2010 Red Adept Annual Indie Awards
Top Drama
#1
Three Minutes More, by Edward O’Dell
Product Description
Michael Steven’s already troubled young life has taken a sudden, dramatic turn for the worse. Severely injured, he does not know if he will survive the night.
Reflecting on the evening’s dreadful events, wondering if he could have done anything to alter them, his thoughts begin to drift. He begins to contemplate his remarkable life, his dysfunctional family, and the unfortunate prospect that he may have to soon answer for his life to God.
While vividly recalling the most amusing, distressing, bizarre, and disturbing events of his life, he soon comes to realize “the monster you know is far easier to deal with than the monster you don’t!”
Will he get the miracle he needs to make it through the night? If so, will he finally find peace?
#2
Radium Halos, by Shelley Stout
Product Description
Radium Halos is historical fiction based on the true events of the Radium Girls: a group of female factory workers who, in the early 1920s, contracted radiation poisoning from painting luminous watch dials with radium paint. Our narrator is Helen Waterman, a 65-year-old mental patient who worked at the factory when she was 16. She tells us her story through flashbacks, slowly revealing her past, the loved ones she’s lost, and the dangerous secrets she’s kept all these years.
#3
Six Clicks Away, by Bonnie Rozanski
As miraculous as our wired world may be, everything connected to everything else eventually shows its downside. A rumor, a virus, a financial crisis – these days, they all cascade throughout the world in record time. SIX CLICKS AWAY tells the story of a single ripple through a tangled web, and how one person can affect us all.
In Bonnie Rozanski’s captivating novel, the social network becomes a stage for six indelible, interconnected characters: a lonely writer in Toronto, pining for her lost love; an unemployed engineer in Seattle who finds himself working at the Pike Place Fish Market. There is a young collections operator in Bangalore, India, who can’t stop caring about the people from whom she collects; and a seedy real estate magnate who gets his just desserts. Finally, there is a down-on-his-luck actor, an old friend of the Dalai Lama, who finds enlightenment from a most unlikely source.
A chain of falling dominoes is set in motion when Jeremy and Rachel, an unlikely duo of a geek and a Jersey girl, contact a friend on Myface.com, the largest social network on the planet. That friend contacts another, and another, each link bringing the pair one step closer to the goal of reaching the Dalai Lama, their choice of exotic target on the other side of the world. What they expect is that their simple classroom project will demonstrate “six degrees of separation,” the idea that everyone on this planet is connected in six short links to everyone else. What they get, however, is a cascade of the unexpected.
Runner Up
Another Thin Line, by Christopher Mitchell
Normalcy. It was the state Brad Miller had spent his entire thirteen years in. He had lived in the same white house on Dreis Lane his whole life. His mother and father were still together and happy. Even his eight-year-old brother Dylan had remained the same pain in the neck he had always been. From the time he woke up in the morning to the moment he slipped into bed at day’s end, Brad could pretty much count on the same schedule: breakfast at 6:45, school until 2:15, soccer or hockey practice until 5:30, family dinner at 6:00, then homework. It never changed. Things have a tendency to change when you’re thirteen years old.
Runner Up #2
It’s Not About the Cookies, by K.A. Thompson
There’s a long dead brother Sam can see and with whom she shares long conversation. A mother she blames for just about everything. Two sisters who carry their own assortment of baggage. A friend who survived junior high with Sam and who understands why Sam hasn’t been home in fifteen years, and a husband who thinks she should go.
Samantha Stark has a ready made list of excuses to not go back, but even though they top the list, she knows…it’s not about the cookies.
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Top Fantasy
#1
Rider: Spirals of Destiny, by Jim Bernheimer
Product Description
Forget everything you thought you knew about unicorns and maidens… A unicorn is not supposed to survive the death of its rider, but Majherri did. Now he is a pariah, mistrusted by the Greater Herd. To reclaim his lost honor and status, he will entrust the remnants of his life to a new human female while unraveling the mystery of his continued existence. Kayleigh Reese is not Battle Maiden material. She’s three years older than any other recruit and has enjoyed a peaceful, nomadic life working with her artist mother. The rigors of joining the High-King’s elite unicorn cavalry are clearly not for her. Now, with a bond to Majherri, she must overcome her mother’s disapproval, the ire of her commanding officer and fellow trainees, and, most importantly, the secrets of her unicorn’s past if she is to become a legendary warrior. To prevail, they must quickly come together as a team and unlock the powerful and dangerous magic inside them.
