BILLIONAIRE BOOGEYMEN

In this debut horror novel, a law enforcement couple and others fight to escape a facility crawling with terrifying monsters.

Boston detective Vic Mitchum worries about his fiancee’s new undercover gig. Jujitsu-trained police officer Kelsey Moss can take care of herself, but posing as a sex worker is dangerous business. Sadly, someone grabs her, and Vic’s frantic search turns up nothing until he returns to a videographer’s crazy theory that he’d dismissed earlier. Kirby Cronin noticed that around the time local sex workers or homeless people vanish, a “club” for billionaires comes to town. This apparently leads to cycles of disappearances, and now Kelsey is the fourth missing person. As Vic hunts for an underground facility tied to the nefarious club, captive Kelsey and two fellow prisoners search for a way out. But no one can anticipate what truly awaits them down there—a chilling collection of aliens, undead things, cryptid creatures, and more. When these monsters run amok, Vic, Kelsey, a few allies, and some billionaire survivors struggle to stay alive and get themselves aboveground. Parker builds effective suspense in the kinetic novel’s first half; the villains are immediately clear, and certain chapters focus on Kelsey’s concocting an escape plan. Nevertheless, the highlight is a prolonged, exhilarating final act that showcases legendary beings such as the Jersey Devil, the wendigo, and the Sasquatch (“Its shape was of a large human, except for the arms, which appeared longer”). The cast is a balanced mix of heartless characters who deserve their dismemberments and sympathetic individuals, including ultra-cool Kelsey and a wealthy, potential club recruit harboring doubts about joining. Readers will recognize all the featured creatures even if they merely resemble something else (for example, a giant, tentacled beast). Parker drops them into a tautly written story that runs full tilt. While it’s unsurprisingly bloody, this hectic narrative is more about following hasty escapes than lingering on the gory bits.

A tense, action-packed tale of snarling teeth, razor-sharp claws, and entertaining mayhem.