Pine Deep

Winner of the Bram Stoker Award for Best First Novel From a master of horror comes an apocalyptic showdown between the residents of a secluded, rural town and the deadly evil that confronts them wherever they turn. Evil doesn't die. The cozy little town of Pine Deep buried the horrors of its past a long time ago. Thirty years have gone by since the darkness descended and the Black Harvest began, a time when a serial killer sheared a bloody swath through the quiet Pennsylvania village. The evil that once coursed through Pine Deep has been replaced by cheerful tourists getting ready to enjoy the country's largest Halloween celebration in what is now called “The Spookiest Town in America.” It just grows stronger. But then—a month before Halloween—it begins. Unspeakably desecrated bodies. Inexplicable insanity. An ancient evil walks the streets, drawing in those who would fall to their own demons and seeking to shred the very soul of this rapidly fracturing community. Yes, the residents of Pine Deep have drawn together and faced a killer before. But this time, evil has many faces—and the lust and will to rule the earth. This struggle will be epic.

From the powerful imagination of a horror master comes a bone-chilling tale set in a small town where good and evil are joined in a terrifying, deadly battle. Evil endures. Once an idyllic Pennsylvania village, Pine Deep awoke one morning to find itself bathed in a massive bloodletting. Twice in thirty years the townsfolk have endured the savage hungers of a murderous madman—but if the residents think the death of serial killer Karl Ruger put an end to the carnage, they're dead wrong. The nightmare never ends. Bodies mutilated beyond description, innocents driven to acts of vicious madness. A monstrous evil is preying on the living—and the dead—and turning the quiet little town into hell on earth. Their only hope is to find the source. But the secrets that lurk in the heart of Pine Deep are twisted into its very roots. This time the townspeople aren't just fighting for their lives but for their very souls.

A new master of terror reigns supreme, and in his most horrifying novel yet, the clash between good and evil explodes in an apocalyptic showdown few will survive. From a funfest to a bloodfest… Each year, the residents of Pine Deep host the Halloween Festival, drawing tourists and celebrities from across the country to enjoy the deliciously creepy fun. Those who visit the small Pennsylvania town are out for a good time, but those who live there are desperately trying to survive. For a monstrous evil lives among them, a savage presence whose malicious power has grown too powerful even for death to hold it back. Only a handful of brave souls stand against the King of the Dead and a red wave of destruction. Daylight is fading, and a bad moon is rising over Pine Deep. Keep watching the shadows.

From New York Times bestselling author Jonathan Maberry comes a collection of five stories set in "the Spookiest Town in America"-including one brand-new story. In "Long Way Home," a young soldier returns from the Middle East and discovers that there is another-and much stranger-war to be fought in his hometown. In "Mister Pockets," a young paperboy discovers that a random act of kindness may have greater consequences-especially as night falls in Pine Deep. In "Property Condemned," a prequel to the Pine Deep trilogy, young Malcolm Crow and his friends go looking for ghosts and find something much darker and hungrier. In "Whistlin' past the Graveyard," a cemetery worker in Pine Deep begins to suspect that the dead are not resting easy in their graves. And in the new story "The Trouble," a direct sequel to the Pine Deep trilogy, Malcolm Crow thought he had destroyed the evil that had terrorized his town for forty years. But a new series of brutal murders forces him to prepare for another battle with the forces of darkness.

In this chilling story from New York Times bestselling author Jonathan Maberry, a young paperboy discovers that a random act of kindness may have greater consequences-especially as night falls in Pine Deep.