Arthur Oakes is an outsider. His mother was protesting against the government’s nuclear bombs, and something went wrong, and someone died. Now she is in prison. His father is long gone. Arthur spends his time lost in English mythology and unfulfilled dreams about the girls in his college. But one unintended incident – one moment of standing up for another underdog – leaves his mother in danger and him with orders to steal rare books from the college library. And the events that will unfold from that one moment of bravery will lead to slaughter.
The gang of six use a book covered in human skin in an arcane ritual, and summon the evil dragon King Sorrow. They enter into a pact – he will kill the couple who have been terrorising the group by easter, in exchange for their worship. But dragons are not to be trusted, and now they must repeat the ritual every year – including choosing who he will kill…
An epic, sprawling novel set in the 80s in Midwest America and going through to 2022 in England, with a massive cast led by six clever, damaged protagonists battling all manner of menaces, both supernatural and all too human.

First release: 21 Oct 2025
Shorts collection: No
Dedication: For Gillian — Gillian my love A thousand times Gillian
Nomination(s): No
Movie: No

The book/story is published with these cover(s):
(Click image to see full cover)

US editions:

—
ARC Paperback
William Morrow
2025		 9780062200600
Hardcover
William Morrow
2025		 9780062200600
Hardcover, presigned
William Morrow
2025		 9780063468061
Presigned Hardcover
(Barnes & Noble, Books-A-Million)
William Morrow
2025

Information about edition(s):
• The pre-signed hardcovers have a tipped-in signature sheet.

UK editions:

ARC Paperback
Headline
2025		 9781035434299
Regular Hardcover
and Presigned Hardcover
Headline
2025		 9781035435845
Presigned Hardcover
(Waterstones)
Headline
2025		 9781035434305
Paperback
Headline
2025
9781035437696
Signed Hardcover
Headline/Black Crow Books
2025		 9781035437351
Signed Hardcover
UK Goldsboro
2025

Information about edition(s):
• The Presigned hardcovers have a tiped-in signature page.
• The Headline/ Black Crow signed hardcover is limited to #1500.
• Goldsboro UK Premier edition is also limited to #1500, and initially only via subscription.

The story starts as follows:
One
On the first weekend in September, Arthur Oaks drove west to see his mother in the House of Correction. It was a trip of more than two hundred miles, across the southern half of Maine, the chimney pipe of New Hampshire, and into Vermont, and it ended, as it always did, in a line of cars waiting to pass through a twelve-foot-high gate topped with barbed wire.
Arthur always thought the House of Correction looked like a high school: a three-story block of sandstone brick, with narrow slots for windows. He slowed to a stop behind a Ford Ranchero disgorging oily black smoke from the exhaust pipe. A bumper sticker read: NO FREE RIDES-GAS, GRASS, OR ASS. There was a bumper sticker a man could respect. Arthur’s VW had been his mother’s ride before it was his, and the Rabbit had bumper stickers too… a lot of them. His mother hadn’t let a square inch of the rear end go to waste. One said ARE YOU FOLLOWING JESUS THIS CLOSE? Another showed a picture of Ghandi and said AN EYE FOR AN EYE MAKES THE WHOLE WORLD BLIND. They should’ve locked her up for crimes against her own car. It grated on him, parking his inherited Chrsitmobile in a lot of vehicles that had probably seen action as getaway cars.

Other information:
–

Nomination(s):
No

Movie:
No