Archive for the ‘Mytery/Thriller’ Category

Dead Lawyers Don’t Lie
Jake Wolfe Book 1
by Mark Nolan
Genre: Thriller, Crime Mystery
 
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A mysterious killer who calls himself The Artist is assassinating
wealthy lawyers in San Francisco. When war veteran Jake Wolfe
accidentally takes his picture during a murder, The Artist adds Jake
to his kill list and he becomes a target in a deadly game of cat and
mouse that only one of them can survive. How far would you go to
protect your loved ones from a killer? Jake wants to leave his top
secret, violent past life behind him. But the reluctant, flawed hero
can’t ignore his duty and his personal moral compass.
This gripping thriller is full of suspense, plot twists and surprises. It
features a cast of interesting characters, including several
strong-willed women, two wise-cracking San Francisco Police Homicide
Inspectors, one highly intelligent dog, and a philosophical killer
who shares Jake’s admiration for Van Gogh paintings but still plans
to kill him anyway. As Jake gets closer to unraveling a merciless
conspiracy, his life gets turned upside down and the danger level
increases, adding to the growing suspense. This entertaining
page-turner starts out as a murder mystery and then shifts gears into
a high-speed action thriller that takes you on a roller-coaster ride
to the riveting ending. A good read for those who enjoy mysteries,
suspense, action and adventure, vigilante justice, unique characters,
witty dialogue and a little romance too. Now on sale in over a dozen
countries around the world. Be the first among your friends to read
it.
 
 
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Mark Nolan began his writing career as a successful entrepreneur who
created news stories for businesses that were featured in The Wall
Street Journal, National Geographic, Parade, Reader’s Digest and The
Associated Press. Nolan was born in San Francisco, grew up in the Bay
Area of California, and has also lived in the Pacific Northwest and
Hawaii. He has raised two great kids and one very smart retriever
dog. Right now he’s busy writing the next book about Jake and Cody
(Book 2), but he also tries to make time every day to answer emails
from readers. You can reach him at marknolan.com/contact

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For a list of my reviews go HERE.

For a list of free eBooks updated daily go HERE

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Welcome to My Monday Minis where I share short reviews about books I’ve read.

For today I’ve got two books about sisters and cousins. Both of these were much anticipated and didn’t disappoint.

Beautiful Broken Girls

by Kim Savage

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Genre: YA Mystery

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My Review

Mira and her sister, Francesca, never stood a chance. Everyone watches them. Wants to touch them. Wants something from them. That they end up drowned in the quarry, apparently having both committed suicide is such a tragedy. As Ben, the only one who got close to Mira, follows notes left behind by Mira, you too will find out just how tragic their suicide was.

The hardest part about reading this book wasn’t knowing the ending from the start. It was wanting to change it. To save these two sisters. So lost. So….broken. They reached out to me from the pages and I felt so sad for them. As I learned more about their lives, I couldn’t see it ending any other way though.

The writing is compelling. The plot is an intriguing journey you share with the characters. And the ending is surprising and satisfying at the same time.

4 Stars

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Synopsis

Remember the places you touched me.

The parts of Mira Cillo that Ben touched are etched on his soul.

Palm. Hair. Chest. Cheek. Lips. Throat. Heart.

It was the last one that broke her. After her death, Mira sends Ben on a quest for notes she left in the seven places where they touched—notes that explain why she and her sister, Francesca, drowned themselves in the quarry. How Ben interprets those notes has everything to do with the way he was touched by a bad coach years before. But the truth behind the girls’ suicides is far more complicated, involving a dangerous infatuation, a deadly miracle, and a crushing lie.

Amazon

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The Roanoke Girls

by Amy Engel

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Genre: Mystery / Thriller

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My Review

This is a convoluted mystery with dark undertones. Talk about a dysfunctional family. Lane had good reason to run far, far away from her grandparents house, Roanoke. Now, years later she must return to discover what happened to her missing cousin, Allegra. Memories return along with fear and anger. Lane is in danger of losing herself  as much as her life.

The whole time I was reading this it felt gothic. It’s not though. I believe it was what was occurring at Roanoke that made it feel that way to me. As I learned the dark history of these people, I squirmed. It wasn’t pretty.

Lane was my hero. When it looked like she might get lost in the past, she shook herself off and took care of business. I had all kinds of feels for her situation.

Where the author’s story really shines is with her characters. They’re authentic. You don’t have to like them. In fact, some you’ll loathe. But they’re well fleshed out and their stories will suck you in.

Looking for something to get lost in for a few hours? Grab this one. You’ll not want to stop once you start

4 Stars

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Synopsis

Roanoke girls never last long around here. In the end, we either run or we die.

After her mother’s suicide, fifteen year-old Lane Roanoke came to live with her grandparents and fireball cousin, Allegra, on their vast estate in rural Kansas. Lane knew little of her mother’s mysterious family, but she quickly embraced life as one of the rich and beautiful Roanoke girls. But when she discovered the dark truth at the heart of the family, she ran fast and far away.

Eleven years later, Lane is adrift in Los Angeles when her grandfather calls to tell her Allegra has gone missing. Did she run too? Or something worse? Unable to resist his pleas, Lane returns to help search, and to ease her guilt at having left Allegra behind. Her homecoming may mean a second chance with the boyfriend whose heart she broke that long ago summer. But it also means facing the devastating secret that made her flee, one she may not be strong enough to run from again.

As it weaves between Lane’s first Roanoke summer and her return, The Roanoke Girls shocks and tantalizes, twisting its way through revelation after mesmerizing revelation, exploring the secrets families keep and the fierce and terrible love that both binds them together and rips them apart.

Amazon

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For a list of my reviews go HERE.

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Murder by Munchausen
by M.T. Bass
Series: Murder by Munchausen Mysteries, #1
Genre: Mystery, Thriller & Suspense, Sci-Fi, TechnoThriller
Publisher:  Electron Alley Publications
Release Date: April 2, 2017

 

 

Artificial Intelligence? Fuhgeddaboudit!

Artificial Evil has a name…Munchausen.

When androids are reprogrammed into hit men, detectives of the Artificial Crimes Unit repo the AnSub and track down the hackers. Partners Jake and EC’s case of an “extra-judicial” divorce settlement takes a nasty turn with DNA from a hundred-year-old murder in Boston and a signature that harkens back to the very first serial killer ever in London.

 

The abandoned building in the Warehouse District was dark and cold. I didn’t have glass on the AnSub, but we were picking up an RFI signature that was an eighty percent match to the A-VIN profile. My Smith & Wesson eM&P was out and humming in my hand, ready for me to take a shot. Behind us the SWAT team was spreading out into position to monitor our visual feed from outside so they wouldn’t jam the ambient signals with their tac gear. We went passive on our glass as soon as we entered the building.

