The House at Black Tooth Pond

Rainey (The Monarchs) brings Lovecraftian horror to rural Virginia in this chilling tale. Sheriff Bryce Parrott serves Sylvan County, whose decades-old history of unexplained disappearances has led to it being labeled “the Cold Case Capital of the World.” He fears he has another unsolvable mystery on his hands when a man is found dead in his apartment, savaged as if by a wild animal and covered in a “glistening, transparent gel.” The coroner’s tests of this substance leave her baffled, and the puzzle deepens when the body completely dissolves, as do samples sent to the FBI for analysis. Meanwhile, psychology professor Martin Pritchett and his artist brother, Phil, stumble upon a decaying house near Sylvan County’s isolated Black Tooth Pond and are repeatedly compelled to return to the site, an impulse often accompanied by the haunting sound of a whippoorwill’s call. Rainey gradually ratchets up the tension as these plotlines converge, building to a finale that doesn’t pull any punches. Meanwhile, the grounded and believable characterization of his protagonists makes suspending disbelief easy. This is cosmic horror done right. (Mar.)