The ones they’d nailed to the tree trunk were treacherous, like climbing up Sauron’s tower. All it needed was a couple more boards and a replacement set of ladder stairs.

Jude had disappeared that Sunday, after he and Stevie had spent hours ransacking the backs of buildings for broken two-by-fours. Stevie Clark stood at the edge of the woods, his small hands clasped together, watching people comb the trees for his friend. Now, fear is reborn-and for Stevie, who is determined to find out what really happened to Jude, the awful truth may be too horrifying to imagine. For years, the residents of Deer Valley have murmured about these unsolved crimes…and that a killer may still be lurking around their quiet town. And then there were the animals: pets gone missing out of yards. That, and there was that boy, Max Larsen.the one from years ago, found dead after also disappearing under mysterious circumstances. He knows what each ticking moment may mean for Jude, his cousin and best friend. And despite Stevie Clark’s youth, he knows that, too he’s seen the cop shows.

They’re well aware that the first forty-eight hours are critical and after that, the odds usually point to a worst-case scenario. Young Jude Brighton has been missing for three days, and while the search for him is in full swing in the small town of Deer Valley, Oregon, the locals are starting to lose hope. An unforgettable horror novel from bestselling sensation Ania Ahlborn-hailed as a writer of “some of the most promising horror I’ve encountered in years” ( New York Times bestselling author Seanan McGuire)-in which a small-town boy investigates the mysterious disappearance of his cousin and uncovers a terrifying secret kept hidden for years.

The Devil Crept In by Ania Ahlborn