“Tackling the terrors associated with growing older, Keisling taps into our collective fears while exploring grief, existential dread, and cosmic horror as only he can.”
All Jerry Campbell wants is to be left alone. After the death of his wife Abigail, the grieving widower is desperate for some change in scenery. His realtor tells him about a new home in Fairview Acres … a retirement community nestled in the Poconos. Jerry figures it’s as good a place as any to spend the rest of his time in solitude.
Until he moves in.
Strange neighbors. Block parties at night. Unsettling noises running across his rooftop day and night. And then there’s Arthur Peterson, chairman of the Fairview Acres Community Association. Arthur is obsessed with making Jerry participate in these weird neighborhood activities. Jerry keeps telling himself he doesn’t want to be guy who complains about everything. Then Katherine Dunnally shows up at his door, telling Jerry “You need to leave. The worms … they dance at nightfall … “
They say Katherine suffers from a form of dementia called Sundowner’s Syndrome. The weeks progress and the strangeness mounts to a fever pitch. Jerry believes something else is going on in his new neighborhood.
Something that has to do with the huge stone in the community park…
Why we’re excited about this book:
Todd Keisling is one of our premier practitioners of horror and weird fiction. The author of the Monochrome series, The Smile Factory, The Final Reconciliation, Scanlines, and Devil’s Creek, Keisling’s short fiction has appeared in such publications and anthologies as Dead Harvest, The Bad Book, The Hideous Book of Hidden Horrors, and Never Wake: An Anthology of Dream Horror among others, and is collected in Cold, Black & Infinite: Stories of the Horrific & Strange. Tackling the terrors associated with growing older, Keisling taps into our collective fears while exploring grief, existential dread, and cosmic horror as only he can. Gwendolyn Kiste (The Haunting of Velkwood) calls The Sundowner’s Dance “A widely original and unsettling tale … An unforgettable journey of grief, cosmic horror, and making the most of the time we’ve got left.”, and Robert P Ottone (The Vile Thing We Created) says: Keisling’s finest tackles grief and aging in a way that compels you through the darkness. The Sundowner’s Dance cements his status as the future of the genre. Christa Carmen (The Daughters of Block Island) says: “Reading The Sundowner’s Dance is a bit like casting a spell to ward off existential dread despite the greatest terrors of the novel evoking this very thing; the beauty and hopefulness at the core of the story refuse to be stamped out by either the wrath of an alien invader or the ravages of age. It’s Todd Keisling at his absolute finest: dark, unflinching, visceral, and innovative. His pitch-perfect prose and masterful storytelling will leave you, quite literally, breathless.”
Releasing from Shortwave Media 22 April 2025, The Sundowner’s Dance by Todd Keisling is available for pre-order now.
BOB PASTORELLA
