Publisher's Synopsis
In present day Louisiana, a virulent plague is being spread by fairies. Long believed to be creatures that only existed in fairy tales, a chemical spill in the Mississippi River jumps the fairies evolutionary track forward, turning them from microscopic harmless things to two inch, insect-like creatures with three sets of teeth and a single-minded hunger for human flesh and blood.
75% of those bitten will slowly go mad from the poisons fairies pump into the blood to incapacitate their victims. 10% will escape madness, but will develop cancerous ulcers on their spine that lead to a slow and painful death. 10% will suffer an immediate allergic reaction that will cause violent seizures and lead to a quick death. 5% are immune, and these people are often drafted into service by the government to invade the swamps to collect samples from the fairies, in hopes of finding a cure for the death and destruction they're causing.
Alcoholic misfit Annabelle Lee is one of those drafted into service at Fairy Containment Control, and it's out on a job where she discovers the body of a little girl. Since the body is right off the swamp, the police assume that she's a victim of the fairies. But even to Annabelle, a glorified lab tech at best, something doesn't look right. Now she's on the trail to find out the truth. Was this just another fairy death brought on by a curious eight-year-old who wandered outside her house after dark? Or was it murder committed by someone who wanted the fairies to take care of the evidence?