Cole: "Why does this town keep all the lights off at night?"
Althea: "So it looks like no one's at home."

Cole Cantwell is emotionally destitute. He just missed his father's funeral, his girlfriend is leaving him, a blizzard is due, and he's trying to get over the Sierras and recover what's left of his life. Instead, he takes a cut off and crashes his car in a white-out. The hamlet of Cope is in walking distance, where he hopes to find shelter. But he has stumbled into forbidden territory. A compromised sheriff, a haunted man of the cloth, and a village terrorized by the monstrous Wade Deal and his cohorts. Cole uncovers the community's horrific long-held secret, and in a contest of survival must rescue the spirited young woman he meets, her wayward son, and find his own path forward before another night on the frigid mountain falls and the lights in Cope are turned out forever.

Mark Montgomery started out writing short stories, which led him to a career as a screenwriter, which lead him back to fiction and this first novel. He lives by a creek in the Portland area with his first and forever wife and two old cats who run the house.
He can be contacted at litcanon@gmail.com