by Dean Koontz
First published 2011
Crispin has lived on the streets for three years, ever since he was nine years old. The twelve-year-old boy moves constantly through the city with his mute companion Harley, a dog who never makes a sound. Crispin never stays anywhere long enough to be found, but he returns to certain safe places like St. Mary Salome Cemetery, where he can rest from the terrible memories that follow him into his nightmares. The city holds more than human dangers. Crispin has witnessed ghosts moving through the darkness and sensed impossible dimensions in daylight. Strange disturbances press at the edges of his world while earthly threats cast shadows across his path. He scavenges and survives alone, but this existence offers no real life for a child. The past Crispin fled remains unspeakable, yet it may still find him. The world contains darker corners he has yet to encounter.
Genres: suspense, mystery, horror, thriller, dark-fantasy
Vibes: dark, emotional, suspenseful, thought-provoking
Tropes: child-in-peril, haunted, unreliable-narrator
Setting: St. Mary Salome Cemetery, The City
115 pages · Kindle Edition · Bantam
Content warnings: child-abuse, child-death, violence