The Widows of Winding Gale

THE NEW NOVEL FROM THE BRAM STOKER AWARD-WINNING AUTHOR OF SOUR CANDY

"A lonely island, a fog rolling in, missing fishermen, and a hideous evil emerges from the sea...THE WIDOWS OF WINDING GALE is pitch-perfect, spine-tingling horror. Burke gives a masterclass in isolation and dread, so chilling that the author should take a bow at the end." — Christopher Golden, NY Times bestselling author of THE NIGHT BIRDS and ALL HALLOWS

"Atmospheric and intelligent, WINDING GALE mines the classic haunting story and invents something new. It's a joy to read," - Sarah Langan, bestselling author of GOOD NEIGHBORS and A BETTER WORLD

For the people on the rugged Irish island of Winding Gale, life has always been hard. Now in the wake of the second World War, the island is dying, the young taken away by death or the appeal of better lives elsewhere, leaving behind only a handful of adults.

But on the night the men of the island disappear while fishing in uncharted waters, the women of Winding Gale are forced into a conflict with something both new and unfathomably old.

A strange greenish mist rolls in, cutting the island off from the mainland. Spiral symbols appear in the sand, fashioned from dead fish and stones. Seductive voices lure people from their homes to walk into the sea. Ancient ships materialize in the fog. And specters of the past will rise to take their vengeance in blood.

Because this is Samhain, a time when the veil between the living and the dead is thinnest, and there is something rising from the deep that will thrust the women of Winding Gale into a war against an unspeakable evil few of them may survive.

From Kealan Patrick Burke, the Bram Stoker Award-winning author of Kin and Sour Candy, The Widows of Winding Gale is a nightmarish homage to the seminal work of Samuel Taylor Coleridge, William Hope Hodgson, Arthur Machen, and John Carpenter.

MORE PRAISE FOR THE WIDOWS OF WINDING GALE

"a terrifying aquatic hellscape, an insane mashup of monsters and folklore and the occult, with a black, briny beating heart bursting with vengeance and death. A cold, wet, tentacled nightmare that will haunt you." —Philip Fracassi, author of BOYS IN THE VALLEY and THE AUTUMN SPRINGS RETIREMENT HOME MASSACRE

“...one of the best horror stories I've read in a long time. It is many kinds of horror story at once: a ghost story, a sea monster story, a town under siege story, a story about grief and thwarted dreams, a story about profound isolation. You're in for a treat.” — Nathan Ballingrud, author of CATHEDRAL OF THE DAMNED

"...a remarkable achievement. A modern folk-horror tale steeped in myth and saltwater, carried by the fierce emotional core of the women who anchor its story...one of Burke’s most haunting works to date." - THE FANDOMENTALS