I asked J.K. Hogan what makes her latest book, Shadows Fall, unique. This is what she had to say:
Well, as an author, I think every book
is different and unique in its own way. As a voracious reader, on the other
hand, I know that when you read hundreds of books in a year, they can all start
to run together until something stands out.
I think Shadows Fall is different because it has a little bit of
everything. I even struggled to find a category for it. It’s my first true
thriller and I’m in love with the subgenre. This book has so many different
elements—crime drama, police procedural, a paranormal element, a tiny bit of
sci-fi, and of course, romance. I’m always my biggest critic, but I think it
will keep you on the edge of your seats!
Blurb:
A gift—or curse—gives
Titus McGinty the unwanted ability to talk to ghosts. When he starts seeing the
same few apparitions repeatedly, appearing with similar gruesome injuries, he
begins to wonder what they want from him.
Detective Charlie Hale has a serial killer on his hands. On the loose for weeks, the Queen City Slayer has left the police nothing to go on, no forensic evidence other than what he wants found. The city is running out of time.
The crisis brings Titus and Charlie together—Titus stumbles upon a body and finds himself a suspect. Their budding romance is tested as they are sucked into a web of underground laboratories, restive spirits, and religious fanaticism. They’ll have to work together to find the identity of the killer before he takes his next victim…Titus.
Detective Charlie Hale has a serial killer on his hands. On the loose for weeks, the Queen City Slayer has left the police nothing to go on, no forensic evidence other than what he wants found. The city is running out of time.
The crisis brings Titus and Charlie together—Titus stumbles upon a body and finds himself a suspect. Their budding romance is tested as they are sucked into a web of underground laboratories, restive spirits, and religious fanaticism. They’ll have to work together to find the identity of the killer before he takes his next victim…Titus.
Pages or Words: 102,000 words
Categories: Contemporary, Crime Fiction, Fiction,
Gay Fiction, Romance, Thriller
Excerpt:
I always hated
walking home alone at night on the deserted city streets. But I couldn’t ask my
employees to do something I was scared to do myself, so I’d taken the late
shift. In the dark, the wandering dead became nothing but sliding shadows and
hissing whispers. The phrase 'jumping at shadows' is apt, because there were things in the shadows.
Those things
slithered around me, feeling much more insidious in the murky stillness of the
nighttime city. Hands in my pockets, I gripped my four inch pocket knife that I
always carried. Fat lot of good it would do me against mule, but there was a killer on the loose after all.
It was
ill-advised, but I still blasted my music inside my headphones. I didn't want
to hear what the spirits had to say in gloam. I mostly kept my eyes glued to
the sidewalk in front of me—don't stand
out, don't make eye contact, make yourself invisible—but I cast glances all
around my periphery to keep aware of my surroundings.
A tall, skinny
man approached, heading toward me on the opposite side of the sidewalk. He wore
dark jeans and a black hoodie with the hood pulled up, casting his face in
shadow. I found that odd, as it was one of those warm, humid nights the
Southern springtime was famous for. His dark eyes glittered at me from the
empty void where his face should be, obviously a trick of the poor lighting.
As he passed me,
he clipped my shoulder, throwing me off balance. I wanted to turn around and
yell, but self-preservation intervened. I could probably take him in
hand-to-hand, but he could be packing for all I knew. I put my head down and
kept walking.
I yelped when a
spirit appeared in front of me—unlike what movies and television showed, they
didn’t usually just pop up. He was a
young man, probably about my age, with pale skin, black hair, and eyes so blue
they seemed otherworldly… and he was gorgeous. I blinked, hoping he’d
disappear. No such luck.
He turned his
head towards the building beside us that was being renovated, the entrance to
which was blocked off with caution tape. Stretching out his left arm, he
pointed to it, and I could see bone-deep gouges in his wrist and forearm. He
glanced at me again. Look.
“Not tonight,
okay?” I mumbled, trying to step around him. In the blink of an eye, he
disappeared and rematerialized right in front of me. See!
“No,” I said,
getting angry. I walked straight through him. Usually when I passed through a
spirit, I just felt a slick, oily cold sliding through my body—but this burned
like a vat of acid had been dumped over me. I screamed and fell to my knees.
He appeared in
front of me again. As I looked up at him, still reeling from the pain, it
occurred to me how new he must be. When a mulo
first left its body, it still maintained some measure of its humanity. It was
able to take and maintain a corporeal form more easily than the older spirits,
and the ability faded with each day since its passing.