I looked over at EC, my partner, pressed against the far wall covering the left side of the industrial cavern, which was piled high with discarded junk—desks, chairs, pallets of boxed materials and strange hulking machines that no doubt once fabricated some kind of pieces-parts necessary for the stuff consumers once found they absolutely-positively could not live without in their daily drone lives—all collected from businesses that absolutely-positively no longer existed. The quiet was oppressive and haunting. We both strained for an aural clue to the location of our quarry, since the electronic intel was still too weak to pinpoint within the building.

We slowly wove around the junk, deeper and deeper into the room. I led. EC followed, constantly adjusting the ePD scanning app to search and map the room. I muted the tactical channels and stripped most of the data from my view to let him work the tech and comm. It’s too distracting. I needed to maintain focus. I needed to be able to react.

This particular Android Subject apparently went off the rails and killed a luckless pedestrian on his way to a bodega for some iced tea or bottled water to quench his thirst. A one-in-a-million occurrence, but every so often it still happens. Anyone who believes technology is infallible is a fool. The incident didn’t appear all that nefarious when first reported, but shortly thereafter the Atlas data stream went dark and patrol called our unit in. It quickly became obvious we were dealing with a malware hit, not a malfunction. The luckless pedestrian was actually not so luckless, being on what appeared to be the winning side of a particularly nasty termination suit with his ex, who we suspected had outsourced the final settlement to extra-judicial parties.

It might not make sense, but the beloved Media tags it “Murder by Munchausen.” For a price, there are hackers out there who will reprogram a synthoid to do your dirty work. The bad news: no fingerprints or DNA left at the crime scene. The good news—at least for us—is that they’re like missiles: once they hit their target, they’re usually as harmless as empty brass. The trick is to get them before they melt down their core OS data, so you can get the unit into forensics for analysis and, hopefully, an arrest.

EC’s scanner returned a hard ping. His quick double blink put his cross-hairs up on my lens and I followed his eye line to the northwest corner of the building. I swept my eyes up and down to acknowledge and we slowly headed in that direction. As we moved, the RF signal narrowed and confirmed bogey lock with a low growl in my ear buds. EC swung out from the left and unshouldered his shotgun. Good old-fashioned blast power often came in handy to buy some time. Like I said, usually they’re harmless, but usually just ain’t good enough odds for me…

 

Amazon ~ Barnes & Noble (Paperback)

 

 

M.T. Bass is a scribbler of fiction who holds fast to the notion that while victors may get to write history, novelists get to write/right reality. He lives, writes, flies and makes music in Mudcat Falls, USA.

M.T.’s April Writing Meme:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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For a list of my reviews go HERE.

For a list of free eBooks updated daily go HERE

To see all of my giveaways go HERE

Welcome to My Monday Minis Reviews where I share short reviews of books I’ve read. For today I’ll be sharing my thoughts about the audible book A Human Element, the first book in Donna Galanti’s Element Trilogy. I read the eBook and was excited to listen to it too. I know this is supposed to be a short review but I got carried away.

A Human Element

The Element Trilogy #1

by Donna Galanti

Narrated by Chase Bradley

A Human Element Audiobook

Genre: Mystery / Thriller

Format: Audible

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My Review

Ben is hiding from his parents on the shore of Coopersville Lake when it happens.
A meteorite crashes into a group of cabins, one of which contains his parents, and all that remains is a huge crater of steam and fire. In one bright green flash, Ben’s life is forever changed, and for another, it has just begun.

No one could know the long-reaching consequences of that fatal night.

Some months  later.

A young girl struggles to bring her child into the world. She came to the doctor in secret.

The doctor doesn’t know why the mysterious man waiting outside wants the baby, he just cares about getting paid.

In a rush, the baby enters the world. Sadly, the young mother does not survive. But wait, there is another baby fighting to be born, a beautiful baby girl.

An exchange is made, but the doctor doesn’t mention the baby girl, he will give her to the Armstrongs to raise.

This is an especially dramatic scene in the audible book. I read it and got a good feel for it in the eBook, but listening to it makes it much more chilling.

Many years later, that baby girl, Laura, is all grown up and back home trying to find out why the people closest to her are being slaughtered. The answers lie here. She has always had the headaches and nightmares and she knows everything is coming together – the monster chasing her in her nightmares, the mysterious man in black who has always been on the periphery of her life, and whatever happened the night of the meteorite crash. It’s all connected.

This part of the story is also very powerful when narrated. I was anxious even though I knew what was going to happen.

Laura and Ben are thrown together as death races towards them. They need answers about that fatal night if they’re to survive what is coming.

Two babies were born that night, Laura and the boy child called X-10. One looked human in every way and the other looked like a monster.

From the first page to the bittersweet end, I was completely immersed in this book. A story of love, humanity, and absolute evil. And now, listening to the audible, I’m even more full of feels for this series.

Donna Galanti’s debut novel has an energy, an essence, that gives it life.
With a superb plot and a thrilling all- out race to the end, A Human Element is excellent.

5 Stars

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Narrator Chase Bradley

I enjoyed this audible edition as much as reading the book. Chase Bradley did a great job, his enunciation is strong and he’s keeps the story always moving forward. Donna made a wise choice using him to tell her story and I’ll be keeping an eye out for more books read by him.

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Synopsis

Evil comes in many forms…

One by one, Laura Armstrong’s friends and adoptive family members are being murdered, and despite her unique healing powers, she can do nothing to stop it. The savage killer haunts her dreams, tormenting her with the promise that she is next.

Determined to find the killer, she follows her visions to the site of a crashed meteorite in her hometown. There, she meets Ben Fieldstone, who seeks answers about his parents’ death the night the meteorite struck. In a race to stop a madman, they unravel a frightening secret that binds them together.

But the killer’s desire to destroy Laura face-to-face leads to a showdown that puts Laura and Ben’s emotional relationship and Laura’s pure spirit to the test. With the killer closing in, Laura discovers her destiny is linked to his, and she has two choices-redeem him or kill him.

AMAZON

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The Empty Room
by Sarah J Clemens
Genre: Psychological Suspense, Thriller, Mystery
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Rain soaked and dreary, it was a 1901 abandoned Victorian that newlyweds

Dean and Elizabeth Montgomery hoped would fulfill their dreams of a

new start in life, even if the town of Eastbrook, Maine was nestled

under a constant blanket of fog.

The first neighbor the couple meets dashes those hopes when he raises a

bizarre question: what happened to the last person who lived in their

house? A cryptic question, but nothing to worry about. At least not

until the couple looked under the floorboards inside the house.

Under mounting pressure from the residents of Eastbrook to stop questioning

the past, Dean and Elizabeth are driven deeper into the history of

the house, the town, and their neighbors. When the couple discovers

what happened in Eastbrook, keeping the secret could save their

lives, but uncovering the truth might be worth the risk.