#2
The Takers, by R.W. Ridley
Product Description
The first volume in The Oz Chronicles recalls both Stephen King’s The Stand and L. Frank Baum’s The Wizard of Oz. When 13-year-old Osmond “Oz” Griffith wakes from an illness on the floor of his closet, he discovers the world overrun by man-eating monsters, the Takers, and it’s largely his fault. In an effort to make things right, he gathers a band of survivors (a baby, an aged mechanic and a talking gorilla, among others), and sets off down his version of the yellow brick road, leading to the Atlanta Zoo. Along the way, he learns that his destiny was written by Steve, a boy from his past. Afflicted with Down Syndrome, Steve created new worlds, replete with battles between good and evil, in the comic books that served as his sole refuge from the teasing of Oz and his friends. Steve’s untimely suicide leaves only the comic books as clues to vanquishing the Takers.
#3
Wysard and Lord Brother, by Carolyn Kephart
The wysard Ryel Mirai leaves the great Art-citadel Markul to rediscover the long-lost spell that will release his mentor from the wraithworld of the Void, but a malignant sorcerer likewise imprisoned has enlisted the aid of Ryel’s strongest rival to find the spell first. Amid dangers, joys and temptations, Ryel discovers unlikely allies to help him in his quest, and learns that he may well gain all that he wishes…although perhaps not as he wished it.
Runner Up
Firefly Island, by Daniel Arenson
When six-year-old Aeolia was sold into slavery to an ogre, her brother vowed he would find and free her some day, and she promised to never use her unique talent for making others feel exactly what she felt. Ten years later, men from the kingdom of Stonemark search her out because she is the only one who can hurt their king, who has become stone so that no physical weapon can harm him. Their arrival gives Aeolia the opportunity to flee the ogre and launches her on a quest that will bring friendships with the Firechild of the healing Helands and the shape-shifting Forestlands Firechild while she strives to free the Esirian refugees and liberate all Firefly Island from evil King Sinther’s despotic rule. The violent and gory world Arenson has created is filled with interesting details and cultures; although the characters never quite come alive, he is an author to watch.
Runner Up #2
The Weight of Blood, by David Dalglish
Product Description
When half-bloods Harruq and Qurrah Tun pledged their lives to the death prophet Velixar, they sought only escape from their squalid beginnings. Instead, they become his greatest disciples, charged with leading his army of undead.
While they prepare, Harruq trains with an elf named Aurelia, to whom he owes his life. She is a window into a better world, but as war spreads between the races their friendship takes a dire turn.
Velixar orders them to fight alongside the humans, changing Aurelia from friend to foe. To protect her, Harruq must turn against his brother and fight the killing nature of his orcish heritage.
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Top Romance (Chick Lit)
#1
Waiting for Spring, by R.J. Keller
Product Description
A recently divorced woman trudges out of one small, Maine town and into an even smaller one, hoping to escape her pain. Instead she finds herself surrounded by people who are trudging on, just like her. Waiting for things to get better. Waiting for spring.
Waiting For Spring takes readers beyond the lighthouses and rocky beaches tourists visit and drops them instead into a rural Maine town that is filled with displaced factory workers who struggle with poverty and loss, yet push onward with stubbornness and humor.
#2
Angel Be Good, by Cathy Carmichael
Product Description
Miracles still happen in modern day New York when “Scrooge” (Nathaniel Danvers) meets “Heaven Can Wait” (Daphne), who has been sent to give him one last chance at redemption. ANGEL BE GOOD captures the essence of the classic Charles Dickens’ “A Christmas Carol” and offers a touch of humor and romance. A perfect holiday feel-good read.
#3
We Interrupt This Date, by L.C. Evans
Since her divorce a year ago, Susan Caraway has gone through the motions of life. Now she is finally coming out of her shell. Just when she decides on a makeover and a new career, her family members decide she’s crisis central. First there’s her sister DeLorean who has come back from California with a baby, a designer dog, and no prospects for child support or a job. As soon as DeLorean settles in at Susan’s home, Susan’s son Christian returns from college trailing what Susan’s mama refers to as “an androgynous little tart.” Then there’s Mama herself, a southern lady who wrote the book on bossy. A secret from Mama’s past threatens to unravel her own peace. But not before Mama hurts her ankle and has to move into Susan’s home with her babies—two Chihuahuas with attitude. Susan would like to start her new job as a ghost tour operator. She would like to renew her relationship with Jack Maxwell, a man from her past. But Jack isn’t going to stand in line behind her needy family.
