Shadow Menagerie — Michael Ayoob

"Shadow Menagerie" is a tale of madness, monsters, and ghosts. The town of Burdock Downs is a bankrupt dump ruled by a corrupt mayor, police chief, and pastor. An eccentric contractor named Lonnie Waters arrives touting a grand redevelopment plan. The town leaders indulge Waters, unaware that he harbors an obsessive vendetta against them. Elsewhere in the Downs lives Regina Gundy, a brilliant child cursed by ghosts known as “the Boom Girls.” Victims of a century-old industrial accident, the Girls haunt their ruined worksite and torment Regina with horrific visions. As Waters wrecks the Downs and his enemies' lives, Regina discovers that he may be able to break the Girls' curse as well. Desperate to save her sanity and her home, Regina sets out to bargain with the dangerous Waters.