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Deception Pass
2020 AHWA Australian Shadows Awards, NOVEL
Nick Wheeler’s subject matter has always been controversial. A venerated photographer motivated to capture the malign elements of human existence – suicide as illusion and artifice – his career is suddenly in tatters after a near-fatal work accident plunges him into a coma.
A sleep paralysis victim, Nick’s descent into oblivion ushers him back to where it all winters spent in the rugged foothills of Deception Pass. It was here, among the secret grottos and old-growth forests, where ancient forces first showed their Shadow Men capable of paralyzing the body and manipulating generations into serving an otherworldly agenda.
To survive, Nick must confront the past ... and the Shadows, evermore monstrous disguised by human faces.
Nick Wheeler’s subject matter has always been controversial. A venerated photographer motivated to capture the malign elements of human existence – suicide as illusion and artifice – his career is suddenly in tatters after a near-fatal work accident plunges him into a coma.
A sleep paralysis victim, Nick’s descent into oblivion ushers him back to where it all winters spent in the rugged foothills of Deception Pass. It was here, among the secret grottos and old-growth forests, where ancient forces first showed their Shadow Men capable of paralyzing the body and manipulating generations into serving an otherworldly agenda.
To survive, Nick must confront the past ... and the Shadows, evermore monstrous disguised by human faces.
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Published April 17, 2025
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About the author
Matthew Tait
30 books46 followersMatthew Tait is an award-winning Australian horror author whose work blends psychological intensity with uncanny, brutal atmosphere. He published his first collection of dark fiction in 2011 and has since built a catalogue of titles praised for their originality and emotional depth. His novel Deception Pass won the Australasian Shadows Award for Best Novel, an honor for which he has been nominated three times. His short story Car Crash Weather was also commended by the Australian Horror Writers Association.
A former horror columnist and lifelong devotee of the genre, Tait’s work has been described as “the sort of horror Clive Barker must read on his days off.” When not crafting unsettling narratives, he’s immersed in the gritty tones of grunge music.
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February 19, 2024
An exploration of worlds every day and eldritch, of demons at home and beyond the veil, of broken families and love lost, and of friendship and fraternity. Let Matthew Tait take you by the hand and guide you into the unimaginable. You'll make it back again, but you won't be quite the same.
Displaying 1 of 1 review