Runner Up
Out of Time, by Monique Martin
Product Description
Professor Simon Cross has spent his life searching for evidence of vampires and avoiding emotional entanglements. When a mysterious accident transports Simon and his new assistant, Elizabeth West, back in time, Simon finally finds both the proof that he’s been looking for, and the romance that he hasn’t.
In 1920s Manhattan, there are more than mobsters vying for power in the city’s speakeasies. Will Simon and Elizabeth’s developing relationship survive the vampires’ teeth? Will they survive to make it back? Or will they be forever out of time?
Top Mystery:
#1
Crack-Up, by Eric Christopherson
Product Description
Argus Ward is a former U.S. Secret Service agent who runs a protection agency catering to the rich and famous. His best-kept secret–which he shares with lawyers and doctors and even psychiatrists–is his status as a high-functioning paranoid schizophrenic. One day, with little warning, he turns psychotic for the first time in twenty years. He lands in a secure psychiatric facility, charged with the murder of his most famous client, high tech industry billionaire John Helms, the wealthiest man in America.
Argus has no memory of the killing. A blood test suggests to him that some unknown enemy had switched his anti-psychotic medication with identical-looking dummy pills to purposely drive him insane.
A sign of lingering paranoia? His doctor thinks so. Even his wife.
Yet Argus escapes incarceration to prove his theory. With the law on his trail and a ticking time bomb in his head–due to a lack of medication–he discovers that his disease had been “weaponized” by a powerful group to secretly assassinate John Helms as part of a multiple assassination conspiracy of world-wide significance.
Or has Argus simply lost his mind again? What in the end is “real” and what is only imagination in his story?
And what is justice for the criminally insane?
#2
Where the Dreams End, by K.D. Easley
Brocs Harley hasn’t always lived on the right side of the law, but he’s never been accused of murder…until now.
A repo man with a degree in criminal justice and a background in grand theft and B&E, Brocston Harley has never tried to avoid his black sheep label or his father’s ire. His little brother, Drew, was the golden boy. The favorite son, heir to the Harley real estate fortune, and recently engaged, Drew had everything a young man could want. When he’s found dead of an apparent suicide, Brocs knows in his gut it has to be murder. When the police come to the same conclusion, Brocs finds he’s the number one suspect. It will take all of his skills to stay out of prison, unearth an ugly family secret and discover who murdered his brother and why.
#3
Last Exit in New Jersey, by C.E. Grundler
Nice young ladies from the Garden State really shouldn’t be dumping bodies at sea. Then again, 20 year-old Hazel Moran is anything but your typical Jersey girl. Raised aboard a schooner and riding shotgun beside her father in their old tractor-trailer truck, there’s little on the road or water that she can’t handle; it’s her people skills that need work. Normally that isn’t an issue – behind the wheel of a Kenworth most people tend to leave her alone. But when Hazel and her father become the targets of some unsavory characters hunting for her blue-haired cousin, their stolen tractor-trailer truck and a delivery that never arrived, she knows it’s time to heed a lesson learned from her favorite hardboiled paperbacks: playing nice will only end in tears.
For ten sweltering days Hazel navigates the Garden State’s highways and shorelines, contending with a suspiciously wealthy stranger, white trash, Born Agains, appliance salesmen, an unstable stalker and his curiously troublesome companion. It’ll take all her ingenuity, not to mention some fishing tackle and high voltage, if Hazel hopes to protect her family and unravel this tangle of greed and betrayal. And anyone who gets too close, no matter their intent, will discover just how dangerous shy little Hazel truly can be as she sets in motion a twisted plan to uncover the truth, settle some scores, and if possible not wind up dead in the process.
Somewhat hard-boiled, slightly noir, Last Exit in New Jersey is an offbeat tale that travels from a Delaware Bay ghost-town to metropolitan north Jersey, where boats and big rigs set the scene for danger, suspense, dark humor and an unlikely bit of romance.
