Acclaimed book Niceville by Carsten Stroud is due to be released in trade paperback by Century on August 9th.

Fans of Stephen King, Dean Koontz and Christopher Ransom are advised to try this gripping thriller that Karin Slaughter has described as "A compelling work that grabs your attention from page one" and Peter Straub has called it "An unfolding tale about every kind of wickedness... Somehow it manages to get tighter, nastier, and more delightful as it rolls toward its lovely and completely black-hearted final pages".

When ten-year-old Rainey Teague disappears on his way home from school in idyllic Niceville, Detective Nick Kavanaugh traces the boy to his last sighting - staring into the window of old pawn shop in town. CCTV shows Rainey there one minute and then gone the next. In the days that follow, any hope Rainey's family has of finding him alive starts to fade but then Rainey is found - alive but in a coma, and there's no telling when, or if, he'll ever wake up...

One year on, Kavanagh is still haunted by the case. And now another member of the town - this time an elderly woman - has been reported missing. It's as though she vanished into thin air. Once again, Kavanagh's on the case and, as he starts to dig back through the town's history, he can't help but notice that Niceville has a much higher than average number of stranger abductions...