Pay the Piper

A terrifying tale of supernatural horror set in a cursed Louisiana bayou, from the minds of legendary director George Romero and bestselling author Daniel Kraus.

In 2019, while sifting through University of Pittsburgh Library’s System’s George A. Romero Archival Collection, novelist Daniel Kraus turned up a surprise: a half-finished novel called Pay the Piper, a project few had ever heard of. In the years since, Kraus has worked with Romero’s estate to bring this unfinished masterwork to light.
Alligator Point, Louisiana, population 141: Young Renée Pontiac has heard stories of ＂the Piper＂--a murderous swamp entity haunting the bayou--her entire life. But now the legend feels horrifically real: children are being taken and gruesomely slain. To resist, Pontiac and the town’s desperate denizens will need to acknowledge the sins of their ancestors--the infamous slave traders, the Pirates Lafitte. If they don’t . . . it’s time to pay the piper.

George A. Romero is often considered the greatest horror director of all time. His classic ＂Dead＂ movie cycle began with the groundbreaking Night of the Living Dead and Dawn of the Dead, which were followed by four sequels. He also directed Creepshow, The Dark Half, The Crazies, and created the TV series Tales from the Darkside. Romero died in 2017 after a fifty-year career in film.

Daniel Kraus is a New York Times bestseller. With Guillermo del Toro, he wrote The Shape of Water (based on the same idea Kraus and del Toro created for the Oscar-winning film) and Trollhunters (adapted into the Emmy-winning Netflix series). Kraus followed his science thriller Wrath, co-authored with Shäron Moalem, with the widely acclaimed USA Today bestseller Whalefall. His novel The Death and Life of Zebulon Finch was named one of Entertainment Weekly’s Top Ten Books of the Year. He lives in Illinois.