The Darker Carnival

Come one, come all! Step right up to the terrors that stalk the midway.The Markhat Files, Book 9When Dark’s Diverse Delights arrives by night to set up shows and rides that promise fun and excitement for one and all, the outskirts of Rannit begin to look disturbingly like the nightmares that plague Markhat’s sleep.Mama Hog has sent him a new client, a cattle rancher with a missing daughter. Markhat’s search reveals genuine terrors lurking amidst the carnival’s tawdry sideshows, where Death itself takes the main stage every evening, just past midnight.The orchestrator of the murderous, monstrous mayhem is the mysterious carnival master, Ubel Thorkel. And after Buttercup the Banshee is threatened, Markhat is in a race against time to find the carnival’s dark heart and strike it down once and for all—or die trying.Warning: Left unattended, this book is prone to rotate corn crops, eschew oral hygiene, engage in long-distance artillery exchanges with remaindered copies of C.S Lewis’s “The Chronicles of Narnia”, and provide unwelcome commentary during rush-hour traffic. Readers are advised to exercise extreme caution during vertical take-off and landing of Harrier fighter jets, because that’s just basic common sense. At no point should this book be considered a substitute for professional medical advice or paprika. Especially paprika.