Runner Up
Rottweiler Rescue, by Ellen O’Connell
No one promised Dianne Brennan that her volunteer work as a foster home for Rottweiler Rescue would be easy. And no one warned her that the job would be murderously hard! Yet murder is what Dianne faces when she takes a dog to his new home, finds the adopter dead, and sees the killer leaving the scene. Worse, although Dianne cannot identify the killer, he begins stalking her with deadly intent. The sheriff’s investigators in Douglas County, Colorado, are convinced the killer is a member of the victim’s family. Dianne is sure he will be found where the victim worked – in the world of dog shows and dog people. Can she keep herself and her dogs safe long enough to prove she is right? Can Dianne and her Rottweilers collar the killer?
Runner Up #2
Honeymoon for One, by Beth Orsoff
There are worse things in life than being dumped at the altar. Like being accused of killing your fake husband in a third world country where you can’t speak the language, for example.
When Lizzie Mancini booked her honeymoon to the secluded Blue Bay Beach Resort on the small Caribbean island of Camus Caye she thought it would be relaxing to spend the week at an isolated couples-only retreat. But that was before she knew she’d be honeymooning sans groom. Touring alone, dining alone, and worst of all, having to explain to the resort’s thirty other guests why she was staying in the bridal suite alone—Lizzie was dreading it. But it still beat the alternative, eight more days hibernating in her empty apartment feeling sorry for herself.
Then Lizzie meets Michael, a gold-chained antiquities dealer who offers to play her husband for the week no strings (or sex) attached. The plan works perfectly until Lizzie spends the night with scuba instructor Jack, and Michael’s body washes up on Blue Bay’s pristine shore. Lizzie becomes Polizia Nationale’s number one suspect and the only way she can prove her innocence is to solve Michael’s murder herself.
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Top Time Travel
#1
Tempo Rubato, by Brendan Carroll
Imagine the virtually unlimited resources of a private company rivaling Microsoft Corporation. Now add to that Albert Einstein’s genius coupled with all the technology available in 1995. Now imagine the possibilities…
Maria Elisse Mannheim is a professor of Musicology at a university in Vienna, specializing in the study of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and his works, particularly his original manuscripts of which numerous forgeries abound. Derek Boswell is a New York City detective investigating the murder of a student under very unusual circumstances. The only clue he has to go on is a letter found in the victim’s possession that could have been written by the murderer. Unfortunately, the letter is signed W.A. Mozart.
Boswell contacts Miss Mannheim in an attempt to track down any known forgers that might also be worthy of investigation for possible charges in the student’s death. As an authority on Mozart, she feels compelled to leave her job and travel to the United States for a first hand look at this particular forger.
Elisse’s investigation takes her to West Texas, where the victim formerly worked for a mysterious corporation before her death. The further Elisse digs into the company’s business, the more apparent it becomes that not everything is quite as it seems and she suddenly finds her own life in peril.
#2
The Dempsey Gambit, by Ben Lacy
Product Description
In the near future, a powerful performance enhancing drug has made boxing both incredibly popular and incredibly dangerous. Boxing promoter J.J. Lincoln is desperate to find the next hot fighter. Rather than develop a new one, he finds a brilliant scientist desperate to fund her research. She replicates the most popular fighter of the early 20th century – former heavyweight champion Jack Dempsey.
Dempsey has ideas of his own though and decides to flee. He undertakes a wild journey across the underbelly of America. Outside the system, without a legal way to make money, he’s soon forced to desperate measures to survive, including a return to the ring.
Can a fighter a hundred years past his time survive in the boxing ring of the future, much less win the heavyweight title?
#3
Journey Towards a Preordained Time, by Renata McMann
Journey Towards a Preordained Time is a science fiction novel, a time travel book, and a religious satire. If you want to see what it is about, go to http://timejourney.wordpress.com/ and read the first chapter. The first chapter is really a short story in itself, so you might just enjoy it and not buy the book. Besides, it has the only sex scene in the book, although it is pretty mild.
Why are you still reading? If you read the first chapter, you’ve decided whether or not you want to buy the book.
If you haven’t read the first chapter, consider this a SPOILER ALERT. Renata travels back in time to escape her abusive husband. She gives birth to Jesus. The actions of the first four books of the New Testament happen with entirely different meanings. For example, do you know why Jesus was so interested in children. No, not that, you have a dirty mind. He really has a good and noble reason, but it isn’t what is said in the Bible. Also, Jesus didn’t walk on water, he surfed. END OF SPOILER ALERT.
