Enter the Peerless
by Kyle Winkler
“Startlingly good: a hard-edged private-eye story that segues into a high-fantasy story of epic proportions, shot through with humor and terror, all of it anchored by Winkler’s abundantly realistic, human characters. This is something horror fans haven’t quite seen before.” —Booklist
Elpenor, a newly minted private investigator, finds his first case on Craigslist: twenty-nine people have entered an abandoned trailer in rural Indiana, and none of them have left. Unable to open the trailer’s doors or windows, Elpenor enlists two local accomplices, a knife grinder (Don the Knife) and a janitor (Hugh Gardener). When they finally gain access, they fall into a pocket universe ruled by a godlike being called Fiascoal.
Refugees of this world—a depopulated and exact copy of our world—congregate around a web of communities in St. Louis. Elpenor attempts to find the missing people but is instead forced to become the new host of Fiascoal as a communal ritual. His search for the missing in the netherworld and the needs of the hungry, petulant god conflict as Don the Knife raises a cult of personality, community leaders abuse their authority, and Elpenor must decide whether to save the few over the many. That is, if he can find a way out of the metaphysical prison he’s broken into. Told in a charged high-rhetorical, hard-boiled style, Enter the Peerless is a detective novel for the paranoiacs and heartsick rejects who know an angel in the dirt when they see one.
Cover art by Frank Pollard (Agency Observation). Layout by Alan Lastufka (Shortwave Publications)
“Don’t ask directions. Do not try to prepare, just get in as Kyle Winkler comes up on two wheels and asks you to ENTER THE PEERLESS. Humanity at its most raw and unexpected in the presence of gods and demons, Winkler gives presence and voice to emotions and experiences in a way no one else does. Gorgeous, haunting, and mind-expanding—I’m a Winkler fan for life.” —Laurel Hightower, author of The Day of the Door
“Kyle Winkler is a master of twisted bars and unsettling punchlines who consistently drops bangers that leave readers questioning what’s real while running around the room in concentric circles screaming ‘gahhhttttttttttttdayummmmmmmmm
Kyle Winkler
Kyle Winkler is Associate Prof. of English at Kent State University Tuscarawas and is on the MFA Faculty at Ashland University. He lives in Ohio with his family. He’s the author of the cosmic horror novella The Nothing That Is, the weird story collection OH PAIN, and the novel Boris Says the Words. His next two novels are Tone-Bone (Sept. 13, 2024, Castaigne Publishing) and Enter the Peerless (June 10, 2025, From Beyond Press). He’s everywhere online as @bleakhousing.
Release Date: June 10, 2025
Price: $15.99
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