A Lovecraft Lite science fiction and horror series by Matthew W Quinn largely set in the metro Atlanta area or other parts of the South. The first book in the series is The Thing In The Woods and the second is The Atlanta Incursion, with the third book The Walking Worm forthcoming.
The Thing In The Woods follows James Daly, a 17 year old from Atlanta whose father moved the family to a Town with a Dark Secret to have a bigger house, only to lose his job in the Great Recession that immediately preceded The New '10s. He has to work a job he hates at the local Best Buy to help tide the family over while his father looks for work. One evening at the local Zaxbys, some of the local kids challenge the Atlanta transplants to an ATV race near a tree farm most of the locals avoid. James, unwilling to back down, accepts.
The tree farm, it turns out, is the dwelling place of a minor Eldritch Abomination worshiped by a Klan-like cult since before the Civil War, and the hungry monster eats one of the locals. The high priest decides He Knows Too Much and orders James hunted down and fed to the monster, but Sam, a cult member with second thoughts, and Amber, one of James' classmates who has a crush on him, have other opinions.
The Atlanta Incursion takes place several months later. James is now a student at Georgia State University and is doing his best to forget the events of that bloody May. Unfortunately, a wound he took in the final battle with the thing in the woods has left him with growing Psychic Powers, which clue him in to the presence of The Greys. This in turn attracts the attention of The Men in Black, who are also hunting the Greys. James, Amber (whom he is now dating), and his friend Eli find themselves caught up in an interstellar war raging since the 1940s.
The series contains examples of:
- Aliens in Cardiff: The Thing In The Woods depicts a cult worshipping a minor Lovecraftian abomination 30-40 minutes southwest of Atlanta. The Atlanta Incursion has a nest of The Greys complete with a stargate in the vicinity of Georgia State, with secondary lairs established in dilapidated buildings in poor neighborhoods elsewhere in the city.
- No Such Agency: The agents who show up after "The Thing in the Woods" and get more attention in "The Atlanta Incursion" officially don't exist as far as the people of the United States (and Earth as a whole) are concerned.