No one should take this book seriously except the characters, and they aren’t real. They have to take it seriously, because some of them died. I guess I should have put a spoiler alert for that, but did you know that Jesus died? Don’t worry, it was not permanent.
Runner Up
Portal, by Imogen Rose
Come Find Me Two Years Ago…
Six words that propelled ice hockey playing tomboy, Arizona, into an alternate dimension.
She suddenly found herself in the past. In one moment she went from being an ice hockey playing teenager in New Jersey to a glamorous cheerleader in California. She found herself transported from a happy life with her dad, Dillard, to a new, strange one living with her mother whom she hates. Apparently it’s a life she’s always lived in.
Everyone knows her as Arizona Darley, but she isn’t. She is Arizona Stevens.
As she struggles to find answers she is certain of one thing- that her mother Olivia, a brilliant physicist, is somehow responsible. . .
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Top Science Fiction
#1
In Her Name: Empire, by Michael Hicks
( I only read and reviewed the first book in this series, but the link is for the Omnibus Edition, as it’s the better deal.)
Product Description
In the first book of an epic futuristic fantasy trilogy, this is the coming-of-age story of Reza Gard, a young boy of the Human Confederation who is swept up in the century-long war with the alien Kreelan Empire. Nightmarish female warriors with blue skin, fangs, and razor sharp talons, the Kreelans have technology that is millennia beyond that of the Confederation, yet they seek out close combat with sword and claw, fighting and dying to honor their god-like Empress. Captured and enslaved, Reza must live like his enemies in a grand experiment to see if humans have souls, and if one may be the key to unlocking an ages old curse upon the Kreelan race. Enduring the brutal conditions of Kreelan life, Reza and a young warrior named Esah-Zhurah find themselves bound together by fate and a prophecy foretold millennia before they were born.
#2
The Abortionist, by Colin Cohen
In the not-too-distant future, where abortion is legal until the 18th year, the mentally-disabled daughter of a pro-life senator discovers an abortionist coming for her just days before achieving personhood — leading to a fast-paced chase through a dangerous city, where friends and foes are indiscernible.
The aging abortionist, whose sagging career depends on the girl’s termination, must struggle not only to find her in time, but to survive himself when a mysterious stranger enters the hunt.
But most of all, he must struggle with his own past.
#3
Rogue Hunter, by Kevis Hendrickson
Zyra Zanr is the most feared bounty hunter in the galaxy. Criminals everywhere cower at her name. During the attempt to capture a notorious fugitive, she stumbles onto a conspiracy to murder the senators of the InterGalactic Alliance. Behind this plot is a clandestine force seeking to destroy not only the InterGalactic Alliance, but mankind as well.
War looms on the horizon as Zyra collides with this deadly force threatening to rock the very foundations of time and space. Zyra’s quest to uncover the mastermind behind this plot will pit her against an evil menace beyond her wildest imagination. Only Zyra can save humanity from an impending holocaust. Victory will mean the salvation of the human race. Failure will mean the end of all that Zyra holds dear. The battle for the future has begun!
Top Miscellaneous Genre
:
These books are ones that made me step out of my ‘comfort genres’ to enjoy something new.
#1
Reinventing Alvin, by Dante Kleinberg (Humor)
Product Description
Alvin Thomas has less than three weeks to produce the girlfriend he told the former love of his life he already had. To find one, he’ll have to get out of the comic book store and into the singles scene. But when “just being himself” leads to one humiliation after another, he forms a new plan: be someone else. It works so well it becomes addictive. From black belt to Buddhist, from park ranger to music producer, Alvin soon has more identities than he can handle, and his new girlfriends are starting to catch on.
#2
Have Gun, Will Play, by Camille LaGuire (Western)
Product Description
Two gunslingers, one little girl, a big bag of toys… and murder.
Mick and Casey McKee aren’t exactly your average gunslingers. He’s young and inexperienced, and has much too sunny a disposition for a gunman. She’s younger, meaner, less experienced, but a much better shot.
When they get a job protecting the daughter of a stagecoach king–and her grand collection of toys–it seems like an opportunity to go someplace new. But after the wrong kidnapping, a murder, another wrong kidnapping, a couple of jewel heists and a few knocks to the head, Mick and Casey are left holding the bag of toys. Mick, however, is not as dumb as he seems, and as for Casey…nobody steals her gun and gets away with it.
