I’ve got another scary one for ya!  Plus another Giveaway!

Faithful Shadow

by Kevin J. Howard

Faithful Shadow

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Yellowstone National Park is on fire. The skies are smudged with smoke and the air is filled with the pungent scent of burning brush.

Underneath Yellowstone, the creatures maze of tunnels are filling up with smoke. It has to find a safe place until the fires are put out.  One unlucky fireman gives it that opportunity.

For Joseph Rand, a park ranger, things are heating up, and not only because of the fire. People are disappearing mysteriously. They seem to just vanish, leaving no trace.

Taking advantage of the lack of business at the Old Faithful Inn, a landmark in the park, some of the summer employees head up to the hotsprings to soak in the warm waters and camp out for the night, and do a little partying.  When they wake up the next morning, two of their group are missing. Their belongings are still there but there’s no trace of their friends. After much searching, it’s decided they need to head back and notify the park rangers.

Joseph is nursing a bad hangover when the kids rush in, talking over each other, claiming their friends are missing. He doesn’t see it as an emergency and patronizes them, saying maybe they went off to be together. This infuriates the group. They can see his shaking hands and smell the reek of stale booze on him.

When Joseph tells them he’ll go check it out they leave to report to work. What he finds isn’t much.  No trail to follow, but a few drops of blood are on the ground. Perhaps he was too hasty in writing this one off as young people having fun. Another call pulls him away from the hot springs, it’ll have to wait.

Now a fireman has gone missing. One second he was standing by his supervisor, the next he was gone. With the fire line close by, there’s no time to waste and the firemen and Joseph spread out to look for anything he could have fallen into. There are plenty of sinkholes in the park.

They find one and when they holler down, the fireman answers. It’s a ways down, so they rig a harness and lower a man down to get him. Strangely, he is now farther down the tunnel and in bad shape, too weak to help himself. When they finally get him topside, he’s so weak they have to take him back to the Inn. One man notices the injured man’s jacket is bulging in the back, like somethings underneath, but then he’s distracted and thinks of it no more .

What piggybacks the fireman is now a guest in the Inn. It’s cunning, malicious and hungry. Always hungry. And it gets a devilish delight in terrorizing its prey.

Hell has come to Yellowstone and it’s just getting started.

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GbDBOKgYzts]

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Creature stories are my favorite reads. Whether they’re on land, under the sea, or on another planet doesn’t matter. As long as there’s carnage and terror I’m happy.

I know, “I ain’t right.” Can’t help it.

Faithful Shadow has all the carnage you could ever want, and once it starts it doesn’t stop.

I could take or leave the young group of friends. I found most of them shallow and self-centered. Probably a good thing I didn’t warm to them, as many meet bloody ends.

Joseph, the park ranger, has a huge drinking problem and a lot of baggage. It took a while, but I started to get him and was really pulling for him by the end.

There are a couple other characters I really liked, you’ll know who I’m talking about when you read the book. They added depth with their own stories.

Now, the creature! It’s something else. I kept trying to picture what it looked like and never really got an image in my mind. Maybe it was too dark:) Anyway, I shopped around and this is kind of what it looks like in my mind.

spooky forest photo: Spooky Green Forest SpookyForest.jpg

Do you see it? Oh, well I guess it’s too dark. But it’s in there, looking right back at you, edging closer. Can you hear it?

If a story makes me rub my hands together, chuckling with evil delight, it gets 5 Stars!

       

Congratulations Kevin. Your debut novel gave me shivers!  I’m first in line for your next one.

And now for the giveaway.

Kevin is giving away 5 e-books of Faithful Shadow.

To enter, please leave your email address and answer this question, “If you’re cornered by the creature would you faint, fight, or run?”

Contest ends December 15th. Good luck everyone.

About the author

Kevin Howard lives with his family in Washington.  He worked in Yellowstone National Park for the summer season as part of a family tradition.  Kevin, his wife Melissa, and his two young children enjoy spending summers there. 

Contacts

Facebook

Goodreads

Website

http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/faithful-shadow-kevin-howard/1112436638?ean=9781432794354

Faithful Shadow will be offered for $0.99 from now until Christmas for the
Holiday Season. A great price to celebrate the holidays and the coming release
of my second novel, Precipice: The Beginning. Voted the Scariest Author of 2012
by Outskirts Press for Faithful Shadow.

Click on the cover image below to purchase.

Comments
  1. Love the premise of the book Laura! You always pick such good books to showcase!!! LOVE IT! Emily

  2. Sounds interesting! Count me in on this contest…
    If I’m cornered, I’m pretty sure I’d faint. Also, maybe, pee my pants.
    🙂

  3. Sherry says:

    Hopefully I would have enough sense to run, but you never know how you will react in a situation like that. Don’t think fighting is a good option, unless you are well armed. lol I am currently reading the book, so I don’t need to be entered in the giveaway.

    Awesome review.

  4. Now this sounds like my cup of Green tea! Unfortunately, I haven’t become used to reading ebooks yet, so no need to enter the contest, but congratulations Kevin!

    • fuonlyknew says:

      Not reading e-books? I understand. I resisted for a long time until I knew it was meant to be. How else could I get all of these great books. I still prefer print any day of the week. Love the smell, feel and sound of pages turning. Nothing like pulling a worn, softened book off the shelf and settling in with an old friend:)

  5. anthrofashion says:

    I’d drive over it with my motoriced wheelchair.

  6. I think I would fight a creature off. I have read and watched enough movies and cartoons to at least try.

  7. Ann Roberts says:

    I always try to run FIRST, but then I turn and fight! I’m a scrappy little thing! I really hope I wouldn’t just faint–who wants their last thought in life to be “What the HELL!” Although, I guess it’s better than “Oh, the pain, the pain!”

    Ann
    Kyreadinggirl@yahoo.com

    • fuonlyknew says:

      My martial arts instructor told me always run first. If that doesn’t work look for anything you can use as a weapon and then go all in!
      I’d hate to faint and wake up to the being eaten!

  8. stuffsmart says:

    I’m the first one to say I am not at all a runner but in this case running would definitely be my choice! 😀

  9. I’d definitely run… and hope I was faster than whoever I was with 😉 THEN I’d probably faint! 😉

  10. Ash. says:

    being cornered i doubt it’ll be easy to run and im a slow runner so i’d prob fight.

  11. Betryal Bren says:

    Confronted by something scary? I’d fight like a demon :snickering:

  12. […] That’s Not My Shadow (fuonlyknew.com) […]

  13. bn100 says:

    I’d run.

    bn100candg(at)hotmail(dot)com

  14. Michael says:

    I’d definitely run!

  15. April says:

    I would fight! Thanks for the giveaway!
    aprilnu2003@yahoo.com

  16. Arielle says:

    I’d probably try to run but end up tripping and knocking myself out so I’m going to say faint! Lol! Dutchess7200@gmail.com

  17. Pamela Hunt says:

    Well Kevin, this is after your special drawing but I thought I’d answer anyway. I’ d like to hope I’m with someone who I could outrun otherwise I would have to fight.
    I was able to see the copy that Matthew got for Christmas, so I was very pleased to find out you became an author. If you haven’t figured out yet this is his mom, where you, Justin, Mike and Matthew spent time at our house in Mission Viejo.
    Congratulations, and I look forward to reading your books. They are my favorite genre.

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