, and every piece of evidence seems to be pointing straight at Luke. While trying to untangle what’s happening, and doing his best to keep his ex-wife and his young daughter out of the crosshairs, he starts to untangle a secret that stretches back centuries, and what pops up is more terrifying than he could have imagined.

This book is dark, tense, and packed with surprises (and scares) from cover to cover. The pacing is close to perfect, and the twists caught me off guard. I didn’t expect any of what happened to happen which is saying a lot. This was one of those books where I just sat back and enjoyed the ride instead of immediately picking up on every clue off the bat. I loved it. I honestly had no idea where this story was headed at any given point. It held my attention completely, kept me fully invested in Luke’s journey, and managed to surprise me repeatedly with both the reveals along the way and the eventual outcome.

I did an immersive read, and the narration by Matt Godfrey and Sura Johnson is excellent. Both of them capture the characters’ voices perfectly, and the overall production quality is top notch. There’s one particular character in this book who’s deeply unsettling, and the way that voice gets portrayed in the audiobook is creepy as hell. A couple of moments legitimately made me jump because they caught me off guard, and that vocal performance did a lot to ramp up the fear factor beyond what the text alone would have delivered.

This book is scary, gory, and occasionally unsettling. It’s the perfect read heading into fall. I can’t wait to grab a physical copy for my shelves. If you love dark, twisty, inventive horror with a mystery at its core, this is one you absolutely need to check out.