"A complex and chilling tale of friends, family and the often murderous secrets that hide in the dark" from the award-winning author of Bone White (Robert McCammon, New York Times-bestselling author). The Piper has come to take the children away . . . In the fall of 1993, fifteen-year-old Angelo Mazzone sees his first dead body. The murder is linked to the Piper, the possible abductor of three other children--who haven't been found--over the past few months. Some people in town say the woods are haunted, but Angelo and his friends head in anyway, to search the darkness for a monster. What they find there will change who they are--and everything they once believed in . . . "A frightening, thoroughly engaging read with a deeply moving series of narrative motifs running throughout, ones that needle the mind and tug at the heart in the best way . . . A triumph of suspense, an affectionate ode to adolescence and by far Ronald Malfi's strongest effort to date." --Horror Novel Reviews "Malfi is a man of many voices, a sort of literary version of Mel Blanc (the 'man of a thousand voices'), but all of his voices are captivating, though none of them quite the same. Horror and crime fans will find much to like here." --Booklist