Desperate Souls (44 page)

Jake Helman, an elite member of the New York Special Homicide Task Force, faces what every cop dreads—an elusive serial killer. While investigating a series of bloodletting sacrifice rituals executed by an ominous perpetrator known as The Cipher, Jake refuses to submit to a drug test and resigns from the police department. Tower International, a controversial genetic engineering company, employs him as their director of security.

While battling an addiction to cocaine, Jake enters his new high-pressure position in the private sector. What he encounters behind the closed doors of this sinister operation is beyond the realm of human imagination. Too horrible to contemplate, the experimentation is pure madness, the outcome a hell where only pain and terror reside. Nicholas Tower is not the hero flaunted on the cover of Time magazine. Beneath the polished exterior of this frontiersman on the cutting edge of science is a corporate executive surrounded by the creations of his deranged mind.

As Jake delves deeper into the hidden sphere of this frightening laboratory, his discoveries elicit more than condemnation for unethical practices performed for the good of mankind. Sequestered in rooms veiled in secrecy is the worst crime the world will ever see—the theft of the human soul.

Nominated for a 2009 Bram Stoker Award for Superior Achievement in a Novel by the Horror Writers Association.

The upstate village of Red Hill is about to learn the meaning of fear.

Johnny Grissom, nicknamed “Johnny Gruesome” by his high school classmates, is a heavy-metal hellion who loves to party, watch horror movies, and get into fights. His best friend, Eric, admires him, and his girlfriend, Karen, loves him.

One winter night, Johnny’s car, the Death Mobile, is discovered submerged beneath the icy surface of Willow Creek, with Johnny’s waterlogged corpse inside. The residents of Red Hill believe that Johnny’s death was accidental.

Then the murders begin—horrible acts of violent vengeance that hint at a deepening mystery and terror yet to come. A headless body is discovered at the high school. A priest is forced to confront his own misdeeds. And a mortician encounters the impossible.

One by one, Johnny’s enemies meet a grisly demise, as the sound of a car engine and maniacal laughter fill the night. The students at Red Hill High School fear for their lives—especially Johnny’s closest friends, who harbor a dark secret.

If people thought Johnny had a bad attitude when he was alive, wait until they encounter him when he’s dead!

Johnny Gruesome
is a valentine to E.C. Comics, Marvel’s
Tomb of Dracula,
and such gory 1980s splatter flicks as
Re-Animator
and
Return of the Living Dead.
The novel is a horror fan’s nightmare come true!

In every hardened cop’s worst dreams there lurks a nightmare waiting to become reality. Captain Mace has encountered his. When a string of raped and dismembered corpses appears throughout New York, the investigation draws Mace into an interactive plot that plays like a horror movie. Taking the lead role in this chilling story may be the challenge of his career, testing his skills and his stamina, but even a superhero would find the series of terrifying crime scenarios daunting.

Unlike anything Mace has experienced, every blood-spattered scene filled with body parts and partially eaten human remains looks like an animal’s dining room strewn with rotting leftovers. Only Satanic legends and tales from the dark side of spiritual oblivion resemble the mayhem this beast has created in his frenzy. In the wake of each attack is the haunting premonition of another murdering onslaught.

As Mace follows this crimson trail of madness, he must accept the inevitable conclusion. Whoever—or whatever—is responsible for this terror does not intend to stop, and it’s up to him to put an end to the chaotic reign of a perpetrator whom, until now, he’s met only in the annals of mythology. The mere mention of the word would send New York into a panic:
werewolf.

Arch Stanton has a bad job that’s about to get a hell of a lot worse.

He’s sixteen, scrawny, and dirt poor. He has an almost supernatural ability with firearms, but it may not be enough to survive the weekend.

Welcome to Whitewood, California, an isolated small town in northern California, a place full of bad manners and even worse hygiene. Money is tight, jobs are scarce, and bitter rivalries have simmered just under the surface for years.

Fat Ernst runs the local bar and grill. He’d stomp on his own mother for a chance at easy money, and when he forces Arch to do some truly dirty work, all hell breaks loose.

Fat Ernst’s customers find themselves being infected by vicious, wormlike parasites and dying in unspeakable agony. As events spiral out of control, decades of hatred boil over into three days of rapidly escalating carnage. Will anyone in this town escape … before they’re eaten alive?

Twenty-two years of marriage have given Skye Donovan a life of structure and predictability. When she discovers some women’s underwear—not hers—however, she begins to suspect her husband is fooling around. And she’s right, he is. But she’s wrong about who the underwear belongs to. Not her husband’s girlfriend, but her husband. And then she walks in on her husband…and his boyfriend.

Skye finds herself confronting another new reality. She needs to start life over. She needs to find a job, a place to live, break the news to her teenaged daughter and—yikes—start dating again. At least she has her best friend to help her through it all.

Not.

Corpses are turning up. And her best friend is the prime suspect.

As Skye tries to prove her friend’s innocence, her own life is further complicated by a handsome detective, a sexy writer, a pagan wedding, her friend’s unexpected pregnancy, and a new career. Could it get any crazier? In a word, yes. She not only must exonerate her friend, but do so before the murderer strikes even closer to home…

Fallen angels.

The last words of a dying man. To the local cops, the words are meaningless. But legendary assassin Cain knows exactly what they mean.

A hit is in the works.

And the target is big.

In 1971, five U.S. soldiers trained as assassins landed in North Vietnam to complete a deadly mission under the watchful eye of Cain, a man feared by the Vietnamese on both sides of the DMZ. Today, joining forces with his old boss General Lucas White, Cain soon learns that Seneca, a former ally, has been hired to kill the president of the United States and three top leaders in the Middle East.

Against a ticking clock, Cain must hunt down his former ally. But an even deadlier betrayal could sabotage his mission—and cost him his life.

From the dark jungles of Vietnam to the midnight shadows of Central Park,
Heirs of Cain
takes its readers on a thrilling ride they won’t soon forget.

Dub Walker, expert in evidence evaluation, crime scene analysis, and criminal psychology, has seen everything throughout his career—over a hundred cases of foul play and countless bloody remains of victims of rape, torture, and unthinkable mutilation. He’s sure he’s seen it all … until now.

When Dub’s close friend Sheriff Mike Savage falls victim to a brutal serial killer terrorizing the county, he is dragged into the investigation. The killer—at times calm, cold, and calculating and at others maniacal and out of control—is like no other Dub has encountered. With widely divergent personalities, the killer taunts, threatens, and out-maneuvers Dub at every turn.

While hunting this maniacal predator, Dub uncovers a deadly conspiracy—one driven by unrestrained greed and corruption. Will he be able to stop the conspirators—and the killer—in their bloody tracks?

As an Insider you’ll receive:

• Our FREE expanded monthly newsletter, giving you more insight into Medallion Press

• Advanced press releases and breaking news

• Greater access to all your favorite Medallion authors

Joining is easy. Just visit our Web site at
www.medallionpress.com
and click on the Medallion Press
Insider tab.

medallionpress.com

Sign up now at
www.twitter.com/MedallionPress
to stay on top of all
the happenings in and
around Medallion Press.

For more information
about other great titles from
Medallion Press, visit

medallionpress.com