
Pay the Piper
A Novel
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Narrated by:
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Sophie Amoss
About this listen
A terrifying tale of supernatural horror set in a cursed Louisiana bayou, from the minds of legendary director George Romero and bestselling author Daniel Kraus.
In 2019, while sifting through University of Pittsburgh Library’s System’s George A. Romero Archival Collection, novelist Daniel Kraus turned up a surprise: a half-finished novel called Pay the Piper, a project few had ever heard of. In the years since, Kraus has worked with Romero’s estate to bring this unfinished masterwork to light.
Alligator Point, Louisiana, population 141: Young Renée Pontiac has heard stories of “the Piper”—a murderous swamp entity haunting the bayou—her entire life. But now the legend feels horrifically real: children are being taken and gruesomely slain. To resist, Pontiac and the town’s desperate denizens will need to acknowledge the sins of their ancestors—the infamous slave traders, the Pirates Lafitte. If they don’t . . . it’s time to pay the piper.
Perfect for fans of George A. Romero’s pioneering horror movies or his previous collaboration with Daniel Kraus, The Living Dead, Pay the Piper is a thrilling tale of dark folklore, grisly murders, and the horrors that manifest when a community must confront its shadowy past. Readers looking for gothic horror books will enjoy the chilling supernatural elements and haunting Southern setting, and anyone who enjoys scary books for adults will appreciate the chance to dive into this lost work by a celebrated horror icon.
Cover images: Evangeline Gallagher; MaxyM/Shutterstock.com (texture).
©2024 by New Romero Ltd. (P)2024 Brilliance Publishing, Inc., all rights reserved.Listeners also enjoyed...
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Critic reviews
“This audiobook opens with an explanation of why the narrator uses modified Cajun accents throughout. New Orleans-born narrator Sophie Amoss digs deep to develop other well-differentiated voicings for the residents of Alligator Point. Her Cajun and French pronunciations are mostly spot-on. As Pontiac is central to the story, Amoss gives her heart with a South Louisiana voicing.… Use of tension, pacing, and volume enhance the sinister nature of trickster Piper as he evokes evil each time he emerges from the swamp.”—AudioFile Magazine
“A great action-packed horror novel . . . for fans of waterlogged southern gothic with monsters that prey off the complicated history of a land and its people”―Booklist
“A captivating triumph for horror fans.”―Tananarive Due, author of The Reformatory
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Witty, Original, VERY satisfying ending
- By Andrea S on 04-26-24
By: Jennifer Thorne
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So Thirsty
- By: Rachel Harrison
- Narrated by: Brittany Pressley
- Length: 8 hrs and 57 mins
- Unabridged
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Sloane Parker is dreading her birthday. She doesn’t need a reminder she’s getting older, or that she’s feeling indifferent about her own life. Her husband surprises her with a birthday-weekend getaway—not with him, but with Sloane’s longtime best friend, troublemaker extraordinaire Naomi. Sloane anticipates a weekend of wine tastings and cozy robes and strategic avoidance of issues she’d rather not confront, like her husband’s repeated infidelity.
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Weak Ending
- By Jennifer on 10-09-24
By: Rachel Harrison
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Dawn of the Dead
- By: George A. Romero, Susanna Sparrow
- Narrated by: Jonathan Davis
- Length: 7 hrs and 7 mins
- Unabridged
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George A. Romero terrified a generation with his iconic horror film and with this cult-classic novel. Immerse yourself in this unparalleled vision from the revered master of the zombie apocalypse...and be terrified all over again. Zombies have overpowered the living and ravaged the world. Society has collapsed as humans race to save themselves. No one knows how far the creatures have spread or how to stop them. In downtown Philadelphia four people escape the chaos and find shelter in a vacated shopping mall.
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the novelization is a lackluster affair
- By Midwestbonsai on 12-23-15
By: George A. Romero, and others
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Not a Speck of Light
- Stories
- By: Laird Barron
- Narrated by: Jennifer Pickens, Joe Hempel
- Length: 11 hrs and 4 mins
- Unabridged
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Bram Stoker Award-winning author Laird Barron returns to the dark and dreadful with his fifth horror collection, which weaves sixteen weird tales into a mosaic of the bloody and the macabre.
