Tidepool - Hardcover

by Nicole Willson (Author)

Nominated for a 2022 Bram Stoker Award.

"Wilson's plot hits all the right beats...Devotees of cosmic horror will enjoy this woman-centered take on familiar tropes."
-Publisher's Weekly

In 1913, Henry Hamilton disappears while on a business trip, and his sister, Sorrow, won't rest until she finds him. Defying her father's orders to remain at home, she travels to Tidepool, the last place Henry visited.

Residents of the small, shabby oceanside town can't quite meet Sorrow's eyes when she questions them about Henry. When corpses wash up on shore looking as if they've been torn apart by something not quite human, Sorrow is ready to return to Baltimore and let her father send in the professional detectives.

Then, she meets Mrs. Ada Oliver, a widow whose black silk dresses and elegant manners set her apart from other Tidepool residents. After a terrifying encounter involving Mrs. Oliver, Sorrow discovers Tidepool's dark, deadly secret, and the town's denizens-human and otherwise-are hell bent on making sure she never leaves.

Atmospheric, riveting, and frightening, Tidepool is a must read Lovecraftian dark fantasy for those who pursue the truth no matter the personal cost.

"Richly dark and enthralling!"

--Verified Reviewer

"The creeping dread of Lovecraftian horror by way of American Horror Story - Tidepool will ensure you never look at the ocean the same way again!"

--Peter McLean, author of War for the Rose Throne Series

"Part Thomas Ligotti, part Penny Dreadful, Tidepool, is a novel about the gravitational forces of fate, pulling characters in against their will, with readers only able to sit and watch the catastrophe unfold. This is the compelling force of all great horror, to hope for rescue even when we know it will not come, to want to escape even as we turn the next page. Willson wields a deft hand of darkness and humanity in this compelling debut."

-- Jaye Viner, author of Jane of Battery Park