Max Hunter is a typical 7th-grade teenage boy living in the small town of Pine Plains, NY. In middle school, he is onthe wrestling team, runs track, lives on a farm, and takes the bus to and from school every day. He also shovels horse poop and tars fences to earn his own spending money and raises giant pumpkins for the Fall Harvest Fair.He also has a habit of finding trouble wherever he goes.Everything changes for Max when he discovers a horrific murder at his favorite hangout spot-an old abandoned barn along the quiet Rojan Kill Creek. A headless body, a dead pig, and creepy dolls hanging from the rafters can only mean one thing: a killer like no other is among them.Max decides to enlist the help of his sister Riley and his friends to name the victim and find the killer-his father, the Sheriff, couldn't possibly do it all on is own. Max discovers secrets haunt the sleepy town of Pine Plains at every turn, and several teachers and a new girl in school aren't what they seem. Max encounters the Beast, and his life will never be the same.