He pointed again
and this time, his eyes took on a pleading quality. I could practically feel
his anguish.
Struggling to my
feet, I brushed myself off and sighed. “Fine, I’ll look. But then you need to
leave me the hell alone. I ducked under the caution tape strung across the
doorless entry of the run-down building. It was almost pitch black inside, but
I got a vague sense of sawhorses and scaffolds. Tip-toeing for some
inconceivable reason, I made my way into some kind of vestibule or foyer. I
didn’t notice anything that this mulo
would be so desperate for me to see, but I couldn’t really see much at all.
My foot hit
something solid and I was afraid to go any further into the dark. Who knew what
kind of hazards were strewn about the construction site. I dug out my iPhone
and swiped it to turn on the flashlight app. A bright light shone out of the
camera flash and illuminated the dusty room in front of me—and the man lying
all too still on the floor.
I screamed for
the second time in five minutes, stumbled back against a plastic-draped
scaffolding and dropped my phone. I assumed it landed screen up, because the
room was suddenly plunged back into darkness. With my skin crawling, I felt
around on the floor for the hard case. Instead, I grabbed a cold leg.
“Holy God!” I shouted, scrambling backwards and
sideways until my back hit a wall. My pulse pounded and my head was spinning
with the urge to pass the fuck out, either from fright or hyperventilation. My
muscles were on lockdown, frozen into that gray area between fight-or-flight,
but I knew I had to find my phone so I could get the hell out of there.
And the body…
I’d have to call someone. I poked around with the toe of my shoe, carefully
avoiding the area of blackness where I thought the body was. Finally I felt the
phone. I dragged it across the floor with my foot until I was able to pick it
up. Everything was illuminated once again. “Oh thank God,” I said.
But once there
was light, I could see him again. His head was turned to face away from me, but
I knew that it was the guy from outside. Obviously he’d wanted me to find his
body. It was laid out like a sacrifice, arms stretched out to reveal the deep
cuts on his arms. I shivered. My brain was finally catching up to the situation,
and I realized it was entirely possible that the killer could still be here.
I quickly got to
my feet and lurched toward the dim light pooling at the doorway. As soon as I
was out of there, I pressed my back up against the cool façade of the building
and panted to catch my breath. I see the dead all the time, but I’d never
actually seen a dead body before. I
wasn’t sure what to do; the only thing I could think was call Charlie.
With shaking
hands, I pulled up his number on my phone—I may have entered it from the
business card he gave me after chasing Jay out of the shop. I pressed send and
he picked up on the first ring.
“Hale.”
“Ch-Charlie?”
“Who’s this?”
“Titus.” My
voice was shaking and I was embarrassingly close to tears. “I need help.”
“Tell me where
you are and I’ll be right there.”
I rattled off my
general location, already soothed by the sound of his voice, the confidence in
it. “Please hurry,” I said.
“Stay put, I’m
on my way.”
About the
author:
J.K. Hogan has been
telling stories for as long as she can remember, beginning with writing cast
lists and storylines for her toys growing up. When she finally decided to put
pen to paper, magic happened. She is greatly inspired by all kinds of music and
often creates a “soundtrack” for her stories as she writes them. J.K. is hoping
to one day have a little something for everyone, so she’s branched out from m/f
paranormal romance and added m/m contemporary romance. Who knows what’s next?
J.K. resides in North Carolina, where she was born and raised. A true southern girl at heart, she lives in the country with her husband and young son, a cat, and two champion agility dogs. If she isn’t on the agility field, J.K. can often be found chasing waterfalls in the mountains with her husband, or down in front at a blues concert. In addition to writing, she enjoys training and competing in dog sports, spending time with her large southern family, camping, boating and, of course, reading! For more information, please visitwww.jkhogan.com.
J.K. resides in North Carolina, where she was born and raised. A true southern girl at heart, she lives in the country with her husband and young son, a cat, and two champion agility dogs. If she isn’t on the agility field, J.K. can often be found chasing waterfalls in the mountains with her husband, or down in front at a blues concert. In addition to writing, she enjoys training and competing in dog sports, spending time with her large southern family, camping, boating and, of course, reading! For more information, please visitwww.jkhogan.com.
Where to find the author:
Publisher: Wilde City Press
Cover
Artist: J.K. Hogan
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