In for a Dime

The post-apocalyptic love child of Stephen King and Cormac McCarthy

Ten years after the calamitous events set in motion by Dylan Cleary in his attempt to bring George Cleary’s last novel to life, Deacon Riis has settled back into the rather sedate life of a small-town reporter. That is, until he’s invited to a New Year’s Eve Party by Dylan’s sister Crystal, who’s now a successful writer/producer behind a wildly popular horror movie franchise and for her next big budget slasher flick she’s chosen to adapt one of her grandfather’s apocalyptic thrillers.

On the drive up to his sister’s retreat in northern Ontario, Deacon receives a text that reads, It has begun again. D. True to his word, Dylan is even then orchestrating an apparently random and increasingly savage series of attacks culled from his grandfather’s last fiction and Deacon’s only hope of avoiding a similar climax as the one that saw much of Mesaquakee reduced to ash will be to go all-in like Dylan, even if it means sacrificing everything he holds dear.

John Jantunen has lived in almost every region of Canada and currently resides in Kingston, Ontario. His first novel, Cipher, was shortlisted for a 2014 Kobo Emerging Writer Prize in the Mystery category and No Quarter was nominated for a 2019 Shamus Award.