Curse of Scruffy: A Novel (Happy Valley)

Elder Clay Pratt is the picture-perfect Mormon missionary serving in the corrupt, sun-baked city of San Laredo, on the Isle of Montalban. But beneath his crisp white shirt and tie hides a repressed psychopath, desperate to prove to God he’s finally been "fixed." His meticulously crafted facade cracks when he steps into a bootleg museum and meets Scruffy, a foul-mouthed, sentient indie-horror puppet who immediately recognizes the lethal predator lurking inside the young elder.When a dangerous local threatens Summer, the sister missionary Clay secretly loves, his violent instincts take over, binding him to Scruffy in a twisted alliance. As the puppet urges him to stop hiding and embrace his dark calling as a "harvester of souls," Clay must navigate a brewing criminal conspiracy and his own unraveling sanity to protect Summer at any cost. Blending the anti-hero tension of Dexter with sharp religious satire, Curse of Scruffy is a pitch-black psychological thriller about faith, trauma, and the literal demons we carry with us. Read more