Crone - by Keith Rosson (Hardcover)

Book Synopsis

A haunting, fearsome story of a father searching for his missing daughter and finding darkness--both human and not--at every turn, from the "mind-blowingly good" (Stephen King) author of Coffin Moon and Fever House

"Let there be no doubt: Keith Rosson is the reigning champ of horror noir, fists down."--Clay McLeod Chapman, author of Ghost Eaters and Devil Inside

Eli Lamp is a broken man. An ex-detective, ex-addict, and long-grieving father whose daughter, Hannah, disappeared a decade before, Eli decimated his old life investigating her abduction and is now indebted to the Crooked Wheel, a local drug gang, as an enforcer. He lives in a rundown trailer at the edge of the woods, where he keeps Hannah's room in pristine condition and tries to make it through one day at a time.

But when the son of the Crooked Wheel's boss is found viciously murdered in a crime scene that doesn't seem to add up, Eli receives a new order: Find out who the killer is and your debt to the Crooked Wheel is clear forever. You're free. This pursuit brings him into the orbit of Avery Bryant, Hannah's best friend and the last person to see her before she went missing. Soon, Eli and Avery are entwined in a hunt for answers that spans decades, stretches the realm of possibility, and brings churning to the surface a conspiracy linking not only these current tragedies but the buried sorrows of Eli's past.

And though none of them dare say the word witch, at least not out loud, something lurks in the woods, bent-backed and black-eyed, clawed and vengeful, looming ever closer. . . .

Review Quotes

"There isnʼt a bone in your body that Keith Rossonʼs grit-and-gore-laden novels canʼt break, but Crone shatters your heart. His latest is a cinderblock of grief horror dropped right on the readerʼs chest. The brutal poetry of his prose inspires awe, and his body of work just keeps getting jacked. Let there be no doubt: Keith Rosson is the reigning champ of horror noir, fists down."--Clay McLeod Chapman, author of Ghost Eaters and Devil Inside

"Rosson is fast becoming one of my favorite horror writers. Crone is a brilliant, heartbreaking melding of folk horror, crime novel, and crippling grief. The sorrow, the characters, the monstrosity, the folk magic . . . I want more, immediately."--Christopher Golden, author of Carry Me to My Grave and Road of Bones

"Crone is horror with a crime novel's pulse. In sharp prose that never flinches, Keith Rosson takes on corruption, complicity, a girl who vanished, and a terrible truth lingering in the woods. Extraordinary!"--Cynthia Pelayo, author of Children of Chicago

About the Author

Keith Rosson is the author of the novels Coffin Moon, Fever House, The Devil by Name, Smoke City, Road Seven, and The Mercy of the Tide, as well as the Shirley Jackson Award-winning story collection Folk Songs for Trauma Surgeons. He lives in Portland, Oregon.