"Decades before a deadly attack wipes out a neighborhood along Roy's Slough, a circus ship crashes ashore at Devil's Landing. Among the wreck's survivors: a young woman from the mountains of Mexico seeking to free her captured lover, a vile ringmaster, and creatures that howl in the night. The lifeboats carry more than the circus troupe to the fog-shrouded harbor on the central coast of California: cages, secrets, and a lifetime of resentment. Hoping to fund the rest of their journey, the circus performers put on a show in the isolated village, but when a new animal act debuts, things go horrifyingly wrong. The events that follow reveal the depth of the ringmaster's ambition, the true nature of the beasts, a test of Ana Maria's love, and the real story behind the deadly Slough Devils of Devil's Landing. Read the origin story of the creatures in Debra Castaneda's coastal horror novel, The Devil's Shallows, part of the Dark Earth Rising series of standalone novels. Read the books in any order."--Förlagstext