Darker Days: A Novel

Summary

""Thomas Olde Heuvelt is back with another wicked, fascinating, chilling tale, expertly balancing the supernatural with the horrors inherent in human nature. Darker Days reinforces that Olde Heuvelt is one of the most vital and exciting voices in modern horror”— Mike Flanagan, director of The Haunting of Hill House, The Fall of the House of Usher, Dr. Sleep, and Life of Chuck

""No one builds agonizing tension like Thomas Olde Heuvelt. Darker Days is his best yet.""  — Catriona Ward, award-winning author of The Last House on Needless Street and Looking Glass Sound

From the author of the internationally acclaimed bestseller HEX comes a modern twist on the Faustian bargain tale about a gilded street in a Pacific Northwest town where the charmed residents have made a frightening deal . . . with devastating consequences.

Sometimes you think you can see things behind the fence. Bad things. So it’s better not to look . . .

In Lock Haven, a quiet little town in Washington State, Bird Street is a special place. The residents of this pretty cul-de-sac on the edge of the woods are all successful, healthy, and happy. Their children are prodigies; well-mannered and… unnaturally smart.

But come November, the “Darker Days” descend, bringing accidents, bad luck, conflict, and illness. Luana and Ralph Lewis-da Silva prepare for this, and so do their children Kaila and Django. It is in November when a stranger appears to collect on a longstanding debt. A price must be paid for the good fortune they enjoy the rest of the year. A sacrifice must be made.

So it has been for over a century. To assuage their guilt, the residents of Bird Street choose carefully who will be sent into the woods. Usually, it is an elderly or terminally ill individual who wishes to die with dignity and is content to be helped on their way.

But this year, things don’t go to plan and events take a terrifying turn . . .

Darker Days is a propulsive, haunting novel that begs the question: “How far will we go for our own happiness and what sacrifices we are willing to make?”