£4.99 – £9.99
A compelling literary crime that follows the son of a serial murderer who changes his identity in a bid to escape his past.
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Sixteen-year-old Lyle Edison recognizes the face of a murder victim on the nightly news – the waitress at his local diner. A place he often frequented with his dad. The following day his father is arrested and charged with her murder. And then eight further bodies are discovered.
Following the revelation that his dad is in fact a serial killer, Lyle is outcast and shunned. Forced to abandon his family, illegally obtaining a new identity, he moves away to start all over again.
Some years later, Lyle thinks he has finally moved on. But after several brushes with the law, Lyle’s past eventually catches up to him when a mysterious stranger known only as Icarus shows up and seems to know Lyle’s secret…
Craig Clevenger was born in Dallas, Texas and grew up in Southern California, where he studied English at California State University, Long Beach. He divides his time between the Mojave desert and the central coast, where he works at a local library and runs a community writing workshop. He is the author of The Contortionist’s Handbook, Dermaphoria, and Mother Howl. His essays and short fiction have appeared in the Coachella Review, Black Clock, San Francisco Noir 2, Starlite Pulp Review and the forthcoming Amber Waves of Autumn from Kelp Books. His works have been translated into 30+ languages.
“I am utterly f***ing infuriated with how good it was. Just… don’t make the mistake of sleeping on this.”
– Rob Hart, author of The Paradox Hotel
“Couldn’t keep my nose out of this one.”
– Stephen Graham Jones, author of The Only Good Indians
“Entering the world of Mother Howl is like reverse engineering an origami rattlesnake only to realize you’re holding a bloodstained murder confession – this book will devour you just as ruthlessly and tenderly as you devour it.”
– Will Christopher Baer, author of the Phineas Poe trilogy
“Clevenger’s riveting, fearless and unshakeable Mother Howl is noir from the cold side of the sun, where Icarus is gravity’s assassin and every search for the self leads through a black star.”
– Steve Erickson, author of Shadowbahn and Zeroville
“Mother Howl is unlike anything you’ve read or will read. Truly a stunning work.”
– Amina Akhtar, author of Kismet
“Dubbed “neo-noir,” Clevenger’s book is brilliant, original, and genre defying, veering from the mundane to the truly bizarre and from dark hopelessness to strangely hopeful.”
– Booklist, starred review