PRODUCT NOTE: The print edition of this book is 248 pages.
DEAR READER:
Here’s the thing about Crooked Hills, Missouri.
It’s a real place.
You won’t find it on a map no matter how hard you look. But don’t let that fool you. It’s real. I lived there.
I lived there when I was in kindergarten, only then it was called Newton Grove, North Carolina, a place teeming with stories of UFOs accosting local townsfolk, drowned boys who crawled out of the depths of moonlit nights, hungry rats by the thousands living in the barn, and (would ya believe) Bigfoot. Until my last day on Earth, I’ll remember watching a strange man crawl out from beneath the house to pick apples from the tree in our back yard…then crawl back under the house to eat them. I’ll remember the day we came home to find thousands of locust covering every square inch of the house. And I’ll remember sneaking out of my bedroom late at night, crawling into the living room to secretly spy on the late, late night horror movies my older siblings were watching.
I lived there again a few years later, only it was called Goldsboro, North Carolina, and my house faced a dense forest where strange green lights prowled at night. There was a massive, haunted tree that had a huge, rusted plow blade embedded in its trunk—ten feet off the ground. If you explored the woods long enough, you might stumble across a gnarl pit filled with black liquid and bits of bone. The largest snake I have ever seen crawled through the underbrush of those woods. And on one dark Halloween night a ghostly car chased my friends and I all over the county. Down the road a ways was a place called the Witch House, where all manner of dark ritual was performed. And stories of the Devil’s Stomping Ground and the Maco Light kept me up at night.
Years later, I lived there again, only this time it was called Thayer, Missouri, deep in the Missouri Ozarks. On certain days, the old dirt roads were covered with thousands of migrating tarantulas. If I went down into the basement (where my bedroom was located) I had to be on the lookout for scorpions. Coyotes and wild dogs prowled the woods, and at night it was so dark (there were no streetlights) that any manner of creature could creep up on you in the blackness. One of those creatures might have been a malevolent goblin the locals believed kidnapped goats, dogs, and even small children on stormy nights.
And much later, when I first heard the story of the witch Molly Crenshaw, who was hacked to pieces by the townsfolk of St. Charles County (near modern St. Louis), I realized I was still trapped in Crooked Hills.
The stories, as you can see by the legends I’ve mentioned, are real, too.
Depending on how you look at them.
"Crooked Hills" is my way of sharing some of the strangeness of the small towns I’ve lived in…my way of capturing the feeling of fear…and of fun…that came with searching out these odd happenings and trying, even though I was scared out of my mind, to spot a ghost.
—Cullen Bunn
PRODUCT DESCRIPTION:
FROM NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLING AUTHOR, CULLEN BUNN
For Charlie and his brother, Alex, an unexpected trip to visit their Aunt Mary in the haunted town of Crooked Hills turns into a life-changing adventure, forcing them to confront local bullies, hell hounds, dead witches, and girls with slingshots! A throwback to classic adventures like that of the Hardy Boys, mixed with the creepiness of GOOSEBUMPS and CIRQUE DU FREAK, Cullen Bunn's CROOKED HILLS blends mystery and adventure to weave a fun and unforgettable story of will, friendship and family bonds.
advertisement