The Blue Ribbon Carcass

About this book:

In the sweltering exhibition hall of the Blackwood County Fair, six-time champion taxidermist Arthur Pendelton knows every muscle, tendon, and glass eye that brings a mount to life. But when a stranger named Karst arrives with a massive, padlocked crate that smells of copper and old dust—an entry with no tools, no scent of tanning oil, and hands that have never touched a scalpel—Arthur realizes the competition has become something far more dangerous than a battle for a blue ribbon.

As the judging approaches, the fair's dusty corners begin to yield secrets stitched into fur and foam: anatomical impossibilities, a pattern of needlework that defies nature, and a trail of formaldehyde leading to a workshop on Blackwood Road. With each chapter, the line between preservation and desecration blurs, and Arthur's decades of expertise become his only weapon against a craftsman who doesn't mount animals—he builds monsters.

Atmospheric, razor-sharp, and steeped in the grotesque beauty of a dying art, *The Blue Ribbon Carcass* is a masterclass in slow-burn suspense. For readers who love the forensic detail of Tana French and the creeping dread of Thomas Harris, this is a debut that gets under your skin—and stays there.