The Night Birds

The next gripping, atmospheric horror novel from NYT bestselling author Christopher Golden, set in a deteriorated, half-sunken freighter ship off the coast of Galveston, TX.

Charlie Book and Ruby Cahill have history. After their relationship ended in heartbreak years ago, they never expected to see each other again. Now, as part of the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department, Book lives aboard the Christabel, a 19th century freighter half-sunk off the shore of Galveston with a massive forest of mangrove trees growing up through the deck. As a powerful storm churns through the Gulf, he intends to sleep on board as usual.

But arriving at the dock, he’s stunned to find Ruby there waiting for him. And she’s not alone. With her are a mysterious woman and her infant child asking Book to hide them safely aboard the Christabel while they’re on the run. Only it isn’t the police who are after them: it’s a coven of witches. The woman, Mae, has fled, stealing away the helpless infant for whom they had hideous plans… or so Mae claims. It’s lunacy and Book wants nothing to do with it.

But after the way he and Ruby ended things, and the unspoken pain between them, he can’t refuse… Yet even as he brings them out to the ruined ship and its floating forest, there are shadowed figures looming back in Galveston, waiting out the storm. And despite the worsening wind and rain, the night birds are flying, scouring the coastline for their prey.

About the Author

Christopher Golden is the New York Times bestselling author of such novels as Ararat, Red Hands, Snowblind, Wildwood Road, The Boys Are Back in Town, The Ferryman, Strangewood, and Of Saints and Shadows. Golden co-created (with Mike Mignola) the comic book universe known as The Outerverse, featuring such characters as Baltimore, Joe Golem, and Lady Baltimore. As an editor, he has worked on the short story anthologies Hex Life, Seize the Night, and The New Dead, among others, and has also written and co-written comic books, video games, screenplays, a BBC radio play, and the online animated series Ghosts of Albion (with Amber Benson).

A frequent speaker at conferences, schools, and libraries, Golden is also co-host of the podcast Defenders Dialogue, and the founder of the Merrimack Valley Halloween Book Festival. The winner of the Bram Stoker Award for best novel in 2017 for Ararat, Golden has been nominated ten times in eight different categories, winning twice. He has also been nominated multiple times for the Shirley Jackson Award, sharing a win in 2020 with James A. Moore for the anthology The Twisted Book of Shadows.

Golden was born and raised in Massachusetts, where he still lives with his family. His original novels have been published in more than fourteen languages in countries around the world.