The Lonely Heart

Alan Cutshaw didn't come to Sego Valley looking for trouble. He just wanted a place to settle his bones, a quiet house where the past couldn't reach him. But the house he buys-the one the locals call The Lonely Heart-has a past of its own, and it's been waiting a long time for someone like him. It starts with the ghosts. One his late fiancée, the other, a little boy, murdered and trying to get Alan to help him free of this world. Sego Valley has always had its secrets. Folks there know when to talk and when to shut up, and when The Lonely Heart comes up in conversation, they shut up fast. But the past has a way of digging its fingers up through the floorboards. And in that sagging old house, something ancient has begun to stir-something that was here long before the town, long before people, maybe long before the dark knew its own name. As Alan follows the clues the spirits leave behind, he uncovers a truth so mean and hungry it makes the grave look merciful. Whatever is under The Lonely Heart isn't done-not by a long shot-and it wants more than just the boy. It wants every living soul it can get its claws into. Now Alan has a choice: run, like any sane man would... or stand and fight an evil older than mankind itself-even if it costs him everything he has left. The Lonely Heart is the first full-length novel by macabre storyteller Michael Summers-a slow-creeping, small-town nightmare that grabs you by the throat and doesn't let go until the final, shivering page.