Publication Date: May 19, 2026
FROM THE AWARD-WINNING AUTHOR OF STREETS OF NASHVILLE
In Avalon Moon, a local man has gone missing and then is soon found dead in a highland meadow, side-by-side with an unknown woman. When another man and woman go missing and a female deputy is found murdered, Gabriel Tanner, editor of Runion’s weekly newspaper, and Plumer Reeves, a reclusive local hawkshaw working for the niece of the first dead man, suspect a monster is hunting in their western North Carolina mountains. Two extraordinary young women, the Avalon community’s Ariel Anderson and Lonesome Mountain’s Livvy Goforth, join Tanner and Reeves to lead the attempt to discover and stop the killer.
Working as the chief contributor of a weekly newspaper means Gabriel Tanner develops a fairly solid routine.
What initially is thought to be a missing person’s case soon upends Gabriel’s schedule as he teams up with a local man known for his ability to locate the missing.
Author Michael Amos Cody serves up a slow-burning slice of horror in Avalon Moon. While readers are focused on a wolf sanctuary being established on Christabel Island, there’s plenty of activity happening on Lonesome Mountain.
In fact, as the bodies start to fall, there’s talk of a brutal serial killer. Add in an eccentric woman and a teen girl with “the sight,” and the fight to destroy the evil creeping into the community is on.
Woven into the primary storyline is a gothic tale connected to pages of a journal dated from 1800. The author manages to effectively build suspense along with the anticipation of goosebumps.
Avalon Moon straddles the paranormal realm while introducing a serial killer ready to hunt.
MICHAEL AMOS CODY is the author of the novels Gabriel’s Songbook (2017) and Streets of Nashville (2025), winning Thriller in the 2026 Independent Press Awards. His collection of short stories, A Twilight Reel (2021) won a Feathered Quill Book Award in 2022. His new novel is Avalon Moon (May 2026). Cody lives with wife Leesa in Jonesborough, Tennessee, and teaches early American literature and creative writing in the Department of Literature and Language at East Tennessee State University.
