A personal message from the author:
I was raised in north Florida where my dad had a ranch that was about ten miles, as the crow flies, from the Okefenokee Swamp. I would go camping with the Boy Scouts and the camp counselors would tell scary stories around the campfire. One of these stories concerned water men and a monster named Boutone.
— William Davis
This is a horror novel about Boutone, a boy monster who lives in the Okefenokee Swamp. Accidentally found in the dark waters of the swamp by a family fishing for large-mouth bass, they take the baby Boutone back to their home, The daughter and son develope especially close bonds with baby Boutone, However, Boutone grows from a cute, cuddly baby to a hideous monster. The father soon has to make some terrible decisions to protect his family and in the process discovers some dark secrets about his own family and his relationship to the monster.
Set in the Okefenokee Swamp, a large black-water swamp of 700 square miles in southeast Georgia, this novel is based on a real legend of water men that I heard while growing up close to the swamp. In fact, as a boy, I had several sleepless nights in and out of dreams about Boutone.