Peter Goode wants what most people take for granted: a normal life.
Marked by his appearance and haunted by a violent past, Peter leaves New York City for the vast wilderness of Acadia National Park, hoping distance and isolation will offer a fresh start-among people who might see more than what he is on the surface.
Instead, he receives a warning.
During his journey north, an old woman cautions him never to leave the trail. The forests of Acadia, she says, conceal terrible things-forces that lure the unwary into the woods and defy explanation.
Peter understands the warning all too well. He has witnessed the supernatural before. He knows the cost of anger, and the consequences of opening doors to darker places. He is determined never to return to that world.
But when a historic winter storm descends on Bar Harbor and Peter encounters a woman wandering alone in the forest, he cannot turn away. Against all advice, he steps off the trail-and into something far more dangerous than the storm itself.
Injured and disoriented, Peter is led to an isolated cabin by a mysterious old man who offers refuge from the blizzard. Yet safety proves fleeting. The woods are alive with ancient evil, and the man who saved him may not be what he appears.
To survive the night, Peter must confront his past, decide who he can trust, and uncover the truth behind the Goode People-before the forest claims him forever.
From award-winning novelist Charles Welch comes a chilling supernatural thriller steeped in folklore, isolation, and creeping dread.