The Lantern Men

Rowan Cale left Briar's Wake years ago and built a life far from the old Virginia town, its strange traditions, and the mother he never quite understood.

Then a call from St. Agnes County Hospital brings him home just days before Halloween.

His mother, Marian, has been committed after a violent incident at the local market. She insists she was trying to protect a child. She says the doors were unmarked. She says the Lantern Men have begun walking again.

Rowan remembers the stories.

Nearly two centuries ago, nine men were accused of terrible crimes and locked inside the town's slaughter mill. Before they could stand trial, the mill burned. All nine died.

Ever since, the people of Briar's Wake have observed an old October ritual meant to keep the dead from remaining inside their homes. Most no longer remember why. Some no longer believe at all.

But when lanterns begin appearing on dark roads and people start disappearing, Rowan is forced to confront the possibility that his mother was never as wrong as everyone believed.

As he digs into the town's history, he discovers that the story Briar's Wake has told for generations is incomplete-and that the dead may not be returning for revenge alone.

Some towns bury their sins.

Briar's Wake taught its dead to carry them.