First published 2022
Felix Proust arrives in Dalton, West Virginia for what should be a routine assignment. The journalist has come to interview Maggie Eloquence, CEO of Dalton Dollworks, the toy company that built this small town around its lifelike doll manufacturing. But Felix notices troubling details from the moment he steps off the transport. The air reeks of manure. Every adult appears elderly. The local children watch him with hostile silence. Felix tries to focus on his work, but Dalton refuses to behave like a normal town. As his visit stretches on, Felix discovers that the Dollworks company and the community it created harbor secrets that go far deeper than corporate success stories. The truth about Dalton connects to something buried beneath the town itself, something that should never surface. Felix must decide whether his journalistic curiosity is worth the price of uncovering what the residents have worked so hard to conceal.
Genres: suspense, mystery, horror, thriller
Vibes: dark, suspenseful, thought-provoking
Tropes: fish-out-of-water, unreliable-narrator
Setting: Dalton, West Virginia
Period: contemporary
54 pages · Paperback · Precipice Books
Content warnings: gore, violence