Riverwatch: A Horror Novel

International Horror Guild Award nominee for Outstanding Achievement in a First Novel

Bram Stoker Award nominee for Superior Achievement in a First Novel

Jake Caruso thought he'd found the discovery of a lifetime when his crew uncovered a secret tunnel beneath the old Blake mansion. Hidden for two centuries, sealed behind stone and mortar, the tunnel leads to a chamber containing a seven-foot statue of a winged demon carved from black stone—and something far more terrifying trapped inside.

When one of Jake's workers breaks the statue open, he unleashes the Nightshade—an ancient creature of eternal bloodlust that has slumbered in darkness since the colonial era. The worker dies screaming, his face frozen in terror, with no visible wounds. It's the first death. It won't be the last.

As bodies pile up across the sleepy hamlet of Harrington Falls, Sheriff Damon Wilson realizes he's hunting something that strikes from the skies without warning or mercy. Victims are torn apart in their own homes, drained of blood, or simply vanish into the night. The killings bear no resemblance to any crime he encountered during his years on the Chicago police force. The evidence points to something impossible—something that shouldn't exist.

Jake and his friends, newspaper reporter Sam Travers and psychic Katelynn Riley, uncover the terrifying truth: the demon is the last of an ancient race called the Nightshades, imprisoned by an equally ancient guardian named Gabriel. For centuries, Gabriel watched over the creature's prison, but now the old man is dying and the beast roams free, reclaiming the night sky it ruled in ages past.

The Nightshade is a perfect predator—it heals from any wound, hunts with supernatural cunning, and grows stronger with each kill. It cannot be stopped by bullets or blades. It can fly faster than any pursuit. And it has chosen Harrington Falls as its new hunting ground, transforming the peaceful mountain town into an abattoir.

With the body count mounting and Gabriel's cryptic warnings offering little help, Jake, Sam, and Katelynn must uncover the secret to destroying an unkillable monster before everyone they love becomes the next victim. Their only weapons are a journalist's research, a psychic's visions, and a construction worker's desperate courage—and their only hope lies in an ancient conflict that began before the dawn of recorded history.

In the darkness over Harrington Falls, something watches. Something waits. Something that has hunted humans for millennia—and it's hungry.

Riverwatch is a creature feature horror novel that blends small-town terror, Gothic atmosphere, and monster hunting suspense into a relentless supernatural thriller. Perfect for fans of classic horror, winged demon stories, and heroes who face nightmare creatures with nothing but human courage and ingenuity.

"A modern gothic thriller...scary...remarkable." — Denver Rocky Mountain News

"Nasty, vicious, and perhaps most insidious of all - seductive." — Midwest Book Review