While exploring the University of Pittsburgh’s library, author Daniel Kraus discovered a half-finished novel by George Romero. Here’s what happened next.

In 2019, Daniel Kraus discovered a half-finished novel while exploring the University Library System’s George A. Romero Archival Collection. The New York Times bestselling author collaborated with Romero’s estate to complete the novel, now titled “Pay the Piper.” The book was published on September 3, 2024.

This discovery occurred as Kraus completed “The Living Dead,” a novel Romero was working on before his 2017 death. Romero’s estate selected Kraus, an esteemed novelist and fan, to finish the work using the author’s notes and an old short story.

“The archives were very new, and so I was going through them just for my own edification,” said Kraus. “I certainly wasn’t looking for a new project to do by any means. But on my last day, I found these two manilla envelopes that said ‘Pay the Piper’ on them, and I was astounded to find a book.”

Kraus and other experts, including Romero’s widow, were unaware of the project. The supernatural horror novel depicts the Piper, a murderous swamp entity in a cursed Louisiana bayou.

“I was extremely excited and also daunted because I knew how much work ‘The Living Dead’ was,” said Kraus. “But it was hard to resist getting the band back together to finish it.”

Romero left no notes on the novel’s direction, so Kraus had to deduce the author’s intentions from the existing pages. Kraus described them as “wonderfully wild,” presenting both a challenge and an opportunity to tie together plot threads in a satisfying manner.

“You never know what you’re going to find when you’re going through an artist’s archive,” Kraus said. “You often find the drafts, treatments of projects, but there’s always ephemera hidden throughout: personal notes, random ideas, odd things that were written on the backs of manuscripts. And sometimes those can be the things that really stick with you and inspire new things.”

“‘Pay the Piper’ underlines why engagement with primary sources and the archive is so important,” said Benjamin Rubin, ULS’ horror studies collection coordinator. “The project brings to light a work that would have otherwise been lost or unknown and represents the type of opportunity for creative endeavors that can arrive from working with these resources.”

Kraus discussed the new novel and the Romero collection at a free Sept. 12 event.