#3
No Irish Need Apply, by Edward C. Patterson (Gay & Lesbian Fiction)
Product Description
Kevin Borden has a secret, and that secret is about to shake the world around him – a tame and suburban world ruled by his widowed mother, Sarah and peppered by his study-mate, Louis. Teenagers sometimes do the darndest things, but in Kevin and Louis’ case, it’s a stroke of wisdom wrapped in fool’s gold. In a time not so long ago, in the days of JIM CROW and NO IRISH NEED APPLY signage, the world made hate clear to those regarded as the fringe. “Stay away.” To those who know no better – or perhaps know best, such lines are only meant to be crossed, or why else would they be drawn.
Runner Up:
Snow Burn, by Joel Arnold (Young Adult)
Product Description
Seventeen-year old Tommy Connell knows he’s in trouble when he goes winter camping with his friend Vince Nguyen without telling his folks. But when they’re caught in a sudden blizzard, and the man they rescue from freezing to death turns out to be an escaped convict, Tommy’s troubles are only beginning. Now Tommy and Vince must not only survive the blizzard, but also find a way to keep Quinn – who’ll stop at nothing to stay out of prison – from killing them.
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Top Horror:
#1
Jenny Pox, by J.C. Bryan
Product Description
Jenny has a secret. Her touch spreads a deadly supernatural plague. And she can’t turn it off.
She devotes her life to avoiding contact with people, until her senior year of high school, when she meets the one boy she can touch, and falls in love.
But there’s a problem—he’s under the spell of his devious girlfriend Ashleigh, who secretly wields the most dangerous power of all.
Now Jenny must learn to use the “Jenny pox” she’s fought so long to suppress, or else be destroyed by Ashleigh’s ruthless plans.
#2
Afraid, by Jack Kilborn
Product Description
Known for cop thrillers, J.A. Konrath (Fuzzy Navel) debuts his Jack Kilborn pseudonym and reveals some serious horror chops in this carnival of carnage. Five government-sponsored Red-ops fighters, psychotic torturers with modified brains and extensive training in killing anyone in their way, have been accidentally assigned to a mission in small, sleepy Safe Haven, Wis. Gen. Alton Tope sends in a dozen Green Berets, two other Special Forces teams, navy SEALs and some marines, all of whom may be just about enough to stop the killers. The townies also band together to save their little rural paradise, though several get trampled into red goo along the way. Any attempt to make a point about U.S. support of international terrorism gets a bit lost in the gore fest, but fans of gross-out horror will love it.
#3
Crustaceans, by William Meikle
Product Description
From Scottish writer William Meikle comes a novel that is a welcome return to those tomes of pure enjoyment that we read with guilt in our early teens, in the tradition of James Herbert’s THE RATS and Guy N. Smith’s NIGHT OF THE CRABS.
It begins with a dead whale on a Boston shoreline–not in itself an unusual occurrence. But the things that claw their way out of the blubber are very unusual indeed. A cast of giant crabs, evolved over centuries, descends on a small coastal town and, having feasted, make their way to the city using the sewer system. Soon they are swarming around Manhattan, hunted and harried by a SWAT team tasked with ridding the city of the menace…before the menace gets big enough to rid itself of the city.
Runner Up:
Draculas, by J.A. Konrath, Blake Crouch, F. Paul Wilson, and Jeff Strand
Product Description
A DYING MAN’S GREATEST TREASURE…
Mortimer Moorecook, retired Wall Street raider, avid collector, is losing his fight against cancer. With weeks to live, a package arrives at the door of his hillside mansion—an artifact he paid millions for…a hominoid skull with elongated teeth, discovered in a farmer’s field in the Romanian countryside. With Shanna, his beautiful research assistant looking on, he sinks the skull’s razor sharp fangs into his neck, and immediately goes into convulsions.
OPENS THE DOOR TO AN ANCIENT EVIL…
A rural hospital. A slow night in the ER. Until Moorecook arrives strapped to a gurney, where he promptly codes and dies.
WHERE DEATH IS JUST THE BEGINNING.
Runner Up #2:
Serial, by Jack Kilborn and Blake Crouch
Product Description
Remember the twin golden rules of hitchhiking?
# 1: Don’t go hitchhiking, because the driver who picks you up could be certifiably crazy.
# 2: Don’t pick up hitchhikers, because the traveler you pick up could be raving nutcase.
So what if, on some dark, isolated road, Crazy #1 offered a ride to Nutcase #2?
