A Cold Season

Having lost her husband to the battlefields of Afghanistan, Cass retreats with her son, Ben, to the village of Darnshaw. There she expects an idyllic life of comforting smalltown safety. What she actually gets is less a community and more a moral infestation. Ben rapidly transforms under the influence of the malevolent architect at work in Darnshaw; once a lovable young boy, he becomes rude, cold, and menacing. The hoped-for haven is a stalking ground for the worse sort of predator and an arena where the stakes may be Cass’s very soul. The small town that turns out to be a festering hive of dark ritual is a well-established trope in horror; anyone adopting this setting has to find some way to make their tale stand out. But each development in Littlewood’s debut is entirely familiar and predictable, delivering all the required steps in this horrific little dance with nary a flourish. (Sept.)