The town of Samhattan has a secret, one that hides in the back recesses of townspeople’s brains.  When that secret comes out, the members of the local high school’s girls’ basketball team start paying the price.  While the detective assigned to the case, not locally born and raised, tries to get to the bottom of both the secret before there is no one left from the team, the remaining girls try to come to grips with what is after them and how they alone can stop it.

Just in time for Halloween, Daphne was recommended to me by some article as a recent horror entry that was a worthy read this time of year.  Unfortunately, I don’t quite agree.  Apparently, author Josh Malerman originally wrote this as a novella and was convinced to build it out to novel length.  That, I think, did some harm, as the tale did feel repetitive in parts.  On the other hand, they mystery of who was responsible for the killings was kind of ambiguous, bouncing back and forth between a human perpetrator and the supernatural being known as Daphne.  Anyway, this was my first, and probably going to end up being my only, exposure to Malerman’s work.