Giant shrews from outer space discover Earth and begin devouring and hoarding humans as food. Sixteen-year-old Claire Lawford and her mother Linda find themselves stuck in the decaying town of Abundance, Ontario, at the edge of a provincial park, when their car breaks down on the way to Toronto from Ottawa. Claire's scientist father is busy with work and doesn't answer his phone. Locals gouge Linda for expenses like towing, the room and supplies, and it looks like they're stuck in Abundance overnight. Next morning, at the creek behind a local rooming house, Claire meets Andy, a local seventeen-year-old farm boy. It doesn't go well. They part with hostilities. As grisly deaths multiply and the regional cell tower mysteriously falls down, park ranger Sharlene Jackson finds strange animal tracks at the scenes. They resemble those of local venomous short-tailed shrews but are larger than a human, averaging about two meters or seven feet. A storm breaks out and communications from Abundance to the outside world are severed.The shrews use an abandoned gold mine as their home base on Earth, and mind-meld with important humans to influence their thoughts. They create a gold rush to bring gullible people to the mine. Meanwhile Claire's father Connor realizes something is wrong, and drives out to Abundance, only to find roads closed off and chasms forming around town. With a surprising burst of bravado he gets into Abundance and discovers himself in a disaster zone.Up above the roiling clouds, the shrews have their own issues as the Great Shrew ponders rumors of rebellion. In the mines, strange things start happening as human bodies float in the air. The Great Shrew in his infinite wisdom realizes this is the work of "ghosts", the active residue of humans who have died.In the gold mine, seven ghosts are restless. They perished in a mine explosion over a hundred years ago and want their bones respected. Claire, Andy, Sharlene, Connor and the ghosts team up in a last bid to thwart the devious giant shrews, as people stream to the gold mine with greed in their eyes. Can they save the town and stop the carnage? Sylvia Kay Rose is a multi-disciplinary Canadian author of German heritage. She writes science fiction horror, humor and dark comedy; fantasy fiction based on German mythology, quirky Victorian detective thrillers, novels and novellas. She's a big fan of classic sci-fi horror and the theme appears in many of her works.
