Direct Descendant

By Tanya Huff

Book Overview

This cozy horror novel set in modern-day Toronto includes phenomenal characters, fantastic writing, and a queer romance--the perfect balance of dark and delightful

This stand-alone novel from the bestselling author of the Peacekeeper novels mixes the creepy with the charming for plenty of snarky, queer fun--for fans of T. Kingfisher, Grady Hendrix, Sangu Mandanna and Erin Sterling

Generations ago, the founders of the idyllic town of Lake Argen made a deal with a dark force. In exchange for their service, the town will stay prosperous and successful, and keep outsiders out. And for generations, it's worked out great. Until a visitor goes missing, and his wealthy family sends a private investigator to find him, and everything abruptly goes sideways.

Now, Cassidy Prewitt, town baker and part-time servant of the dark force (it's a family business) has to contend with a rising army of darkness, a very frustrated town, and a very cute PI who she might just be falling for...and who might just be falling for her. And if they can survive their own home-grown apocalypse, they might even just find happiness together.

Queer, cozy, and with a touch of eldritch horror mixed in just for fun, this is a charming love story about a small-town baker, a quick-witted PI, and, yes, an ancient evil.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0756419662
• ISBN13: 9780756419660
• Release Date: April 2025
• Publisher: Daw Books
• Length: 336 Pages
• Weight: 0.90 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.3" x 5.9" x 8.3"

Customer Reviews

Fun read!

For a town that has made an agreement with the Dark, this story did end up being quite a cozy fun read. All is well in the town of Lake Argen, with the townsfolk going about their daily lives and occasionally skewering shadows that might kill you if you leave your window open at night or being chosen as a guardian or one of the representatives (ex. the Mouth, or Hands of the Dark) until the day that a visitor arrives and decides to s word himself causing no end of new issues. Enter Melanie, hired to see what the heck is going on in this town and Cassidy, the Mouth of the Dark trying to keep the peace and keep the town from ruin. I thought it was nicely cozy, humorous and sweet, even with the hell hounds, occasional little cute eldritch horrors escaping through a crack to to the town and teens skewering shadows with marshmallow sticks. It was kind of funny how many odd things seemed so normal for this town like vegan guardian Jeffrey, or Alice or having town meetings with the representatives and speaking to the dark through them. There is also love, and I like that because of it, the town has a chance of being saved and going back to normal (or as normal as a town that that has an agreement with eldritch beings in exchange for safety and prosperity, though you still shouldn't swim past those buoys on the lake!).