The Boatman

The Boatman is set in a tight-knit 1890s western mining town whose unique and rigid Christian faith has always offered comfort, however confusing it is. But when the dead refuse to stay buried, the children start twisting, and the protective rituals begin to fail, the town must realize they’re not facing a crisis of faith, but a much older, darker truth: the religion they practice was founded on a horrific and hungry lie, and now that lie has come back to demand its due.In the small mining town of Potter’s Field, the dead are buried with silver coins on their eyes and their sins read aloud. The ritual must be performed perfectly, or the dead are doomed to stay buried–and aware–forever.Father Boone performs the burial rites, though they were never properly passed down, only patched together from scraps of memory. One too many mistakes and now something beneath the town is stirring… and the old rites no longer hold.Desiree, the town’s prostitute, begins hearing children’s voices in the rain after being shunned from attending a funeral. Soon after, Sawyer, a charming debt collector, arrives in Potter’s Field demanding payment from a dead man, only to vanish into the woods and return changed.As the veil between religion, folklore, and flesh tears open, all three are pulled into the truth behind their crumbling faith.The rites are failing. Potter’s Field is unraveling.And The Boatman isn’t just a ferryman of the dead.———————————————————————————————————–K. Bengston’s debut is a chilling blend of folk and religious horror set in the swamps of small-town western America. Comps: The VVitch, The Blair Witch Project, The Ritual and True Detective.For fans of T. Kingfisher, Brian Keene, and John Langan