Hidebound

In the workshop of Mordecai Gunt, the eyes don't just sparkle. They watch. Cyrus Rote is an estate liquidator with a taste for the unusual. He has spent his life valuing the debris of death, putting price tags on the forgotten heirlooms of the deceased. But when he is summoned to the decaying town of Holloway to appraise the workshop of the legendary, reclusive taxidermist Mordecai Gunt, Cyrus finds a collection that defies valuation. Gunt was famous for his "anthropomorphic tableaux"—elaborate, Victorian-style dioramas where animals mimicked human life. But inside the barn, amidst the smell of arsenic soap and old musk, Cyrus discovers the true nature of Gunt's genius. The animals are stitched with impossible precision. Their movements are too fluid. And under the fur of a masterpiece wolf, Cyrus finds the unmistakable structure of human bone. As a storm traps him in the workshop, Cyrus uncovers Gunt's final journal. It reveals a proprietary preservation method that doesn't just halt decay—it locks the nerve endings in a state of permanent, frozen sensitivity. The specimens on the shelves aren't just dead; they are prisoners in their own skins. And Cyrus isn't there to sell them. He discovers his own name in the ledger, commissioned years ago. He is the final component Gunt was waiting for—the centerpiece of a collection that is still very much alive, and begging to scream.