Journalist Nick Bishop, the narrator of this uber-creepy horror thriller from Carson (The Chill), has fallen on hard times after being laid off. So, despite experience that includes a stint embedded in Afghanistan, he considers a job that would ordinarily be beneath him--writing a puff piece for his alma mater's magazine. A classmate who runs the PR department for Maine's Hammel College offers Bishop $5,000 to profile alum Bryce Lermond, who's developed a new app that's able to shape dreams. Lured by the payday and a chance to visit his mother, a dementia patient who was once "one of the nation's preeminent scholars in the field of memory research," Bishop, who says he never dreams, agrees. Lermond persuades Bishop to beta test the app, Clarity, which plays an ominous song before Bishop loses consciousness. His investigative reporter senses go on even higher alert after Lermond's No. 2 at his company, an old friend of Bishop's, warns him never to use Clarity. Superior prose ("The elevator doors sealed across her like gravedigger's dirt") enhances a craftily twisted plot, which sticks its landing. Peter Straub fans will hope for more from Carson. Agent: Richard Pine, InkWell Management. (Oct.)

Carson (The Chill, 2020) does not disappoint in his new technology-inspired horror novel. Nick Bishop is ready for a change of scenery after being laid off from his newspaper job when his college friend reaches out with a generous offer for Nick to come back to Maine for an article assignment. The profile piece is about the creator of a new mindfulness app, Clarity. While experiencing the beta version of the app, Nick, a man who has never dreamed before, dreams his first dream. But the dreams soon become nightmares, and his dependence on the app for sleep increases. But the app is more than nightmares and deep sleep--it unlocks a buried memory for Nick. Nick is discovering hidden parts of his brain while at the same time trying to find answers about the app and his past. Nick's own mind and the app are the bogeymen here, and Carson cleverly connects our technology with memory. Readers will be terrified by the notion that an app could control them as Clarity does Nick, but more so by the question of how much we know ourselves. Horror fans will want to keep an eye on Carson.

Hustling for some money after he's laid off from his newspaper, war correspondent Nick Bishop accepts a job profiling a new mindfulness app called Clarity. It features white noise, guided meditations, and eerily delivered Sleep Songs less calming than agitating, which brings Nick nightmares and begins upending his waking life. Then he learns that Clarity's creators are less interested in his article than in him. From the pen-named Carson, a New York Times best-selling author and screenwriter; with a 60,000-copy first printing.