An Alternate History in which Power, Crime, and the Supernatural
Intersect on the South Side of Chicago
During the First World War, on the South Side of Chicago, officer Joe
"Flip" Flippity has begun an investigation into a serial decapitationist
who is hunting young children. At a time when African American officers
are rendered second-class by prejudicial policies, Flip is nonetheless
called upon by the mayor of the city--the legendary Big Bill Thompson
himself--and a host of powerful city fathers, to thwart this murderer
who threatens to destroy the city's reputation as a safe haven for those
making the Great Migration north.
While searching to catch his killer--and to discover why the most
powerful men in Chicago are truly concerned about the murders of poor
black refugees--Flip's bloody trail takes him through the South Side's
vice districts (where anything is available for a price), across its
most dangerous criminal underbellies, and into a bracing and unexpected
world of supernatural horror.
As Flip digs deeper in his quest to protect the city's most vulnerable,
he stumbles upon more mysterious murders, confounding psychological
puzzles, and terrifying hints of something "other" that may reach across
from unknowable distances to guide the hand of a killer. It soon becomes
apparent that all is not as it seems, and that mysterious and powerful
forces are conspiring to stand in Flip's way.
A combination of detective thriller, cosmic horror, and historical
fiction, Lake of Darkness takes us to the deepest and darkest places
in Chicago's very dark history.