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Awesome as always
- By Tranquilla’s granddaughter on 04-17-25
By: Laird Barron
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Incidents Around the House
- A Novel
- By: Josh Malerman
- Narrated by: Delanie Nicole Gill
- Length: 8 hrs and 23 mins
- Unabridged
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To eight-year-old Bela, her family is her world. There’s Mommy, Daddo, and Grandma Ruth. But there is also Other Mommy, a malevolent entity who asks her every day: “Can I go inside your heart?” When horrifying incidents around the house signal that Other Mommy is growing tired of asking Bela the question over and over, Bela understands that unless she says yes, her family will soon pay. Other Mommy is getting restless, stronger, bolder. Only the bonds of family can keep Bela safe, but other incidents show cracks in her parents’ marriage. The safety Bela relies on is about to unravel.
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Child’s voice narrates the ENTIRE novel.
- By NorthernNV on 08-06-24
By: Josh Malerman
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Beta Vulgaris
- A Novel
- By: Margie Sarsfield
- Narrated by: Ellen Archer
- Length: 8 hrs and 25 mins
- Unabridged
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Elise and her boyfriend, Tom, set off for Minnesota, hoping the paycheck from the sugar beet harvest will cover the rent on their Brooklyn apartment. Amidst the grueling work and familiar anxieties about her finances, Elise starts noticing strange things: threatening phone calls, a mysterious rash, and snatches of an ominous voice coming from the beet pile. When Tom and other coworkers begin to vanish, Elise is left alone to confront the weight of her past, the horrors of her uncertain future, and the menacing but enticing siren song of the beets.
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The awful personality of the main character.
- By Gina Q. on 02-16-25
By: Margie Sarsfield
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Bury Your Gays
- By: Chuck Tingle
- Narrated by: André Santana, Charlie Jane Anders, CJ Leede, and others
- Length: 10 hrs and 11 mins
- Unabridged
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Misha knows that chasing success in Hollywood can be hell. But finally, after years of trying to make it, his big moment is here: an Oscar nomination. And the executives at the studio for his long-running streaming series know just the thing to kick his career to the next level: kill off the gay characters, "for the algorithm," in the upcoming season finale.
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The hype is real.
- By Dan Bugbee on 10-03-24
By: Chuck Tingle
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Whalefall
- A Novel
- By: Daniel Kraus
- Narrated by: Kirby Heyborne
- Length: 8 hrs and 9 mins
- Unabridged
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Jay Gardiner has given himself a fool’s errand—to find the remains of his deceased father in the Pacific Ocean off the coast of Monastery Beach. He knows it’s a long shot, but Jay feels it’s the only way for him to lift the weight of guilt he has carried since his dad’s death by suicide the previous year.
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Thin and mislabeled
- By S7EW on 09-04-23
By: Daniel Kraus
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Coup de Grâce
- By: Paul Centeno
- Narrated by: Rob Jones, Courtney Holly
- Length: 10 hrs and 40 mins
- Unabridged
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The world has changed. Gone are the old gods. Nature withers and dies beneath the growing bane of machines and industry. Desperate to prevent their world from dying, citizens turn to science and sprawling cities of steam ruled by the Imperium. Kaimo de Morté has never known another life. He is an optometrist by trade but too poor to open an optical boutique. Forced to work in the mines, Kaimo has no idea how his life is about to change. A chance encounter with insurgents thrusts him into a battle for the very future of mankind
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Excellent Entertainment
- By RoxB on 12-09-24
By: Paul Centeno
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The Haunting of Velkwood
- By: Gwendolyn Kiste
- Narrated by: Jennifer Pickens
- Length: 7 hrs and 37 mins
- Unabridged
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The Velkwood Vicinity was the topic of occult theorists, tabloid one-hour documentaries, and even some pseudo-scientific investigations as the block of homes disappeared behind a near-impenetrable veil that only three survivors could enter—and only one has in the past twenty years, until now.
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Not that great
- By KCM on 07-02-24
By: Gwendolyn Kiste
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Small Town Horror
- By: Ronald Malfi
- Narrated by: Joe Hempel
- Length: 10 hrs and 50 mins
- Unabridged
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Andrew Larimer has left his past behind. Rising up the ranks in a New York law firm, and with a heavily pregnant wife, he is settling into a new life far from Kingsport, the town in which he grew up. But when he receives a late-night phone call from an old friend, he has no choice but to return home.
