Lake Monsters

Downsized from his job and dumped by his girlfriend, Harrison Allen longs for a fresh start. Alone, with no prospects or plans, he relocates to a borrowed house on Friars Island in Lake Champlain to relax, contemplate, and begin redefining his life. Then he hears about the monsters . . .

Creatures -- perhaps similar to those of Loch Ness -- are said to inhabit the murky waters and fogbound marshes of his new island home. His interest piqued, Harrison becomes preoccupied with finding them. But his innocent questions provoke a surprising response: the islanders won't discuss monsters. After Harrison meets the lovely local schoolteacher, Nancy Wells, events inexplicably turn menacing. He suspects he is being watched; he is warned away from an abandoned monastery; and somehow he wins the wrath of a murderous local bully. Then people begin to disappear . . . and die.

Harrison's harmless monster hunt discloses something dark and disturbing beating in the heart of this tiny Vermont town. Malevolent forces, powerful and primitive, propel the unwary couple into a maelstrom of escalating terror. Suddenly they find themselves targeted by an unstoppable evil never before contemplated and impossible to comprehend.

Harrison's "new beginning" is like nothing he'd ever planned. And Lake Monsters ends with a surprise that's shocking, unexpected, and unforgettable.

PRAISE FOR LAKE MONSTERS:

"Citro's stuff is as good as it gets, and LAKE MONSTERS is his best novel yet: creepy, exciting fun so realistic you'll swear it's happening to you."--Richard Laymon, author of Night in the Lonesome October & The Stake

"Joseph Citro’s Lake Monsters concerns the relocation of Harrison Allen, failed businessman, to Friar’s Island in Vermont’s Lake Champlain. Allen has fixated on the notion of finding "Champy," the monster reputedly living in the Lake, as a means of remaking his life into something more glamorous. Aided by his newfound lover, schoolteacher Nancy Wells, Allen begins to discern an old supernatural mystery amongst the townspeople that is much more disturbing than his cryptozoological prey. Citro’s insidiously beguiling style is as dangerously attractive as deadly nightshade, and this tale, which creatively echoes HPL’s "The Dunwich Horror," easily joins the ranks of classic New England chillers." --Paul Di Filippo, Asimov’s Science Fiction

"...truly original, gut wrenching terror!" --Rick Hautala, author of The Mountain King & Impulse

"A whip crack of a surprise ending deftly transforms Lake Monsters into a highly sophisticated addition to the Lovecraftian oeuvre." --New Writer's Magazine