Nightmare in Agate Bay: A Pierce Mostyn Paranormal Investigation
by CW Hawes
Available on Amazon Kindle
Agate Bay, Minnesota is a town on the western shores of Lake Superior that time has forgotten. Rumors of a horrible yet rare disease inflicting the inhabitants have filtered to the outside, enough to attract the attention of the Office of Unidentified Phenomenon (OUP), an obscure Federal investigative unit somewhere in the bureaucracy between the FBI and defense intelligence agencies. The OUP sends its finest, Pierce Mostyn, and a team of investigators to assess the disease and determine whether it is a threat to the security of the country. Once the team arrives, they find a ramshackle town of decaying structures built during the turn of the 20th century. They spot furtive figures, seemingly misshapen, but are unable to speak with them. As the team investigates, the true history of the town is revealed, and the inhabitants defend their secrets with ferocity and horror. What follows is violence, madness, and death.
This tale is an homage to the original Cthulhu Mythos works by H.P. Lovecraft and others. The story has all of the necessary elements: rumors of weirdness, an intelligent and competent investigator, a mysterious and grotesque setting, an atmosphere of dread, and monstrous, horrific villains beyond the rational. Hawes does a fine job building the tension using description and exposition, and startles the reader with an abrupt explosion of violence. The investigators' frantic escape from the clutches of horror was heart-pounding, and the inevitable deaths of some of the investigators reinforced the base and corrupted nature of the villains. The sense of dread remains to the end of the tale, and Hawes leaves a feeling not so much of victory for the forces of good, but rather a patching of the dike that separates the rational and sane from the horrific. Mostyn and the other characters are given enough description to carry the tale, though I suspect we'll learn more about Mostyn and how he came to be employed by the OUP in later stories in the series.
In summary, this tale is a quick shot in the arm, with enough dread, action and surprise to fill an afternoon. I am looking forward to the next installment.