Midnight is the Darkest Hour Winstead Ashley (2023)

Librarian Ruth Cornier has always felt like an outsider in her small hometown, despite her beloved fathers fire-and-brimstone sermons at Holy Fire Baptist. The townspeople fear the local myths even more than God and the Devil, including the story of the Low Man, a vampiric figure said to enter sinners bedrooms and kill them on moonless nights. When a skull is discovered in the swamp beside mysterious carved symbols, Bottom Springs erupts in turmoil. Ruth and Everett, an old friend with a dark past, are the only ones able to search the towns hidden underbelly for the true evil. This dark thriller explores the ways love, religion and stories are expected to save us, the lengths required to reclaim power and the monstrous work of being a girl in this world. Clare Mackintosh describes it as a brilliantly realised and wholly original novel.