"What if I told you I have drawn ships ashore? What if I told you I have taken what I wanted, that I've drawn this very blade down a soft belly?" The voice continued, soft and sonorous. "What if I admit to you that I have killed for the game alone? What good does this knowledge do you? It only confirms what you already know. But knowledge is not proof. Civilization won't condemn me until I pull my blade from its heart." Cole roused himself. "You are a murderer," he said. Pomp shrugged. "I may kill, and you, no doubt, save. We have chosen different sides of the chessboard. But as the game proceeds, the pieces mix, and their intent can change." But first it must begin... Rise of the Mooncusser, prequel to the award-winning novel Fog, once again transports the reader to the wild shores of 19th century Cape Cod, a world of shipwreck and quick death, and the beginnings of a tale that will eventually threaten to alter the course of America's future. Here the unforgettable characters of Fog begin their journey toward their eventual fates: lifesaving Keeper Daniel Cole and his strong-willed wife Sara, the irrepressible Willie Bangs, the Reverend Marmaduke Matthews, fiery orator and tormented soul, the canny whore Abby Hierdal, the brutish John Kilbride and, of course, Pomp, philosopher and seer, arbiter of justice and dispenser of death, a man who walks outside the boundaries of civilization, a mooncusser whose only allegiance is to the whispers inside his head. Cast your eyes to the storm swept ridgelines of the outer beach and witness a shrouded and matchless evil.