Michael Priestley

City of the Silent Michael Priestley

Early one morning in November on the first day of hunting season, the receding fog reveals a mysterious stranger dressed in a black cloak sitting on the wall in the center of Troyville, Vermont. The stranger does not speak or move, but his presence destroys the tranquility of the town and its idiosyncratic residents, including the beautiful Helene, who appears in the fantasies of every man in town. Simmering just below the surface of daily life in Troyville is the heat of long-ago passion and distorted memory, unleashed by the stranger: a centaur appears in the forest . . . the town finally uncovers the truth about who fathered Sarah Dixbys child . . . a meeting of the townspeople erupts in a brawl over what to do with the stranger . . . a gunshot shatters the silence of the night.