P.L. Howd’s “The Common Man: The Scurry” Pits a Rebel Against Mythic Hunters Engineered to Erase Dissent

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P.L. Howd has released "The Common Man: The Scurry," a 184-page speculative novel published through Page Publishing that follows Sean O’Neill after he commits what the book frames as an unforgivable act of defiance, one that sets loose beings known as Kill-a-chenies: hunters described in the announcement as engineered by unnamed powers to stamp out rebellion and "reset" the minds of anyone who resists.

The book is part of a series under the same title, The Common Man, though the broader entry has followed a different premise, centering on two people who discover that free will itself is at stake. "The Scurry" narrows the focus to O’Neill and a group of allies on the run, with the announcement describing a plot that blurs the line between myth and literal threat as the group tries to stay a step ahead of capture.

Howd grew up in a small town in Upstate New York and has traveled widely since, and the publisher’s announcement credits that traveling with shaping the novel’s world-building, framing years of observing different countries and cultures as the raw material for the series. Howd is quoted describing the book as centered on ordinary people forced into extraordinary circumstances, and what happens when they refuse to give up their autonomy against long odds.

"The Common Man: The Scurry" is available through Page Publishing’s website, in bookstores, and through major retailers including Amazon, Apple Books, Google Play, and Barnes & Noble.

Speculative fiction built around resistance to totalitarian control is a crowded shelf, and Studio CarryOnHarry will be curious whether this entry’s mythic framing, hunters drawn from folklore rather than from the usual dystopian bureaucracy, gives it a distinct enough voice to stand out in the series and in the genre.

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