Evil Whispers

Bram Stoker Award winner Goingback (Coyote Rage) brings readers on a gruesome trek through the Floridian backwoods. Robert and Janet Patterson and their 10-year-old daughter, Krissy, are eager for a fun family vacation in the Sunshine State. As Krissy explores the lagoons of small-town Blackwater, however, she hears a whisper on the wind. This strange entity, an ancient spirit, promises friendship, but only if Krissy can reunite it with its corporeal body, the bones of which are scattered and buried throughout the hidden hollows of the swamps. Shortly after agreeing to this macabre task, Krissy goes missing, causing heartbreak for the Pattersons and stirring up chaos in the small town. Luckily, Seminole Jimmy Cypress, who knows more about the evils lurking in the lagoons than anyone else in Blackwater, emerges as an unlikely ally in the Pattersons’ quest to find their missing daughter. Goingback’s unflinching prose spares no gory detail, and while some of the descriptions occasionally grow repetitive, the author maintains a solid sense of dread throughout. This is not for the faint of heart. (May)