Tillinghast

Cavenagh debuts with a sophisticated take on the vampire genre. Stutley Tillinghast is a mysterious recluse whose habits include the abduction and murder of strangers and avoidance of the modern world. After a lonely and supernaturally extended life, he’s settled back into his ancestral Rhode Island home. He poses as a priest and keeps a diary recording the deaths of his human victims, biding time until one day he will hopefully, finally cease to exist. Everything changes when a desperately ill young woman named Sarah turns up in town, claiming to be his relative, and he discovers that perhaps he is not as alone in the world as he’d thought. Sarah exhibits symptoms of the same vampirism that has kept Tillinghast alive, prompting him to chronicle his origins and possible links to her mother, the woman who transformed and abandoned him. As the narrative toggles between Tillinghast’s journal entries and the present, Sarah’s own transformation progresses and Tillinghast must make life-altering decisions. Reserved Tillinghast makes an unlikely protagonist, but Cavenagh skillfully draws readers into the tragedy of his immortal life, and it’s similarly easy to become invested in his complex bond with Sarah. Dripping in lush gothic atmosphere, this understated, slow-burning literary horror novel is sure to win fans. (June)