The Petting Zoo Motel

In this motel, free breakfast is included... if you can make it through the night. Filtch County, Minnesota, September 1963. Stranded in an inhospitable corner of Northern Minnesota, Billy Green takes a job at a remote, derelict motel. Friendless, battered and dead broke, he is eager for a chance to rest after weeks of hard travelling. Unfortunately for Billy, The Petting Zoo Motel is no refuge. The current residents are subject to hallucinations, bouts of paranoia and violent late-night rages, each convinced that everyone else is dangerously insane. Adding to the danger, feral descendants of the motel's overgrown zoo wander the surrounding woods, led by the Pig Boy, a disfigured former employee, bent on revenge. From the moment he enters the high-fenced compound, Billy finds himself caught up in web of betrayal and lies. Unable to leave, unsure who to trust, his only hope for survival appears to be the maid, Sally Cass, a fugitive, shotgun-toting religious fanatic who might be the craziest of the lot. "Bridging horror, noir, and psychological thriller... Harrowsmith leans heavily into noir staples with gorgeous, smoky prose-alcohol flows freely and there are femme-fatales, young men of dubious morals, and kindly patriarchs with bad intentions." - Independent Book Review