Zimní přízrak – Simmons Dan (2019)

Writer and university professor Dale Stewart, one of the main characters in Simmons' famous horror novel Dark Summer, returns to Elm Haven after decades. In the place where he spent his childhood, he now intends to draw inspiration for writing a book about all the adventures and terrifying things that happened to him and his friends in the seemingly safe confines of this American small town. At the end of the year, during Halloween, he arrives at the abandoned farm where his long-ago brilliant friend Duane McBride lived, not only seeking peace but also grappling with his inner demons, the bitterness of a broken marriage, and a loss of zest for life, amidst the barking of black dogs of melancholy and the watchful eyes of mysterious figures observing his return from the local cemetery. Dale enters the chilling house of the past, unsure if he will ever emerge from it again. The Winter Ghost is not a direct continuation of Dark Summer; it is in dialogue with it, offering a new perspective on its events, but it can also be read independently as one of Simmons' peak, mature novels that, almost incidentally, manages to be quite terrifying.