Fiend

Alma Katsu steps away from her trademark historical settings to explore something more immediate and unsettling in this contemporary horror novel. The Berisha family presides over a global empire, their decades of improbable success shielding a secret that binds them to something far older and darker than corporate ambition. When the patriarch's careful arrangement of his three children begins to crack, each sibling confronts the true nature of their family's power and the price it demands. Katsu draws on the familiar architecture of dynastic wealth and corruption, then laces it with genuine dread.

Barrie Kreinik navigates the novel's shifting perspectives with a measured, controlled delivery that suits the story's creeping menace. Rather than playing the horror broadly, Kreinik lets tension accumulate in quieter moments, which pays off as the family dynamics unravel. At just over six and a half hours, the pacing stays taut throughout, and the intimate format of audio amplifies the claustrophobic feeling of a family that cannot escape what it has made of itself.