Title: The Siren of Groves Peak

Author: Glenn Rolfe

Release date: June 30th, 2026

*Huge thanks to Glenn Rolfe for a digital ARC of this one!*

I’m fast approaching a decade of reading Glenn’s signature brand of horror and throughout that time – including when he released a few books under a pseudonym – he’s created a phenomenal fictional grouping of towns in Maine, that he uses to set his novels within.

That’s very apparent within his newest, the murderous mermaid rampager known as ‘The Siren of Groves Peak.’ This is a treasure trove of Easter eggs when it comes to all of his books and I suspect should you give this one multiple reads, even more will pop their heads up, but as is, if you’ve been reading Rolfe for any length of time, expect to be smiling a bunch when you connect this one to his other books.

I’ve got a love/hate relationship with mermaid/siren horror. On one hand, it can be fascinatingly in depth. On the other, it can often times feel repetitious and same-old-same-old.

Going in, I was excited to see what Glenn did, knowing his penchant for character-driven stories and emotional narratives.

What I liked: The novel takes place in Groves Peak, a lobster town that for some time has had plentiful hauls. The men all know why, and some of their wives do to, but for the most part, the residents are unaware of the deal that’s been made. A siren is behind their success. She’s been there for decades and made a deal. She’ll seduce the men in the hopes of conceiving a baby – the thing she wants most in the world – and in return she’ll ensure the lobster fill their traps. This is all well and good until a murder takes place and everything is thrown for a loop.

The majority of the story follows Lizzy and Willow, young women who’re also the daughters of two of the towns more prominent fisherman, though Lizzy’s dad has fallen on hard times. He’s an alcoholic who’s never quite recovered from his wife packing up and leaving one night, years ago, and though he’s searched for her, she’s never been found.

Rolfe gives us tidbits of how lobster fishing fuels each life, and as that fishing dries up, stress mounts and more and more bodies are discovered. Rolfe paints a vivid picture of what the coastal town is like, and in doing so, does such a great job that you’ll feel drenched and freezing while reading.

The final quarter of the book is essentially a full-throttle series of revelations and discoveries. The towns secrets are revealed as is the individuals who played various parts in everything and Glenn does a superb job of packing this with a ton of action and a ton of emotion.

What I didn’t like: In this particular novel, I found there to be a few too many characters. In doing so, I just didn’t care about them to any degree. Sure, folks like Vernon and Lenora have a role to play, but I don’t think their storyline added much to it, considering similar characters were introduced to a degree as well. Though Glenn does this within each of his novels, in this case I found it just felt like every few chapters more and more characters were introduced, which distracted from the main ones I was wanting to follow.

Why you should buy this: If you’ve been a long-time reader of Glenn’s books, you’ll be all over this and love it. If you’ve never read any of his books, this is a great jumping in place. It features all of Glenn’s hallmarks in storytelling, as well as those aforementioned Easter eggs, which will make for great ‘a-ha’ moments when you read his other books.

The siren is done really well and thankfully, Glenn doesn’t spend much time humanizing it to any degree. We see how it reacts when things take a turn and we get to see it turn into a hideous, vengeance-filled monster, which was a lot of fun.

Overall, Rolfe’s delivered another fantastic novel, one that nestles really nicely into his ever-expanding bibliography.