John Darnielle is the man behind The Mountain Goats, a quite brilliant but under-the-radar American alternative rock band, and the author of the acclaimed novel Wolf in White Van. His second novel is similarly unusual and original, although quite different to the previous novel. In the 1990s, in Iowa, Jeremy is working at the local video store (remember them?), and notices that tapes are being returned with short but eerie black and white sections seemingly recorded over or spliced in to the tape, which cumulatively seem to show an extremely disturbing and violent incident. He reluctantly sets out to discover who and what are behind this sinister action. The writing of this novel is oblique, the reader never quite gets a grip on exactly what is going on, but it's so well done that you need to keep reading to find out. It's a superb novel, brilliantly told in a quirky style, with an unknown first-person narrator appearing only occasionally, raising questions as to his or her identity, adding to the suspense. He's definitely one to watch.