Frost at the Cemetery Gate

In the winter of 1893, researcher Eleanor Hartley arrives in the isolated town of Ashwood, Massachusetts, to investigate a century-long pattern of mysterious deaths at the local cemetery gates. What she discovers is far more sinister than folklore: a supernatural curse created by the town's founders, who made a dark bargain with an entity from beyond death itself. As Eleanor delves deeper into Ashwood's secrets, she uncovers the truth about Nathaniel Ashwood and his Thanatos Society—men who opened a doorway between worlds and have sustained their immortality for over a hundred years by sacrificing innocent townspeople. With each victim found frozen at the cemetery gates, their souls trapped in eternal suffering, the entity grows stronger and the founders' power deepens. With the help of the enigmatic caretaker Silas Crowther and a handful of brave allies, Eleanor must race against time to close the doorway permanently before the winter solstice. But the ritual comes at a terrible price: she will be forever marked by the experience, carrying a fragment of the threshold entity within her and seeing the dead as clearly as the living. Frost at the Cemetery Gate is a literary gothic horror novel that explores themes of sacrifice, corruption, and the courage required to stand against evil when the cost is everything you are. Combining meticulous historical detail with supernatural terror, it tells the story of one woman's transformation from academic observer to guardian of the boundaries between worlds—and the town that was freed by her sacrifice. For readers who appreciate atmospheric horror, strong female protagonists, and stories where the supernatural is treated with scholarly precision and emotional depth.