Pay the Piper

A Novel

By: George A. Romero, Daniel Kraus

Narrated by: Sophie Amoss

A terrifying tale of supernatural horror set in a cursed Louisiana bayou, from the minds of legendary director George Romero and bestselling author Daniel Kraus.

In 2019, while sifting through University of Pittsburgh Library’s System’s George A. Romero Archival Collection, novelist Daniel Kraus turned up a surprise: a half-finished novel called Pay the Piper, a project few had ever heard of. In the years since, Kraus has worked with Romero’s estate to bring this unfinished masterwork to light.

Alligator Point, Louisiana, population 141: Young Renée Pontiac has heard stories of “the Piper”—a murderous swamp entity haunting the bayou—her entire life. But now the legend feels horrifically real: children are being taken and gruesomely slain. To resist, Pontiac and the town’s desperate denizens will need to acknowledge the sins of their ancestors—the infamous slave traders, the Pirates Lafitte. If they don’t . . . it’s time to pay the piper.

Perfect for fans of George A. Romero’s pioneering horror movies or his previous collaboration with Daniel Kraus, The Living Dead, Pay the Piper is a thrilling tale of dark folklore, grisly murders, and the horrors that manifest when a community must confront its shadowy past. Readers looking for gothic horror books will enjoy the chilling supernatural elements and haunting Southern setting, and anyone who enjoys scary books for adults will appreciate the chance to dive into this lost work by a celebrated horror icon.

Cover images: Evangeline Gallagher; MaxyM/Shutterstock.com (texture).

©2024 by New Romero Ltd. (P)2024 Brilliance Publishing, Inc., all rights reserved.

Critic reviews

“This audiobook opens with an explanation of why the narrator uses modified Cajun accents throughout. New Orleans-born narrator Sophie Amoss digs deep to develop other well-differentiated voicings for the residents of Alligator Point. Her Cajun and French pronunciations are mostly spot-on. As Pontiac is central to the story, Amoss gives her heart with a South Louisiana voicing.… Use of tension, pacing, and volume enhance the sinister nature of trickster Piper as he evokes evil each time he emerges from the swamp.”—AudioFile Magazine

“A great action-packed horror novel . . . for fans of waterlogged southern gothic with monsters that prey off the complicated history of a land and its people”―Booklist

“A captivating triumph for horror fans.”―Tananarive Due, author of The Reformatory

couldn't stop listening

I'm writing the reviews about 3/4 through and I'm not sure how it's going to end. it's a unique look on horror.

Great book about my home state.

The piper always gets his due. George Romero was a horror master and always will be.

Cajun-spiced fantastical horror fiction from the masterful minds of The Living Dead

The bayou flavor of Pay The Piper’s narration stands out from the start. The story is then propelled by its colorful cast of Cajun denizens, all of whom must face a dark presence bubbling up from the depths. While the stitches of its unlikely assembly are at times exposed, this book comes recommended for those looking for inventive, cinematic, fantastical horror fiction. Piper may introduce itself as a kind of zydeco “It,” but its themes leisurely branch off into unexpected territory.

Daniel Kraus is reteamed here with George A. Romero’s archives after consulting the horror master’s notes to deliver the final word on zombie fiction, The Living Dead. Pay The Piper doesn’t quite attain the epic scale of their first semi-posthumous collaboration, but it does succeed in its own right: a spooky adventure through the doomed swamps of a fictionalized Alligator Point, oil slicked with an ancient curse, voudon totems, and a famous pirate legacy.

Good book

Thoroughly enjoyed. Would recommend this book is great for all horror fans. Give it a listen

Not groundbreaking but still interesting & creepy

It was interesting and exciting being a guest in a culture I know very little about, but that also means I’m not able to say if it was portrayed authentically or not. What I can say is that I’d love to have seen what George Romero had intended for this to be. I appreciate Kraus giving life to this unfinished work even if it wasn’t groundbreaking for me personally. But I liked the sticky, creepy imagery and the vodou that brought it all together.