What happened inside The Empty Room is a mystery until the last page. A

gripping psychological suspense, the story takes readers on a

cat-and-mouse game where some secrets are better off hidden.

 

Sarah J. Clemens is the author of the debut mystery novel, The Empty Room.

She started writing The Empty Room in 2008 and formed her own imprint

in 2016 called Off the Page Publishing.

She started out her professional career working as a news assistant for

her local newspaper before finding a passion for the law and pursued

an education in criminal justice. In addition to writing fiction, she

is also a legal assistant with an Associate of Arts and a Bachelor of

Science in Criminal Justice with an emphasis in Human Services.

Sarah was born in California and now lives and works in Boise, Idaho. She

has the same sarcastic sense of humor as the characters in her books,

and she has an unparalleled love for animals.

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Click on the rafflecopter link above for a chance to win a $10 Amazon Gift Card.
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Welcome to The Friday 56 hosted by Freda’s Voice.

 

This is a really fun meme!

The only rules are to grab a book (any book), turn to page 56 or 56% in your eReader and find a sentence or a few (no spoilers) that grabs you and post it.

Then go over to Freda’s Voice and leave your link so we can visit your 56!

My 56 for this week is from:

 Relentless

An Elisabeth Reinhardt Novel

by Nancy J Alexander

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Genre: Mystery / Thriller

 My 56 from the paperback is actually from page 57 as page 56 was blank.

“I have horrible flashbacks about things I don’t remember, but I know they are real. And I can’t shake the feeling that I’m in danger.”

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Read on if you want to know more.

Synopsis

The little girl lay under the hay stack scarcely breathing. Sweat poured down her face and dripped into her eyes; her heart pounded through her thin chest. Tiny flecks of hay clung to her wet skin, making her itch. She squeezed her nose tightly afraid she’d sneeze. Eyes clamped shut, she lay there. Flies buzzed around her, crawling on her. She didn’t move. She didn’t know how long she’d been there in the loft. She didn’t care how long she stayed. She couldn’t move. Not yet.” Nearly a lifetime after a childhood filled with misery and abuse, Gina, now a successful doctor, finds herself thrown back into a terrifying world where her nightmares become far more than just a dream. With the help of an unconventional therapist with secrets of her own, the hunt is on and Gina fights for her life in this harrowing tale of cat and mouse.

AMAZON

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Leave your link and I’ll drop by your 56.

Thanks so much for visiting fuonlyknew!

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The Pits
Kramer and Shadow Book 1
by Greg Smith
Genre: Crime Mystery, Action, Thriller

THE PITS, a contemporary crime novel, tells the story of Captain Kramer,

USMC, a compassionate, intelligent man, who rescues a pup from the

scene of a car bombing while on deployment to Afghanistan. The pup is

named Shadow, and accompanies Kramer back to Oceanside, California.

They commit themselves to a campaign which has them fighting for

their lives during an FBI operation to bring down a crime boss based

in Florida.

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You Can Run
Kramer and Shadow Book 2

Captain Kramer, USMC, and his faithful four-footer partner, Sgt. Shadow,

USMC, both survive their first operation assisting the FBI in

bringing down the empire of a major crime boss in America. But more

is in store for the two Marines in yet another FBI operation to tie

up loose ends from the previous op. This time the action is more

intense and proves too costly for the Marines.

Lex Talionis

(An Eye For an Eye)

Kramer and Shadow Book 3

A woman out for revenge. America took her husband. America will pay

10,000 fold!

Only Kramer and his Anatolian Shepherd, Shadow, stand in her way. But

will they be enough to stop her?

The advent of retirement opened a whole new world to me and now that it

has come to pass, I am turning my artistic bent from graphic design

and illustration to that of writing.

To date I have published three books, KILLING SOFTLY (an erotic mystery

thriller), and begun an action crime series centered on two

characters, Captain Kramer, USMC and his Anatolian Shepherd dog, Sgt.

Shadow, USMC. Book One of the series is THE PITS, Book Two is YOU CAN

RUN, and at the time of this bibliography rewrite, I am working on

Book Three, LEX TALIONIS.

The Kramer and Shadow series is an action, adventure, crime thriller

series that encompasses the world and has our two Marines fighting

hard against organized crime at many levels – but always involving

do-or-die confrontations.

My hope is to establish a fan base for my writing so that my readers can

have an active role in helping me grow and develop as an author in

the years to come. I invite you to join me in this adventure.

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Welcome to My Monday Minis Reviews where I share short reviews of books I’ve read. For today I’ll be sharing two books with the same titles but different authors and story lines.

Ink and Bone

by Lisa Unger

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Genre: Mystery / Thriller / Horror

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My Review

After reading the synopsis for this book, no way was I not reading it.

A father and son shot, left wounded in the Hollows while the daughter, Abbey, is dragged away by her abductor.

A young woman, haunted by dreams and ghosts, paints her body with tattoos, slowly losing control of her gifts.

The Hollows, buried in winter snow, not giving up it’s secrets.

A mother struggling to stay sane, makes a last desperate attempt to find her daughter.

I enjoy it when a story pulls me in right from the beginning and the author did just that. I lost track of things going on around me and kept reading …. kept reading, until I was done.

The character’s are strongly developed and drive the story, and the plot is busy and exhilarating, reminding me of a dangerous winding road. You race around each bend, never knowing what waits in the road to send the story out of control.

A real page turner for anyone looking for a thriller with some suspense and horror, plus a bit of the paranormal thrown in.

4 Stars

Synopsis

An instant page-turner (Lisa Gardner) that straddles the line between thriller and horror…sure to appeal to a wide range of readers, including Stephen King fans. (Booklist, starred) A young woman’s mysterious gift forces her into the middle of a dangerous investigation of a little girl’s disappearance.

Twenty-year-old Finley Montgomery is rarely alone. Visited by people whom others can’t see and haunted by prophetic dreams, she has never been able to control or understand the things that happen to her. When Finley’s abilities start to become too strong for her to handle – and even the roar of her motorcycle or another dazzling tattoo can’t drown out the voices – she turns to the only person she knows who can help her: her grandmother Eloise Montgomery, a renowned psychic living in The Hollows, New York.

Merri Gleason is a woman at the end of her tether after a ten-month-long search for her missing daughter, Abbey. With almost every hope exhausted, she resorts to hiring Jones Cooper, a detective who sometimes works with psychic Eloise Montgomery. Merri’s not a believer, but she’s just desperate enough to go down that road, praying that she’s not too late. Time, she knows, is running out.

As a harsh white winter moves into The Hollows, Finley and Eloise are drawn into the investigation, which proves to have much more at stake than even the fate of a missing girl. As Finley digs deeper into the town and its endless layers, she is forced to examine the past, even as she tries to look into the future. Only one thing is clear: The Hollows gets what it wants, no matter what.

