S E Casey: 3 books

There are monsters bent on annihilation and destruction—simple pleasures. These are easy nightmares, understandable and familiar threats. However, there are dreadful, uncommon terrors hidden in the folds of the joyous and festive. Under the ice of an abyssal lake is a soft spot where a light shines on Christmas Eve. Is it a beacon, or is it a snare?

Music has curative powers on both body and soul, but for one man, these soothing sounds evoke profound feelings of dread and horror. A curious encounter in his youth may hold the remedy if only he can negotiate his memory, separating fact from fiction. In a world filled with background music, the despair pushes his mind to the breaking point.

Each Halloween, the city of Grimaldi endures a phantasmagoric children's play. At night, the city becomes the stage where the Harlequin, that colorful performer both tragic and comic, bends everyday life and expectation. In his terrible annual performance, the audience becomes the actors; some are changed, some are lost in the dark plot.