The Curse of the Leather Piñata

When brothers Ted and Jim Darden set out for one last carefree weekend on Refuge Island with their friends, they expect little more than sunshine and relaxation before the start of school year. Instead, they stumble upon something that defies understanding: a mysterious stone monument known as the Beacon that grants terrifying visions of long-dead people and forgotten events. What begins as a summer outing soon becomes the first clue in a mystery stretching back nearly three centuries.

Around a campfire, the boys hear a chilling local legend about Bridgeports’s founding: a secret history involving monstrous creatures called Windigo, vanished children, ancient artifacts, and a desperate struggle between settlers, native tribes, and strange beings from beneath the earth. The tale sounds like folklore, but the unsettling visions at the Beacon suggest there may be far more truth to the story than they want to think.

The next morning, the friends encounter a horrifying phenomenon in the fog-shrouded bay: a vast, foul-smelling mass of decay rising from the depths, accompanied by dead wildlife, grotesque human forms, and the agonized death of a whale. Shaken but unable to explain what they witnessed, the boys return home with more questions than answers. Soon, other strange events begin to unfold around Bridgeport, hinting that something ancient and malevolent may be awakening once again.

As clues accumulate and danger grows, the Darden Brothers must uncover the truth behind Bayport's hidden past before history repeats itself. Blending supernatural horror, humor, romance, friendship, and classic mystery, The Curse of the Leather Piñata launches the Darden Brothers into their most chilling case yet, one that could change everything they thought they knew about their town, their friends, and themselves.

Genres: mystery, first love, LGBT, humor, parody