Amazon

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Ink and Bone

by Rachel Caine

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Genre: YA Fantasy

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My Review

A book about the Great Library of Alexandria, and a fantasy to boot. I was sold and knew it would be a good fit for me.

Owning books is forbidden in this world. You can view and read books through the use of alchemy, but can’t actually own a book.

I don’t know about you but I love my physical books. I just know I’d break the rules and something terrible would happen. And so it goes with this story. Jess breaks the rules with his illegal cache of books. How interesting as he’s assigned to spy on those who break those very rules. When something wondrous and potentially dangerous is created it could change the world. Chaos ensues and it’s not just books that will be burned.

Ooh, now how does that grab ya? Once I got familiar with this world I was quickly swept away. Lots of intrigue and suspense kept me enthralled right to the finale.

This is an exciting beginning to a promising fantasy series. I’ll be visiting it again.

4 Stars

Synopsis

In an exhilarating new series, “New York Times” bestselling author Rachel Caine rewrites history, creating a dangerous world where the Great Library of Alexandria has survived the test of time.
Ruthless and supremely powerful, the Great Library is now a presence in every major city, governing the flow of knowledge to the masses. Alchemy allows the Library to deliver the content of the greatest works of history instantly but the personal ownership of books is expressly forbidden.
Jess Brightwell believes in the value of the Library, but the majority of his knowledge comes from illegal books obtained by his family. Jess has been sent to be his family spy, but his loyalties are tested in the final months of his training to enter the Library s service.
When his friend inadvertently commits heresy by creating a device that could change the world, Jess discovers that those who control the Great Library believe knowledge is more valuable than any human life and soon both heretics and books will burn.”

Amazon

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For a list of my reviews go HERE.

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Today E.M. Fitch and Month9Books are revealing the cover and first chapter for OF THE TREES which releases February 28, 2017! Check out the gorgeous cover and enter to be one of the first readers to receive a eGalley!!

 

A quick note from the author:

Of The Trees is a story about friendship, but the idea came to me in a graveyard — a favorite little haunt of mine, actually. What that says about me? I’m sure you have your own ideas. I can tell you that I’m a girl who loves a good scare, adores Halloween, finds entertainment in all things spooky, and has developed a pretty wicked sense of questionable humor. My stories reflect this. My own hometown ghost legend is weaved into this novel; it’s a tale that intrigued me as a teen, and continues to call to me now. I wrote large portions of this book parked alongside the inspiring little cemetery, in fact.

Although friendships and haunted places are the forces that brought this story into being, what grew from there was a tale of creatures in the night; men whose features slip and twist; best friends who get ripped apart; and a heavy helping of some of my favorite Irish legends, the old tales of the Fae. A particular influence for Of The Trees is the poem, The Stolen Child by W.B. Yeats. For just that reason, a verse from this poem is the first thing you’ll see when you flip open the cover.

Of The Trees is for anyone who loves best friends who argue (but love each other anyway), dark tales, creatures who go bump in the night, and stories to make you question those little whispers of wind you hear from the forest. I so hope you’ll join me in exploring just who—or what—is watching from the woods.

On to the reveal!

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Title: OF THE TREES
Author: E.M. Fitch
Pub. Date: February 28, 2017
Publisher: Month9Books
Format: Paperback, eBook
Pages: 345
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Find it: Goodreads | Amazon | B&N | TBD
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Only she can hear the deadly whisper of the trees.

 

High school seniors, Cassie and Laney, spend their days on ghost hunts, Laney trying to pull Cassie into belief. Cassie tolerates it for her best friend, but she doesn’t really believe … until the carnival comes to town.

The men who work there watch the girls, disturbing Cassie with the intensity of their collective gaze. Laney becomes fascinated with the older men, a curiosity Cassie knows is dangerous.

It’s not just their age or the unnerving way they stare. There is something else, something in the shifting of their skin, the way their features seem to change fluid in the shadows, that screams danger.

Cassie tries to ignore the uneasy feeling that something bad is about to happen, convinced that once the carnival leaves, life will return to normal.

But it doesn’t.

People start dying and bloody warnings appear around town.

Soon, Cassie enters into a nightmare where the trees whisper “join us” and strange, seemingly familiar, shape-shifting men haunt the backwoods of her small, isolated town.

The police don’t believe Cassie and no one else admits to hearing the whispers of the forest. No one, except Laney.

When Laney goes missing, Cassie knows it’s the men of the forest who have taken her. She knows that she’s the only one who can help bring her friend back. But the creatures that taunt and hiss through the trees aren’t ready to give Laney up just yet.

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Excerpt

Chapter OneThe deeper into the woods Cassie went, the more her best friend resembled a fairy-tale creature. Laney walked in front of her, the backpack she wore bulged out in the limited moonlight, and she looked, for the moment, like the grotesque silhouette of a skinny hunchback, her long hair swinging dark and loose past her shoulders. The friends shifted together through the trees, knowing the destination by heart.

The woods came alive at night. The lack of light drew things out, or perhaps it was only that the blackness accentuated the sounds. Claws scraped the dirt. Dry leaves flipped over. The mating calls of crickets and tree frogs echoed and pinged through the trees. Wings rustled through the air, followed by the inevitable swoop of a low flying creature. All barely noticeable in the day time, they screamed at night.

Nervous flutters took residence in Cassie’s gut. It was probably the darkness—the shadows—that hid the sources of the sounds. It made the animals braver, less apt to be seen, less prone to being caught. Bolder. The noises surrounded her, and it was possible that the feeling of being enclosed was what set her nerves on edge. She had walked through these woods at night before though. Tonight something else was bothering her, something undefinable.

The moon hung above the tree line, only half full. The luminescence struggled to push its way through the leaves that still clung to the trees, stamping wavering patches of silver on the forest floor. The moonlight was just enough, dim as it was, to allow Cassie to see the rocks and bramble, avoid the prickers, and step over the low hanging branches.

The girls’ intrusion into this place—the world of owls and bats and night creatures—was commonplace by now. The path they traveled had been stomped through so many times that the ferns stopped trying to grow back. A bare line through the trees, recognizable only to them, stretched from Cassie’s backyard to their destination.

Still, Cassie hated coming at night.

But, it was Laney’s birthday, September the fifth. She turned seventeen, and she had insisted.

“She only comes at night! I’m sure of it,” Laney had whined, begging her friend to come with her.

“Because a ghost cares if it’s day or night?” Cassie had shot back.

“You know why!” Laney said with a little stomp of her foot that got Cassie to sigh in resignation.

She did know why. Not that she believed any of it, of course. But she knew Laney’s version, the one she had researched and convinced herself was real.

