Archive MT-204 · Epistolary horror

The Herd Report

There is always one more animal than there should be.

Published 26 July 2026

When livestock begin disappearing from farms across North Yorkshire, the official explanation is straightforward: predators, theft, disease, human error.

But the numbers do not add up.

Farmers count animals they do not remember buying. Drone footage shows creatures that cannot be identified twice. Missing livestock are replaced without explanation. Then the people investigating begin to disappear too.

Told entirely through reports, witness statements, transcripts, emails, field logs and recovered documents, The Herd Report is an epistolary horror novel presented as a classified agricultural investigation file.

As the evidence accumulates, one question becomes impossible to ignore:

If every count is correct, what is occupying the place left behind?

Count them again.