Things are looking up for twelve-year-old Cole Nightshade. After surviving a deranged nurse’s attack in Saint Edwards Mental Asylum, he’s discovered family he never knew existed. Cole’s cousin saves him from another potentially disastrous foster-care placement by inviting him to stay with her and her young son in the small town of New River. His living situation settled at last, Cole hopes he can put his traumatic past behind him.

But the promise of a peaceful existence is shattered almost immediately. Lured by the possibility of learning about his father, a man who’s been absent his entire life, Cole is recruited for a late-night grave-robbing episode. The opening of the grave unleashes something powerful, angry, and not quite human. Now this creature stalks New River to avenge the death of its most notorious citizen: Cole’s dad. 

Can Cole save the town—and himself—from a nightmare beyond imagining?