It was over two hundred years ago that Lizzy Palmer went looking for her husband in a snowstorm. Legend said that Harold had been in town getting supplies when his wife was overcome with an awful, persistent feeling that he may never return. Crazed, she went out into the storm to look for him. Lizzy never found Harold; instead, she got caught in the blizzard, sucked into one of the boggy marshes that surrounded her home and the nearby cemetery. She had been pulled under the freezing, murky water, her screams muffled by the storm.

Some versions of the story had Harold finding her in time. People said he just stood there, watching his wife sink below the swampy muck, watching as her mouth was filled with mud and cold water. Some say that’s why she came back—to haunt him into insanity. Others say they have seen his ghostly lantern light, still out searching for the body of his lost wife.

Not that Cassie thought they would see anything. She and Laney hadn’t last week, nor the week before that. The girls had spent most of their summer sitting in the cemetery. Even after school started, Laney still hadn’t let it go. She was obsessed with the place—Gray Lady Cemetery. It had a real name, something registered in the town. Laney knew what it was, but everyone in school called it Gray Lady Cemetery because Lizzy Palmer, the Gray Lady, haunted it. She floated through, past her grave, in a blur of deathly gray. Supposedly.

Though on a night like tonight, the air hung with moisture, maybe Cassie and Laney did have a good shot at seeing something. Whatever misty occurrence happened to convince people that a ghost was hanging around, maybe the conditions were right for it tonight.

Their path ended abruptly at a small stone wall. The woods were riddled with them, old property markers back before the entire area became protected. Most were crumbling and low to the ground, but this one was higher and in better condition. It formed a rough square, enclosing the graveyard. Three sides of it cut through the woods, but just to Cassie’s left, the stone wall butt up to a dirt road. The dirt of the road gleamed a cool silver, a ribbon winding its way through the night. She could see nothing else from that direction except a concentration of darkness—a hole of blackness punched through restless leaves. Cassie watched as Laney climbed over the wall, one foothold at a time, her backpack swaying.

The light was better in the small, square cemetery. A patch of sky, dark velvet with no stars, hung like a blank canvas above the swaying of the black trees that reached into it. The dry leaves rustled together on long limb branches. They fell in bursts as the wind rushed through, covering the top of the rock wall.

The grass in the cemetery was long and loose. It tickled the backs of Cassie’s knees. The town maintained the graveyard—at least occasionally. It wasn’t mowed; there were no neat rows of headstones or miniature flags poking from flower vases. There was only one intact headstone in the plot, the rest were crumbling limestone stubs, poking up through the dirt. Cassie stepped carefully, edging around the corners of pale stone that came tilting up through the earth. She knew from experience how easily those bits could catch her toes.

Cassie followed as Laney wove through the stones, knowing her route by heart. The grass that rose was beaten back by their sneakers. Laney dropped her bag and bent over it, pulling a dark blanket out. Silently handing two corners to Cassie, they stepped back from each other, spreading the blanket ten yards behind the Gray Lady’s headstone.

“It’s the perfect night for this,” Laney said, her voice low as she sat down on one corner of the blanket. Excitement tinged her words, and Cassie thought she would have squeaked if she had allowed herself enough volume. But she wouldn’t; she might scare the ghosts away. “The boys better get here soon.”

It was the first time the boys had been allowed to join them in the cemetery. Ryan Buckner and Jon Sutkowski had teased the girls about their secret for so long, always bugging Cassie and Laney to let them join. Laney had been hesitant, this secret obsession of hers too sacred to share with others. She had invited them when the girls had gone to check out the remnants of an old, abandoned jailhouse that someone had told them about. They all had to trudge through the woods to get to that one, too. The boys always came with them at Halloween when they’d hit every haunted house and corn maze they could find. The four of them had been friends for years, but not nearly as long as Cassie and Laney had been.

Laney Blake was the first friend Cassie ever had. They were neighbors, playmates from the time their mothers had brought them to story hours together, back when they couldn’t even spell their own names. They had countless rides on the bus, classes, sleepovers, and vacations together. Cassie and Laney were inseparable, and that was why Cassie was always asked to come along, begged to indulge the ghost chases and midnight hikes through the woods; Cassie couldn’t say no.

There had been a time when Cassie was just as obsessed as Laney was; when the goblins and elves and ghosts were all real for her, too. But it had been a long time since she really believed any of it.

Part of her felt that these cemetery trips were a last ditch effort, one last strong pull by Laney to tug Cassie back into belief. Laney had researched and read and pestered the local librarians about the story surrounding Gray Lady Cemetery. She was firm in her conviction that this legend—finally, this—was the real thing. Laney was convinced that all she had to do was pick the right date and the right time, and so Cassie had been dragged out to the cemetery, time and time again, told forcefully to keep her voice down and all lights off, and made to wait.

“What time did you tell them?” Laney asked, a bit of anxiety leaching into her voice.

“Before midnight,” Cassie answered. She pushed strands of her auburn hair from her face. Her fingers felt for the smooth case of her phone in her hoodie pocket. She hit the home button, lighting the screen, and was just able to glimpse the 11:42 on the screen before Laney slapped at her.

“No lights!”

Cassie rolled her eyes, though in the darkness, Laney couldn’t see. She shifted on the blanket, stretching her legs out in front of her and brushing away the stray grass strand that stuck to her calf.

“So, what’d it say?” Laney asked, her voice quiet again. Cassie laughed.

“I thought you didn’t want any lights.”

“Well, it was already on,” Laney argued, grinning as she knocked shoulders with Cassie. “So, what was it? It’s midnight already, isn’t it? They’re gonna mess this up.”

“No, they have fifteen minutes,” Cassie said. “I thought you were sure it would be at one thirty, though?”

“Oh,” Laney said, shrugging, “well, midnight or one thirty. There were conflicting articles. Someone thought midnight because that’s when Lizzy first left her house, another guy thought later because that’s when she would have been caught in the storm. I figured, why not both?”

Cassie hummed in response. She stifled a yawn and laid back on the blanket she shared with Laney, watching the dark sky. The ground was lumpy and uneven. Her body tilted toward her friend. Laney leaned back, her elbows bent to hold her torso up, her gaze fixed on the empty patch of grass surrounding the tombstone.

The air was heavy, saturated with the scents of wet grass and the pulp of crushed ferns. Crickets echoed across the space, trills of noise bouncing off the trees. Cassie twisted on the blanket and looked behind her, scanning the pale line of the dirt road as it vanished into the tunnel of darkness.

Ryan and Jon would be driving. Jon had snuck out with his dad’s car. The dirt road that stretched behind the graveyard was terrible, filled with potholes and rivets that had been formed by bad weather and low maintenance; the girls should be able to hear the car before they even saw the headlights. Cassie lay back again, shifting a bit to get off a rock that lodged itself under her spine.

