08/11/2026 Candace Reviews: DECEMBER PARK by Ronald Malfi

December Park

By Ronald Malfi

DECEMBER PARK is a captivating coming of age, small town horror story that follows a group of teen boys over the course of a troubling year in their small town.

Angelo, or Angie to his friends, lives with his grandparents and his father who is a police detective. His an average kid with good friends, mischievous but not really troublemakers. Angie and his friends are fairly well-known by neighbors and store owners, like in many small-towns; it’s safe and friendly until it’s suddenly not.

Children begin to go missing, slow but sure, it’s determined they’re not running away. Someone is taking them. And when Angie and his friends see the police removing a body from the woods, it becomes clear that whomever is to blame is doing more than just taking the kids. As things escalate, curfews are set, and tensions begin to heighten. The kids are worried. The adults are stressed. Things are no longer normal despite everyone trying to act as if they are.

When a new kid, Adrian, moves next door to Angie, things begin to get even stranger. Adrian becomes obsessed with the missing children and his need to find out more soon pulls Angie and his friends into the mystery surrounding the kids and the person taking them, known as the Piper. Soon, it becomes a race against time as the boys get closer to the mystery while the police seem to keep coming up empty-handed.

Malfi is an expert at drawing the reader in and keeping them immersed in the lives and the mysteries surrounding his characters, all of whom feel real, with relatable traits, emotions, and stories of their own. DECEMBER PARK is an all too plausible small town tale with horror growing steadily closer with each turn of the page.

Excellent read.

*The audiobook is also fantastic.

Grab it here: https://a.co/d/06dlfOAZ