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Am I reading IT or what
- By D Cook on 10-18-24
By: Ronald Malfi
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Fever House
- A Novel
- By: Keith Rosson
- Narrated by: Xe Sands
- Length: 13 hrs and 45 mins
- Unabridged
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When leg-breaker Hutch Holtz rolls up to a rundown apartment complex in Portland, Oregon, to collect overdue drug money, a severed hand is the last thing he expects to find stashed in the client’s refrigerator. Hutch quickly realizes that the hand induces uncontrollable madness: Anyone in its proximity is overcome with a boundless compulsion for violence. Within hours, catastrophic forces are set into motion.
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Finished it - barely
- By Margaret Goldstein on 11-02-23
By: Keith Rosson
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Nights of the Living Dead
- An Anthology
- By: Jonathan Maberry - editor, George A. Romero - editor, Gabrielle de Cuir - director
- Narrated by: full cast
- Length: 11 hrs and 53 mins
- Unabridged
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In 1968 the world experienced a brand-new kind of terror with the debut of George A. Romero's landmark film Night of the Living Dead. This was something new...and terrifying. Since then, zombies have invaded every aspect of popular culture. But it all started on that dreadful night in a remote farmhouse. Nights of the Living Dead returns to that night, to the outbreak, to where it all began.
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just incredible to listen to
- By Midwestbonsai on 09-29-17
By: Jonathan Maberry - editor, and others
What listeners say about Pay the Piper
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- TOMATRON
- 02-24-25
Cajun-spiced fantastical horror fiction from the masterful minds of The Living Dead
The bayou flavor of Pay The Piper’s narration stands out from the start. The story is then propelled by its colorful cast of Cajun denizens, all of whom must face a dark presence bubbling up from the depths. While the stitches of its unlikely assembly are at times exposed, this book comes recommended for those looking for inventive, cinematic, fantastical horror fiction. Piper may introduce itself as a kind of zydeco “It,” but its themes leisurely branch off into unexpected territory.
Daniel Kraus is reteamed here with George A. Romero’s archives after consulting the horror master’s notes to deliver the final word on zombie fiction, The Living Dead. Pay The Piper doesn’t quite attain the epic scale of their first semi-posthumous collaboration, but it does succeed in its own right: a spooky adventure through the doomed swamps of a fictionalized Alligator Point, oil slicked with an ancient curse, voudon totems, and a famous pirate legacy.
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- Amazon Customer
- 11-26-24
couldn't stop listening
I'm writing the reviews about 3/4 through and I'm not sure how it's going to end. it's a unique look on horror.
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1 person found this helpful
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- Steve P. Gary
- 03-05-25
Great book about my home state.
The piper always gets his due. George Romero was a horror master and always will be.
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- Patrick Dickman
- 01-07-25
Not groundbreaking but still interesting & creepy
It was interesting and exciting being a guest in a culture I know very little about, but that also means I’m not able to say if it was portrayed authentically or not. What I can say is that I’d love to have seen what George Romero had intended for this to be. I appreciate Kraus giving life to this unfinished work even if it wasn’t groundbreaking for me personally. But I liked the sticky, creepy imagery and the vodou that brought it all together.
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- Amazon Customer
- 04-02-25
Good
I’m agreeing with another person who left a rating… not groundbreaking but fun and creepy!
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- Kindle Customer
- 04-24-25
We All Sacrifice Something
An absolutely beautifully haunting story. Horror with a heartbeat is my favorite kind and Kraus really brings this story to life. The evil leading people from Alligator Point into the swamp does so in such a manner there's rarely a clue left behind. As more folks disappear and more folks sign the Oil Mans papers to leave, a few start taking notice that there's something dark swallowing the Point up. Not just the cancer eating away at folks, this is something older, something ancient and hungry. Little do these folks know that in the end we all Pay the Piper.
From beginning to end this one eats you alive, wraps it's tentacles around you and pulls you under!
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- Brittany
- 01-20-25
Only book I've ever returned.
I originally bought the book, its a slog to read but I never gave up on a book before. So I figured, switch to audible and speed it up. Just get through it, but the audiobook is worse! The narrator trying to do cajun accents is worse than her "Man" voice. A male cajun voice? I'm done. Returned.
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