“With her debut novel, Smith heads into the Gold Rush era of the Wild West with a tale of a terrifying evil unleashed on a mining town and the women forced to face the evil together.”
There’s no safe haven for women in the American West, especially a place like the Gold Rush town of Coloma, California. Not for Mei, a healer whose soothing presence in the camp for Chinese immigrants clashes with her brother’s pursuit of riches. Not for Clara, the blacksmith’s strange daughter. And definitely not for Haloke, granddaughter of a Nisenan shaman whose village was ransacked by smallpox, starvation, and relentless greed.
Clara and Haloke meet at the river’s edge, watching in horror and the town beauty, Clementine Cobbs, is lured across the water. They witness something horrifying in the Night Pool. Soon, the mining men of Coloma are attacked by something unseen, their heartless bodies adandoned. The killings incite further violence, and Clara, Mei, and Haloke must band together to confront the evil that has fallen upon their town.
A gripping tale of sisterhood, vengeance, and survival, The Night Pool explores the horrors of greed and lust, and the hidden strength of the most vulnerable among us.
Why we’re excited about this book:
In a year full of horror fiction debuts, Lauren Lee Smith aims to add her name to the list of writers we can’t get enough of. Hailing from the rural Sierra Nevada foothills of California’s Gold Country, Smith’s work has been featured in such publications as Folio Lit Journal and Pretend You Don’t See Her: The Invisible Woman: Kandisha Press 2025 Women of Horror Anthology, among others. With her debut novel, Smith heads deep into the Gold Rush of the Wild West with a tale of a terrifying evil unleashed on a mining town and the women forced to face the evil together. Aaron Gwyn (The Cannibal Owl, All God’s Children) says: “A brilliant blend of history and horror, Lauren Lee Smith’s The Night Pool explores the terrors of Gold Rush California. With prose sharp as a bowie knife, Smith carves through the mythology of the Wild West and creates one entirely her own. A magnificent debut.”, and Cynthia Pelayo (Children of Chicago) says: “The Night Pool is a fever dream of gold and blood, where the land itself remembers what was taken. Here, women confront the brutality of the frontier and the haunting darkness that stalks the ravaged banks of Gold Rush–era Coloma. Lauren Lee Smith writes with a visceral beauty that braids history and horror into powerful prose that is as lyrical as it is merciless.”
Releasing from Blackstone Publishing 25 August 2026, The Night Pool by Lauren Lee Smith is available for pre-order now.
BOB PASTORELLA
