First published 2001
Robert and Janet Patterson pack up their daughter Krissy for what should be the perfect family vacation. They drive deep into rural Florida, seeking a quiet retreat far from city noise and crowds. The remote town delivers exactly what they wanted: peace, solitude, and complete isolation from the modern world. But the locals share strange stories about their surroundings. They speak in hushed tones about the dark lagoons that dot the landscape. They warn visitors about sounds that drift through the forest after sunset. Robert and Janet dismiss these tales as backwoods superstition. Krissy hears them first. Voices calling from the woods around their vacation spot. She tells her parents about the whispers, but they brush off her concerns as childhood imagination. The sounds grow stronger each night, and something begins stalking the family through the trees. When Krissy vanishes without a trace, Robert and Janet realize the local warnings held truth. Their daughter has been taken by whatever lurks in the Florida wilderness. Now the whispers are growing louder, and the presence that claimed Krissy is returning for the rest of the Patterson family.
Genres: suspense, mystery, horror, thriller
Vibes: atmospheric, dark, suspenseful
Tropes: missing-child, stalker, unreliable-narrator
Setting: Florida, Rural Town
Period: Contemporary
340 pages · Mass Market Paperback · Signet
Content warnings: violence