Cruel Summer Matt Venne Introduced by Joe R. Lansdale Cover and internal illustrations by Daniele Serra Synopsis: CRUEL SUMMER is a dark coming-of-age tale, set in the summer of 1985 against the very real backdrop of the atrocities committed by the infamous serial killer who came to be known the world over as The Night Stalker. When young Jim Craine learns about The Night Stalker's bloody rampage through the Los Angeles county neighborhoods that surround his small hometown, he begins to realize that life isn't as idyllic in his suburban neighborhood as he had once believed. Beneath the sunny streets, green lawns, and rows of shiny happy tract houses lurks a dark underbelly of secrets and shadows and lies: when the body of a young woman is found in the neighboring streets, the peaceful veneer of life in suburbia is forever shattered. As the blood spilled by the Night Stalker swirls into an ever-tightening whirlpool that threatens to suck Jim into its deadly abyss, the young man will come to discover that some of life's greatest horrors are those that are quietly scratching at the thin stucco walls between happiness and sorrow. ~~~ "A haunting coming-of-age story about that shadowed land from which none of us emerges unscathed - our own childhoods. Don’t be fooled by his easy, conversational voice, either - Matt Venne is going to take you to some dark places... all the more heart-wrenching for being real." Michael Marshall - Bad Things, The Intruders Writing as Michael Marshall Smith - The Servants. ~~~ "Cruel Summer manages to be intensely personal, nerve-wracking, deeply humane, down-and-out nasty, and compulsively readable all within the space of fewer pages than it takes most perennial bestsellers to get started. This is the real stuff, folks:  a heart very much in the pulps of the 40s and 50s, with timeless sensibilities, and a pace that makes most Richard Stark and Joe Lansdale novels look like they're standing still.   This one's a sharp kick in the gut, heart, and head.   Strap in and open to the first page.  Have bandages ready.   And your Living will up to date." Gary A. Braunbeck 5-time Bram Stoker Award-winner, author of Coffin County and Far Dark Fields.   26 Lettered hardcovers, leather-bound & slip cased (signed by all contributors) $80 US SOLD OUT 100 signed and numbered softcovers $14 US SOLD OUT July 25th Release