Young Max Schumann’s mother, Isolde, has been stolen away by the malevolent Erlking, a trickster spirit of death out of German legend. Alone and scared in a chicken coop with only three hens and nightmarish sketches to keep him company, Max realizes he must embark on an odyssey into the dark, violent heart of war-torn Europe if he is to save his mother. But first he must find his father, Oscar Schumann, a captain of the elite Wehrwolf, a band of guerrilla fighters and shape-shifters out of folklore.

Through the blood-streaked and ravaged twilight of the Third Reich, father and son begin a hunt through a world transfigured by terror and strangeness, an atavistic world where magical history collides with actual history and where sacrifices must be made for those we love.
The Killing Moon is a novel of fantasy and myth-making that forges a link between ultimate destructiveness, desperate tenacity, and moments of tenderness that keep people alive in the face of total devastation and loss. 

AUTHOR BIO

Allister Timms was born in Carmarthen, Wales, a town known for its connection with the Arthurian wizard Merlin. He has also lived in Ireland and now makes his home in Maine. He earned his MFA in creative writing from Stonecoast at the University of Southern Maine. He is currently Professor of English at Husson University in Bangor, Maine, where he teaches literature, rhetoric, and composition.

The following songs make a soundtrack for the novel. They are its “sound and vision.” It’s the music I listened to while writing and editing, procrastinating and wildly imagining what was to come next in the story. The music wasn’t predetermined; songs either found a way to get under the record player’s needle or else my fingers were guided to my CD collection. They are not in any particular sequence (except for Bauhaus), because I will leave that up to you, reader, to shape your own soundtrack when it comes to reading The Killing Moon and what songs will help you to further “see” the novel.

• Gary Numan “My Name Is Ruin”
• Fluke “Glidub”
• David Bowie “Moonage Daydream”
• Roxy Music “In Every Dream Home A Heartache”
• The Walker Brothers “The Electrician”
• New Order “Your Silent Face”
• Echo & The Bunnymen “The Killing Moon”
• David Sylvian “Maria”
• The Stranglers “La Folie”
• Lakme “Flower Duet”
• Massive Attack “Black Milk”
• Christian Scott “Ruler, Rebel”
• Joy Division “Heart & Soul”
• Kitchens of Distinction “Drive That Fast”
• Nick Cave “Red Right Hand”
• The Police “Spirits in the Material World”
• Peter Murphy “Dragnet Drag”
• Killing Joke “Love Like Blood”
• The Smiths “Barbarism Begins At Home”
• Radiohead “Staircase”
• Burial “Dog Shelter”
• The Cult “She Sells Sanctuary”
• PWEI “Dance of the Mad Bastards”
• The The “Beyond Love”
• She Wants Revenge “Take the World”
• Orange Juice “Rip It Up”
• The Cure, “A Forest”
• DIIV “Dopamine”
• Bonus Track/Final Track When Book Is Read and Closed
• Bauhaus “Third Uncle”