New Nightmare Fuel Incoming: Wicked Ink Signs Jon Mallet’s Dark Folk Horror Trilogy, Book One — A Witch in the Nest
Prepare yourselves…something dark has arrived.
We are beyond excited to welcome Jon Mallet, a master of nightmare storytelling and self-professed terror nerd, to the Wicked Ink Publishing family. Hailing from Montreal, Canada, Jon’s unique blend of biological insight and psychological horror crafts stories that claw deep beneath the skin and haunt the soul long after the last page is turned.
Jon’s writing plunges readers into the savage elegance of nature’s brutality and the sinister recesses of the human mind. His mission is clear: to unearth the monstrous things that lurk both outside us and within—raw, visceral, and relentless. His horror doesn’t merely rely on gore or shocks; it is a meticulous excavation of trauma, fear, and the darkness that festers in forgotten places and broken hearts alike.
His debut novel, A Witch in the Nest, is the first blood-soaked chapter in The Nest Trilogy, a supernatural folk horror saga set deep in the shadowy backwoods of the Canadian wilderness of Petawawa. A quiet, isolated town where silence holds secrets and the past never truly dies.
In Petawawa, one bad witch doesn’t just spoil the town, it corrupts its very soul.
When Rosy arrives, moving into a crumbling house steeped in rot and whispered curses, the fabric of the town begins to unravel. The air thickens with a suffocating dread. Animals twist and are born malformed, as if nature itself is rebelling. Children whisper secrets no innocent mind should know. Shadows stretch and slither like living things. Misfortune settles on the townsfolk like a plague with no cure.
Rosy is wrong. Not just strange or odd, but wrong in a way that gnaws at the bones and awakens ancient evils better left buried.
Into this growing nightmare step three unlikely champions: Christine, an aspiring veterinarian haunted by guilt and haunted by the unnatural changes she’s forced to confront; Inspector Wilson, a man drowning in questions and terror, chasing a truth that threatens to consume him; and Todd, broken and lost, dragged back to a town that feels less like home and more like a tomb. Together, they must peel back the layers of a darkness that claws and whispers beneath the surface, before Petawawa is swallowed whole by the witch’s curse.
A Witch in the Nest is not for the faint of heart. It’s a brutal, relentless descent into folk horror, where ancient curses creep beneath quiet town facades and the line between human and monster blurs. This is a story where dread festers slowly, a sinister stain spreading through the streets and into the soul. For readers who crave the atmospheric terror and relentless horror of Pet Sematary, and the creeping unease of The Ritual by Adam Nevill, Jon Mallet’s haunting debut promises nightmares that won’t let go.
This is horror rooted in folklore and fear, wrapped in shadows, and whispered on the wind, because once evil takes root, it never leaves.
Get ready. The nightmare has just begun.
One bad egg spoils a dozen. One bad witch corrupts a whole town.
Deep in the shadowy backwoods of Canada lies Petawawa, a quiet, isolated town where everyone knows each other and nothing ever changes. Or at least, that was true…until she arrived.
Rosy is a stranger who moves into a crumbling house with a rotten history, a place where secrets fester and something ancient waits to be stirred. From the moment she sets foot in town, the air thickens. Animals are born twisted. Children whisper things they shouldn’t know. Shadows stretch longer than they should. And misfortune clings to the townsfolk like a sickness with no cure.
Rosy isn’t just odd, she’s wrong in a way no one can quite name. And whatever darkness she brought with her is starting to take root.
As Petawawa begins to unravel, three unlikely figures are drawn into the storm: Christine, an aspiring veterinarian haunted by guilt; Inspector Wilson, a local investigator with too many questions and too few answers; and Todd, a broken man who’s lost too much already. Together, they must uncover the truth behind the witch in their midst, before the town falls completely under her spell. Can Christine, Wilson, and Todd, break free from the witch’s claws and put an end to her curse?
A Witch in the Nest is the chilling first volume of The Nest Trilogy, a brutal blend of folk horror, creeping dread, and supernatural terror. For fans of The Witch, Pet Sematary, and The Ritual, this is a story where curses don’t die…they wait.
And once evil nests, it never leaves.
