A genre-bending noir, and perhaps the squiddiest novel ever written, False Bodies creates a horror/thriller blend of the renowned Newfoundland culture seen in shows like Come From Away with the heart-pounding tension and creeping fear of Alien.
False Bodies follows monster hunter Eddie “The Yeti” Gesner to Newfoundland, to investigate a mass death on an offshore oil rig—which some say is the work of a kraken. A mysterious incident in Eddie’s life has made him obsessed with chasing unfathomable things, but when an antique diary plunges him into a watery world of squid cults, tentacled beasts and corporate greed, Eddie finds even his own fractured reality pushed to the brink, as he’s forced to confront an undersea power beyond human imagining.
Advance Praise for False Bodies:
"False Bodies is a contemporary sea monster novel, and yes, it's as fun as you'd hope, but it also brings our minds to serious questions. Serious fun. The mystery of Where We Go After This, our aversion to opening our minds to the universe's winking invitations, how the Weird brings weirdos together for a reason -- these are J.R. McConvey's targets as much as any kraken."
Andrew Pyper
author of Oracle and The Demonologist
"McConvey’s False Bodies is a convincing mash up of Lovecraft and Jim Thompson, yes, but it’s the force of his experiment, the fringe conceits, the clever and elaborate framing of indescribable movement just beneath the story that gives this chimerical conjuration a unique obscenity, a delicious, rank and heavy chowder. More of this please!"
Tony Burgess
author of Pontypool Changes Everything and The Hellmouths of Bewdley
“A gripping supernatural thriller with a wry noirish edge, False Bodies plunges Eddie "The Yeti" Gesner, a towering cryptozoologist with a troubled past, into an unfathomable mystery on an oil rig off the coast of St. John's, Newfoundland: sixty-four crew members dead under mysterious circumstances, held in secrecy, their bodies...not right. Eddie joins forces with local police detective Amelia Keane, and together they delve into the sinister workings of the ominously named Hasan Corp., whose explorations include something darker and more dangerous than undersea oil.
In this, his debut novel, J.R. McConvey grabs us from the very first page and doesn't let go till the last. Along with all the suspense and excitement you could hope for, he delivers some poignant glimpses into life on Canada's easternmost coast, caught literally between a rock and a hard place. If you're a fan of Preston & Child's The Relic, Christopher Golden's Ararat and Daniel Kraus's Whalefall, this is the book for you. With so many monsters loose in the world, I sure hope this isn't the last we hear from Eddie The Yeti.”
David Demchuk
Giller-nominated author of The Bone Mother and RED X
“Imagine a season of True Detective co-written by Jules Verne and Peter Benchley and you're halfway down into the tentacular abyss of this superbly entertaining page-turner. J.R. McConvey traffics masterfully in the tropes of the classic, Lovecraft-adjacent whatdunnit—secret occult diaries, otherworldly beasts, sinister corporate overlords—while plotting a note-perfect story of loss and redemption. False Bodies is a weird, wet blast.”
Pasha Malla
author of All You Can Kill