It was strange, Cassie would note later, that the first change she registered was the stiffening of her friend’s spine, the jolting of Laney’s muscles as her shoulders locked, and the tightening of her neck. That is what first caught her attention, but it was the bobbing light in the tree line that drew her eye to the forest. Then her own muscles tightened as her lungs froze midbreath.

Laney jumped to her feet as Cassie skittered back, dragging the blanket beneath her until her fingers were digging into damp grass and dirt.

“What are you doing?” Cassie hissed as Laney took off toward the light. It was moving deeper into the woods.

“Get up! I’m not missing this!”

Cassie got to her feet. Laney was already halfway across the cemetery as Cassie rushed to reach her. The light was clearly moving, darting through the trees and bouncing up and down, as though someone was holding it. It wasn’t a flashlight, not a cell phone either. It was a soft, orange glow. Even from here, Cassie could see that it was encased; the source of the light protected by metal and glass.

“It’s not a ghost, Laney,” Cassie whispered, completely sure, “It’s not him, not Harold.”

“A lantern, Cass?” Laney whispered back, hiking an insistent line after the light. They were closing in now, less than a football field away. “Out here? At midnight? We have to check it out.”

“It could be a psycho, a mass murderer!” Cassie insisted, reaching out and tugging on Laney’s arm. “It probably is. We should wait for the boys, at least.”

Laney snorted, jerking her arm out of Cassie’s grasp. She darted ahead, Cassie at her heels. They clambered over the stone wall together. A row of ferns spread from the moss covered rocks into the tree line. Laney jogged through, leaving a trampled path in her wake. The fronds were heavy with moisture, caressing Cassie’s bare legs and leaving her shivering even in the unseasonable warmth.

“Laney, wait,” Cassie begged in a whisper, but her friend darted ahead, the trees swallowing her. She lunged a bit, hissing when a low branch caught and scratched up her shin. She swiped her hand over the scratch, and her fingers came away warm and wet, the tips shiny black in the diffuse moonlight, coated lightly with her blood.

She cursed softly, jogging through the trees and trying to follow the sound of her friend ahead. Laney wasn’t exactly stealthy, so it wasn’t difficult, but it was hard to see her. That, combined with the night sounds of the woods—the crickets and owls, the bats that flew low through the branches, the rustling in the dead leaves all around her—made her feel more alone than she cared to be at the edge of a cemetery, at night, following a likely madman further into the woods.

The lantern was close now, the glow soft and yet reaching, illuminating the trunks of the trees and the darkened hand that held it aloft. It should be enough, seeing the outline of the fingers that grasped the handle. Laney should know from that that it wasn’t a ghost. But she wasn’t running back to the cemetery.

“Please, Laney,” Cassie hissed, searching now past the trunks to see how far ahead her friend had gotten. She could still see the cemetery behind her, and she wasn’t eager to lose sight of it for once. The cemetery was a point of reference, a way to get back home. She knew her path, and she knew the road; navigating the rest of the woods at night was not something in which she could claim confidence. She paused, listening now for Laney’s crashing footsteps to indicate which direction she had gone, but it wasn’t her footsteps she heard.

It was moaning. And, it wasn’t Laney’s voice.

The sound was low pitched and horrible. The crickets swelled around it. It didn’t say anything, not at first, just squealed a deep note that reverberated through the trees before ending on a single word.

“Lizzy.”

No. Cassie froze in shock and horror. No, it couldn’t be.

The forest to her right seemed to tremble all at once, the ground stirring and the trees parting as a dark shadow flew toward her. Cassie screamed and stumbled back, her hands shooting up in front of her face. Dark arms clutched at her and dragged her into a solid chest as a voice whispered in her ear.

“Gotcha.”

She froze, not in fear this time.

“You ass!” she hissed, struggling away from the laughing boy in front of her. He let her go easily enough, though she shoved him anyway. He stumbled back into a tree but didn’t fall completely. A ripple of vindictive anger swirled through her at that.

“Cassie!” Laney’s voice shouted from far away. “What’s wrong? Are you okay?” There was some panic in her tone, which should have soothed Cassie a bit but it only angered her further.

“Fine!” Cassie gritted out, her voice carrying in the dark. “It was—”

Laney’s scream cut her off. It was quickly followed by a bout of cursing and a loud thump.

“Serves you right, Jon!” Cassie yelled, having no doubt that it was Ryan’s friend that was stalking about with the stupid lantern in the woods. Especially because it was Ryan still leaning into the tree and pinning her with a look that said he was only barely keeping himself from hysterical laughter at her expense, and only abstaining because he knew he’d get pushed again if he tried.

“You better not,” she said, pointing at him menacingly. He raised his hands in mock compliance, a snigger escaping anyway. Cassie stepped forward and thumped his chest, annoyed when he didn’t even flinch.

“Wow, poor sports!” Jon said, jogging up to them and ducking at the last minute under a branch. He was grinning like an idiot. “Just wanted to spice up the birthday girl’s night a bit and wham! She hits me with a tree branch!”

“You don’t look injured,” Cassie muttered.

“Yeah, well, tried to hit me, I should have said.”

“Stand still this time, and I won’t have a problem,” Laney griped, stomping up beside them. Jon laughed and dodged away, heading in a direct path toward the cemetery. “What time is it?”

Cassie pulled out her phone and lit the screen. Midnight. “Well, if she was going to come at midnight, we’ve scared her off.” Laney huffed and followed the path of crushed saplings and the distant laughter of Jon.

As soon as he broke into the square cemetery, Jon shifted his attention to his surroundings. He paused in front of the Gray Lady’s headstone and softened Laney by asking her questions about her favorite ghost. Laney gave in pretty easily, rolling her eyes, but joining him as he ran his fingers over the engraving. As she launched into the history, Ryan made himself comfortable on the blanket Laney brought, stretching out his lanky form and then shifting to the side when Cassie went to sit. He sat up straight when Cassie stretched her legs out.

“What’s this?” he asked, bending close to Cassie’s shin.

“Oh,” Cassie murmured, remembering. “I got scratched chasing Laney into the woods. It’s not bad.”

“I’ve got a first-aid kit in the car,” Ryan said, getting to his feet.

“It’s not a big deal,” Cassie called out, but Ryan was already jogging across the graveyard.

“Of course he does,” Jon muttered, flopping down on the blanket as Ryan leaped the stone wall.

“Well, yeah,” Laney agreed through a smirk, her tone low. She kicked Jon, and he moved over, making room for her on the blanket next to Cassie. “His girl Cassie might need it someday, so of course he’d have it.”

“Bring back the drinks!” Jon called out, laying back and lacing his hands behind his head. Cassie stiffened, looking toward Ryan to see if he heard their friend’s comments, but he only nodded before turning to be swallowed in the shadows of the empty street.

