Darker Days

'No one builds agonizing tension like Thomas Olde Heuvelt. Darker Days is his best yet.'
CATRIONA WARD
'This is Olde Heuvelt at the height of his powers.'
ALMA KATSU
Sometimes you think you can see things behind the fence. Bad things. So it's better not to look . . .
In Lock Haven, a quiet little town in Washington State, there is a very special street. Bird Street. The residents of Bird Street are all successful, wealthy, healthy and happy. And their children are all well-mannered and smart and high achievers.
At least they are for eleven months of the year. In November, however, the 'Darker Days' begin. For November's the month when things take a turn for the worse: accidents, bad luck, familial conflict and illness take hold. And it is in November that a stranger comes to Bird Street to collect the debt owed by the residents. Because, you see, there is a price that must be paid for all the happiness and good fortune they enjoy for the other eleven months of year. And that price is one human life. Every November. Without fail.
And so it has been for over a hundred years. To ease their guilt, the residents of Bird Street seek out individuals - usually the elderly or the terminally ill - who wish to die with dignity and are content to be helped on their way. Until one year, things don't go to plan and events take a terrifying turn . . .
This a neighbourhood drama to end all neighbourhood dramas. The residents of this particular cul de sac have made a pact with the Devil. For their gilded lives to continue, each year in November, someone must die in the woods . . .

Thomas Olde Heuvelt is an international bestselling author from The Netherlands. His breakthrough novel Hex was published in over twenty-five countries and hailed as 'totally, brilliantly original' by Stephen King and as 'phenomenal, phenomenal' by film director Mike Flanagan. His follow-up novels Echo and Oracle have since seen global publication, the former boasts, according to the Guardian, 'possibly the most frightening prologue ever written', while the latter was judged by The New York Times to be his 'sharpest, most compelling work to date'.
Olde Heuvelt, whose last name in Dutch dialect means 'Old Hill', was the first translated author to win a Hugo Award (for his short fiction, in 2015). He lives in The Netherlands and the south of France with his partner, author and photographer David Samwel. Aside from being a writer, he is an avid guitar player and mountaineer.