The Midnight Muse

Kaplan (When the Night Bells Ring) serves up an eerie feast for the senses in this addictive horror novel. Brynn Werner, lead singer of the metal band Queen Carrion, vanished into thin air after an unexplained episode of mass hysteria during one of her shows. Now, on the one-year anniversary of her disappearance, her former bandmates Harlow, Wendy, Lou, and Rhys, along with Rhys’s girlfriend, Jacqueline, gather at a remote cabin in the Oregon forest. Their excursion quickly goes awry: the cabin has a menacing aura, the surrounding woods echo Brynn’s voice, and Rhys soon succumbs to a mysterious infection. It slowly becomes clear that the group has been deliberately caught in the web of a biological experiment—and their captors have no intention of letting them leave. Kaplan smoothly blends body horror and emotional trauma, imbuing each memorable character with psychological depth. Most impressively, all the chaos and gore never overshadow the intense grief at the heart of the page-turning plot. The result is as beautiful and moving as it is creepy. (Mar.)