“You’re not funny,” Cassie muttered to her friends. Her neck felt hot, and she was grateful that in the moonlight no one would be able to tell. Jon sniggered but didn’t try to catch her eye. It was an old joke between the four of them. A joke Cassie hated. “It’s probably the one from his hiking pack. And lots of people keep first-aid kits in their cars. It’s basic safety stuff.”

“Sure,” Jon agreed, shrugging. “First aid, tire iron, flares, romantic picnic for two.”

“Spare engagement ring,” Laney added. Jon cracked up laughing, and Laney shushed him, elbowing his side.

“What’s so funny?” Ryan asked, jogging back up to the group. He handed a six pack of spiked lemonade to Jon. The hiss of a metal cap being twisted off cut through the still air of the cemetery.

“Nothing,” Cassie answered. “Ignore them.”

He shrugged and knelt down in front of her, opening a small white box. Cassie felt very warm. She wondered if Jon and Laney teased Ryan like they teased her. She hoped they didn’t. He’d take it as encouragement and Cassie didn’t want him to think she put their friends up to it.

“Here, scooch up a bit,” Ryan said, his warm fingers circling her ankle and tugging. She moved to the edge of the blanket, and he lay her leg flat on the soft, long grass. He let her go to break the seal on a small bottle. “It’ll probably sting a bit.”

Cassie hummed her acknowledgment, watching the dark shadow of his movements. He poured a capful of hydrogen peroxide on her shin, and she hissed as her cut fizzed white.

“Baby,” Laney whispered, nudging her.

“Shut up,” Cassie returned weakly. Ryan’s fingers were back on her skin, patting the area dry with a piece of gauze before pressing a Band-Aid over the scrape.

“All better,” he said through a grin, settling back at her side and lying flat on the blanket. Cassie thanked him, but stayed upright, leaning into Laney. She pulled her legs to her chest and sipped at the spiked lemonade Jon handed over, letting the lukewarm drink sizzle down her throat. It didn’t help the fluttering that had started in her stomach, but she knew from experience that not much would help that.

“How long were you guys out there?” Laney asked, her manner easing further with each sip of the lemonade.

“An hour, I guess,” Jon answered, the bottle swinging from his fingertips, his arms resting on his knees. “But see? We saved the alcohol for you guys.”

Cassie could feel the silent laughter shaking through Ryan. She turned to him, intending to glare, but hesitating at the sight of him. Ringed in moonlight, his color washed out and his features edged in silver, he seemed older, the lines of his face distinct and chiseled. He looked straight ahead, lines from laughter held back crinkling the corners of this eyes, his lip bit. The hair that fell just over his brow was shaking, outward evidence that he was ready to burst into laughter. Cassie felt a grin split her own lips, and she nudged him with her elbow. He caught her eye and lost it, laughing aloud.

“Oh, you are both so funny!” Laney said, turning to push Jon and reaching around Cassie to land a punch at Ryan. Cassie toppled, falling onto Ryan’s chest. He was shaking with laughter, and she raised her arm, intending to punch his shoulder but he reacted quickly, putting his bottle to the side and pulling her firmly into his chest. She squirmed, and then howled with laughter when he flipped her on the blanket, digging his fingers into her belly in a merciless tickle.

“No fair!” she shrieked, batting his hands away.

“I was taught to never hit a girl,” he retorted, still wiggling his fingers under her ribs. “This seemed like the fairest defense.”

“Oh fine, you win!” Cassie exclaimed, breathless.

“Say we’re hilarious!” Ryan taunted. Jon snorted as Laney muttered, “Get a room.”

“You are.” She breathed, giggling.

“Are what?”

“Freaking hilarious!” she huffed, squirming away from him. He let up with a smirk, sitting back and reaching for his bottle of lemonade. After Cassie had caught her breath and sat up, she found her own bottle had fallen, spilling the last of the beverage into the grass. She swiped Ryan’s away from him, daring him with a look to argue with her. He gave in with a grin, leaning back and staring through the canopy of trees to the dark sky.

“So how long do we wait this out?” Jon asked finishing his drink and putting the empty bottle back in the cardboard holder.

“If nothing shows by one thirty, we’re out of here,” Laney answered, staring past the gravestone.

“Have you ever seen anything out here?” Jon asked, twisting the cap off another bottle. Laney shook her head.

“I can’t find conclusive data for when exactly she died. There are lots of conflicting stories, so I’ve been trying out different dates and times.”

“And that will make the difference?” Ryan asked, gesturing for Jon to pass him another drink. “The exact time?”

Laney shrugged. She didn’t know. At this point, Cassie wished the stupid ghost would just show up already. She didn’t mind the occasional ghost hunt, haunted houses, or hayrides, but part of her wanted to go back to the way things used to be. She wanted to go to the movies and sleepover at Laney’s without having to make sure she brought her hiking boots and a flashlight. Laney had become so obsessed over this one legend that Cassie couldn’t be sure this wouldn’t continue into the winter. And as much as she loved her friend, trudging through the ice and snow just to freeze in a cemetery overnight might just be where Cassie would have to draw the line.

Ryan’s lemonade was warm as it slid down her throat. Her friends were pressed tight together on the blanket. Cassie was glad Laney invited the boys tonight. The summer had brought Cassie and Ryan indescribably closer. They had all been spending more and more time together, but Cassie and Ryan had been breaking off more often to spend time alone. That was something they had never done before. Over the years, the buffer of other people had always been there. It was nice, spending time alone. He had been planning for ages to hike the Appalachian Trail. It cut through part of their town before continuing both north and south in a trail that covered over two thousand miles. This summer he had started tackling it in pieces, every part of it they could drive to, and Cassie had joined him. Without the distractions of the others, Cassie could see just how much she and Ryan had in common, how well they got along. They fit together so nicely, had a similar sense of humor, and loved horror films.

Laney had been teasing her over how close they had gotten. Even Jon coughed up the occasional suggestive remark, but Ryan either seemed not to notice or was not affected by it. Cassie didn’t know what to make of that. He wasn’t asking her out. That she did know.

The night wore on nicely, though. Cassie was warm, pressed to Ryan’s side. He had finished his second drink and then laid back, stretching his arm out, and smiling at her in invitation. She lay back on his outstretched arm, using the crook of his shoulder as a pillow. He squeezed her slightly and then let his hand fall innocently to her side. They listened quietly as Jon and Laney played seven degrees of separation with their classmates.

“Jim Stevens is cousin to May what’s-her-name—”

“Cheater! You need their full names or it doesn’t count.”

“Struthers,” Ryan interjected, and Jon smirked.

“May Struthers! Who went out with Bill Wainsworth—”

“Isn’t that her cousin, too?” Cassie asked, and she could feel Ryan shake with laughter underneath her cheek.