When two of the most twisted minds in the world of horror fiction face off, the result is SERIAL, a terrifying tale of hitchhiking gone terribly wrong. Like a deeply twisted version of an “After School Special,” SERIAL is the single most persuasive public service announcement on the hazards of free car rides. Beyond a thrilling piece of horrifying suspense, SERIAL is also a groundbreaking experiment in literary collaboration. Kilborn wrote the first part. Crouch wrote the second. And they wrote the third together over email in 100-word exchanges, not aware of each other’s opening section. All bets were off, and may the best psycho win.
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Top Short Story Collection:
#1
Offerings – 3 Stories, by Mary Anna Evans
This collection of short stories features three very different protagonists, trapped in situations that will change their lives, for good or ill. Will young Lila lose her beloved sister? Will a man known for his discretion use it to catch a killer…and will he lose his last chance at happiness in the process? And will a woman sworn to heal be able to keep her vow?
“A Singularly Unsuitable Word” is seen through the eyes of a child, hiding in the weeds as she watches her sister’s kidnapping. “Mouse House” stars a security chief, unsure whether his job will rob him of the love of his life. “Starch” features a nurse, holding the lives of a young woman and her daughter in her two hands. Step into the shoes of three people at their lives’ most critical turning points, and see how they prevail.
#2
A Land of Ash, by David Dalglish, David McAfee, Daniel Arenson, John Fitch V, Michael Crane, & Robert Duperre
Product Description
The Yellowstone Caldera has erupted once every 600,000 years. We’re 40,000 years overdue.
Lava flows stretch for hundreds of miles. A cloud of ash billows east, burying the Midwest, destroying crops, and falling upon the Pacific Coast like a warm, dead snow. The remnants of the United States flees south as the global temperatures plummet.
Amid this total devastation are stories of families, friends, sons and fathers and wives: the survivors. Within are eleven stories focusing on the human element of such a catastrophe, from an elderly couple gathering to await their death to a father sealing his shelter in hopes of keeping the air breathable for his daughter. Contributing to this collection include many popular and up-and-coming independent authors, including David McAfee, Daniel Arenson, and more.
#3:
55 Proof, by J.A. Konrath
JA Konrath, author of the Lt. Jacqueline “Jack” Daniels thrilller series (Whiskey Sour, Bloody Mary, Rusty Nail, Dirty Martini, Fuzzy Navel, Cherry Bomb, Shaken) offers a gigantic 128,000 word collection of fifty-five previously published short stories from the thriller, horror, and comedy genres, including many from his award-winning series.
Stories to make you laugh, scream, cringe, think, scratch your head, and roll your eyes. This collection has something to please every type of Kindle reader, and is an inexpensive way to get introduced to the author and his work.
Runner Up:
A Little Girl in My Room & Other Stories, by Claire Farrell
A Little Girl in my Room & Other Stories is a collection of dark flash fiction by Claire Farrell. This book is Rated R: Adults Only. Some may find the themes addressed disturbing. Content includes child abuse, rape, suicide, murder and violence.
This dark fiction collection contains 12 short stories:
Skeleton in the Closet and Childlike Bride – What happens to the vulnerable when they are taken advantage of then abandoned?
A Friend – A lonely ghost bears witness to a Halloween prank that ends in tragedy.
Frozen and Frozen in Reverse – Parallel stories detailing an attack in the words of the victim and then the rapist.
Ready or Not – What’s your idea of hell?
Justice – The lengths the heartbroken will go to for justice . . . or revenge.
Forever Young – Sometimes regrets come too late.
Peace, Deals, A Great Day, A Little Girl in my Room – Four offerings of the supernatural kind.
Runner Up #2
Bait and Other Stories, by Joel Arnold
Welcome to the deep north woods. Here you’ll meet:
A father whose intense longing for his dead son lead to disturbing consequences.
A group of college students tubing down a river through a burnt forest who encounter terrifying creatures.
A man seeking redemption for a sinful past through the skill of a tattoo artist.
A Cambodian-American teen who will fit in with the locals at any cost.
A woman who finds a bizarre solace in a rare pearl.
These, plus a dozen other stories from the febrile imagination of Joel Arnold will keep you up long into the night with over 50k words of horror, suspense, and mystery. Includes the award winning stories ‘Mississippi Pearl’ and ‘Some Things Don’t Wash Off.’
