Product Review

David Reed is struggling. He’s working two jobs to make ends meet, trying not to resent the fact his wife makes so much more than he does, and to top it all off, he’s just totaled his car after swerving to avoid hitting a very large animal in the middle of the road.

But an empty bank account and no car soon turn out to be the least of David’s worries, when he begins to think the animal he almost hit might be stalking him. He feels eyes on him in town, hears noises outside his house late at night, and the stench the thing carries around is unmistakable.

His wife and friends think it was a bear, but David suspects the thing’s origins might not be so simple, and that it might be connected with the traveling carnival that’s recently come to town.

He thinks he just needs to hold out until the end of the week when the carnival moves on, but that might be easier said than done; every night, he senses the thing outside, getting closer and closer. He fears soon he’ll hear its claws scratching at the back door, trying to get in.

C. Dennis Moore is the author of the novels Revelations, The Third Floor, The Man in the Window, The Ghosts of Mertland and The Flip, plus Return to Angel Hill (co-written with David Bain). Email [email protected] to sign up for his free newsletter.