“Eugh, I hope not,” Laney said. “I saw them making out in the stairwell that one time.”

They all groaned and laughed, Jon finally stuttering his way to connecting Jim Stevens with Laney herself. It continued until Laney connected Cassie with Ryan, which included mention of a brief and awkward romance with Jon in seventh grade.

“Seventh grade is the year that never counted!” Cassie said, her face heating whenever Laney brought up that brief part of her history.

“Oh, nice,” Jon said. “So going out with me equals erasing an entire year from existence?”

The relationship in question had lasted exactly one week and included two pecks on the cheek and five separate handholding episodes. “No, really,” he continued, pressing now. “How much time do we erase for Jeff?”

Cassie felt her blush flood her face, and she gritted her teeth, sitting up. “At least a year for him, too,” she said with a shrug. Her first real boyfriend had only met her friends a handful of times, the whole thing collapsing after a month.

“Well, at least you rate as high as Jeff,” Laney said with a conciliatory pat on Jon’s knee.

“I feel better then,” he said with a grin. “Makes me wonder about your recent dry spell though, Cass. Afraid of losing any more time, huh?”

“You two worry about your own love lives!” Cassie exclaimed, lying back down on the blanket. Ryan had been quiet through the teasing, but she was glad to find his arm waiting for her. She pressed close to him; it helped with the embarrassment to have somewhere safe to hide.

“I’m not worried,” Jon answered breezily. “Samantha Collins is in love with me.”

Laney snorted. “Right, because she’s ever even spoken to you?”

“It’s all changing this year. We have art together. I predict we’ll be together by the end of homecoming.”

“You have lofty goals, my friend,” Ryan said, laughing.

“I don’t need a love life,” Laney said, sitting up straight. “I’m gonna find a ghost by the end of this year, so help me.”

“How romantic,” Cassie quipped.

“Look who’s talking! What are your plans for this weekend? Babysitting? You wait until you’re chopped up and murdered because you spent all your free nights babysitting,” Laney exclaimed, firing back at Cassie.

“You know that just because I babysit doesn’t mean that some psycho will try to murder me. That’s really just in the movies. You know that, don’t you?”

“I know that all urban legends have to start somewhere,” Laney retorted. “Do you really think that out of all the mental hospitals in all the country, there’s never been an escapee?”

“Are you trying to tell us the movie Halloween is based off a true story?” Ryan teased.

“No, but Texas Chainsaw was,” Laney retorted.

“Loosely,” Ryan said, catching Cassie’s eye and shaking his head. It was hard to see much of anything, but Cassie’s eyes had adjusted well by now, and she could make out the quirk in Ryan’s smile. She grinned back before hiding her smile against his chest.

“Did you know that they’ve dug up coffins with scratches on the inside? People were buried alive and then woke up down there. That’s why it’s called a wake when someone kicks it. It’s to see if the person actually wakes up.”

“You are seriously creepy,” Cassie said.

“Which is, of course, why we love you,” Jon added with a yawn. “You almost ready to give up on the Gray Lady?”

“Oh, I guess,” Laney answered through a sigh. She pulled out her own phone and checked the time. “Stupid ghost.”

“Doesn’t she know it’s your birthday?” Jon asked. Ryan hopped to his feet and offered a hand to Cassie. She took it, and he hauled her up to stand.

“Thanks for those,” Cassie motioned to the empty bottles. Ryan shrugged.

“You guys are driving us home, right?” Laney asked, stuffing her blanket into her backpack and hauling it over her shoulder. They agreed, of course, and as a group, they climbed over the low stone wall that separated the graveyard from the road.

“Hey, wait,” Cassie called out, the last to stumble over the rocks. She had almost tripped, the toe of her shoe catching between two stones, and when she looked down, out of the corner of her eye, she saw it.

Light.

“You forgot your lantern.”

It was strange, though. It hung, not on the ground but as though Jon had hooked it on a low branch. Cassie stared into the woods, squinting into the darkness. The soft orange glow seemed to suck the rest of the light out of the air, as though from the very moon itself. The trees were black voids in the dusky night. The lantern bobbed softly, though the wind had died—or at least the wind felt still where Cassie was standing. Somewhere the wind must have been pushing through the trees because a noise, low like
a whisper, hissed from the forest. The sound was indecipherable. If Cassie didn’t know better, she would have sworn it spoke to her.

Go now. Go.

“I have it here,” Jon answered, and Cassie whipped her head around to look at him. There was a click, and he swung the glass-encased light up. She winced away from the glare.

When she looked back, the orange glow was gone.

“We should go now,” Laney said, her voice soft.

***

What was strange was that it wasn’t the glow she’d remember. Not the light or the way it seemed to bob in the non-existent wind, not even the distant breeze that mimicked a whisper. It was the feeling that would plague her. Something indescribable. The way the wind seemed to die down around them and yet whipped through the trees, the way the leaves flipped over on themselves, something in the quality of the darkness that shifted and thickened. It floated around them, around her, like a cloak, heavy and oppressive. If the others noticed, they never said.

.

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About E.M Fitch

E.M. Fitch is an author who loves scary stories, chocolate, and tall trees. When not dreaming up new ways to torture characters, she is usually corralling her four children or thinking of ways to tire them out so she can get an hour of peace at night. She lives in Connecticut, surrounded by chaos, which she manages (somewhat successfully) with her husband, Marc.

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THE TREES, International.

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I Was Murdered Last Night 

Olivia Brown Mystery Book 1
By A.J. Gallant 

Genre: Paranormal, Mystery, Crime, Thriller

 

Murder mystery meets the paranormal.

Anita’s vacation in New York City ends tragically when she’s killed in Central Park, but instead of the end, it’s only the beginning. Her soul remains at the death scene trying hard to process what happened. And there are other ghosts here that don’t seem to be much help. And, 

of course, the new reality of being a ghost does not sit well with Anita.

What is she supposed to do now?

Why can’t she go into the light? She appears connected to Detective Olivia Brown, the detective assigned to solve her murder. Is she supposed to help her or is something else going on? 

Will the crime go unsolved? Does it even matter now that she’s dead? Or can Detective Olivia Brown get to the bottom of what happened that night in the park? 

 

And can there be romance on the other side?

 

 

A. J. Gallant, owned by a Siamese cat named Moon Diamond (who may or may not be a vampire), compels A. J. to get up every morning at five to take him for a walk so that he can see what’s going on in the neighborhood.

The writing spark was first initiated by reading the works of Harlan Ellison. He’s the creator of more than a dozen screenplays.

He releases 2 to 3 books a year.

 

 

 

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Thanks so much for visiting fuonlyknew and Good Luck!

For a list of my reviews go HERE.

For a list of free eBooks updated daily go HERE

To see all of my giveaways click on the lucky Flamingos below!