October is supposed to be the month when people pretend to be afraid.

For a group of college students in Pennsylvania, the season begins with an academic assignment about real violence and the way communities remember it. Then their professor is murdered.

His unfinished research points toward old October dates, forgotten locations, and tragedies that happened before these students were born. Soon they find a scarecrow standing on an abandoned farm, and nobody can explain why it keeps appearing in places where it should not be.

As the murders continue, the students begin to understand that someone is using October itself as part of the message. But messages can be misunderstood. And sometimes surviving the night does not mean the night is finished with you.

OCTOBER is a fictional horror novel about memory, fear, friendship, and the things people refuse to see until they are standing directly in front of them.

Some stories end when the killer is found. This one doesn't.