Caretaker of Lorne Field

From Overlook's Winter Catalog:

Dave Zeltserman’s last novel was named by NPR as one of the top five crime and mystery novels of 2008 and one of The Washington Post’s best books of the year. Publishers Weekly, in a starred review, said his “breakthrough third crime novel deserves comparison with the best of James Ellroy.” And Crimetime calls him “a name to watch.” Now, Zeltserman has written the book his fans have been waiting for—a classic unlike anything you’ve ever read.

Jack Durkin is the ninth generation of Durkins who have weeded Lorne Field for nearly 300 years. Though he and his wife Lydia are miserable and would like nothing more than to leave, Jack must wait until his son has come of age to tend the field on his own. It’s an important job, though no one else seems to realize it. For, if the field is left untended, a horrific monster called an Aukowie will grow—a monster capable of taking over the entirety of America in just two weeks. Or so it is said. . .

“If Stephen King had a true Noir calling and Peter Straub added contemporary horror . . . and Dean Koontz threw in his fine depiction of ordinary life . . . then bring the specter of James M. Cain to write the narrative, you’d come close to describing the whole effect of this stunning, slice-of-the-zeitgeist, wondrous novel. And the writing is pure dark bliss.” —Ken Bruen

Publishing date: Feb. 2010

Other upcoming books:

Pariah, Oct. 2009
Bad Karma, Oct. 2009
Killer, Jan. 2010 (UK), July 2010 (US)
Outsourced, (was 28 Minutes), July 2010 (UK), October 2010 (US)
Essence, Feb. 2010