Jeff Pollet

Moving to Oakland may have literally saved my life. I had lived in SF for ten years or so, and it was killing me, even though I didn't realize it until I came to Oakland. I moved partly because of a girlfriend, partly because of an opportunity to live in a neat place, partly to get away from horrible landlords. I loved Oakland immediately, even if I didn't really know most of Oakland, only my little piece of it. People said 'hello' as I walked around my new neighborhood. There was a lake within walking distance. There wasn't as much of a sense of just-surviving that there had been in SF: People strolled sometimes, hung out on the grass around the lake. I felt more like myself in Oakland. I frame it as saving my life because I didn't realize how much the stress of SF had seeped into my body until I left SF. The relief was tangible, a relaxing of my body, my heart. I rode my bike more. I socialized a little more. I finally figured out that I had been dealing

Order now! "The birds have come back to the lake, and the bodies..." Order Lake Miskatonic here. Walter Denin has lived in Oakland his entire life, and has been a private investigator for decades. When a dead body shows up in the lake under mysterious circumstances, he's asked to look into it. And when the mysterious circumstances turn out to involve a cult, white supremacists, and what looks like ancient magics, Walter finds himself in a new world where monsters exist and the Klu Klux Klan is making a comeback. For Oakland to survive, he'll have to revisit his past, open his mind, and maybe even sacrifice his life. Lucky for him he's not alone: His associate Darya knows Oakland almost as well as he does, his ex Susan can help connect him to both the Ohlone people and the New Black Panthers, and even the cormorants on the lake seem to be on his side. They'll all face an ancient evil that has its eyes on Oakland.