First published 2026
Clara Tice stands at the river's edge with Haloke, a Nisenan shaman's granddaughter, watching in terror as the town beauty Clementine Cobbs is drawn across the water to something horrible lurking in the Night Pool. Clara is the blacksmith's stubborn daughter in the brutal mining town of Coloma, California. Haloke has fled her village after smallpox and starvation destroyed her people. Soon an unseen killer begins stalking the miners, leaving behind corpses drained of life. As the deaths mount and threaten to spark more violence, Clara and Haloke join forces with Mei, a quiet healer from the Chinese immigrant camp whose brother chases gold with ruthless determination. The three women have no gangs or guns to protect them in this lawless place where female lives matter little. They must rely on each other to face the monsters that hunt them, both the supernatural creature from the Night Pool and the greedy, violent men who control Coloma.
Genres: american-fiction, historical-fiction, horror, adult-fiction, dark-fantasy, mystery-thriller
Vibes: atmospheric, dark, gritty, haunting, suspenseful, tension-filled
Tropes: forced-proximity, found-family, strong-female-lead, unlikely-allies
Setting: Coloma, California, Night Pool, Chinese immigrant camp
Period: 19th-century, Gold Rush era
354 pages · Hardcover · Blackstone Publishing, Inc.
Content warnings: colonialism, death, racism, violence