About the BookLars Kelsen doesn’t believe in psychic phenomenon. To him, visions of murder victims are a form of mental illness. Once they begin, options are limited; he can try to ignore them or deal with them by exposing a killer. Only the latter provides any semblance of peace. Temporarily, anyway. Five years into his new life as a programmer, Kelsen—ex-crime beat reporter with a penance he can never fully satisfy—sees a victim.
In person. Upright. Staring.
Typical of such past "Visits" as he calls them, he doesn’t welcome this one. The nude form of a beautiful millionairess in his cubicle means murder has come to the vacation haven known as North Carolina’s Outer Banks. It means he’ll have to go places he'd rather avoid. See things he'll wish he hadn’t. Do things that don't come naturally, like in-your-face confrontation and bending the law. Actually, breaking the law ... but with good intent. It also means dealing with one very attractive county coroner, who pushes his buttons in a not entirely unwelcome way.
So begins Kelsen's return to investigative reporting—complete with attempts on his life, fights, deception, and all the technological tricks, such as GPS and computer hacking, at his disposal. And maybe even finding a new love interest.
My Review
Lars Kelsen is one tough son of a bitch. Death is after him in more ways than one. He nearly takes a bullet to the back of the head in his own home. He jumps eighty feet off a bridge to escape a motorcyclist with a gun. He takes on three muscle-bound thugs with nothing more than a baton. But that's just the living, he also has to put up with the dead. He's haunted by the ghostly apparitions of murder victims who refuse to go away unless he cracks their unsolved cases.
He's a guy with a lot of anxiety. His young son was abducted and killed. His wife left him. He quit his job as a crime reporter. So he escaped to the reasonably tranquil lifestyle of North Carolina's Outer Banks and went back to school to become a part-time computer programmer for the local hospital. He refurbished an old home on the water where he spends his off-days fishing or jogging with his dog, Hooper. Although, he turned into a bit of a ladies' man, he's not serious about anyone and he likes it that way.
When he starts seeing the naked, beaten corpse of Jeannette Broughton, he's once again thrown back into his former role as an investigative writer, much to his chagrin. He's not one for the back-biting atmosphere of office life and truth be told he doesn't mind walking away from his computer terminal all that much. He knows how to talk to people. He's a smooth operator who doesn't mind greasing some palms and planting illegal GPS devices in order to get what he wants. He flirts with a sexy female coroner over a cadaver. He yanks a snarky young lifeguard off of his stand for giving him attitude. He doesn't take no for an answer when security guards and receptionists try to limit his access to a particular location. He goes looking for danger, so it's no surprise when it eventually catches up to him.
***
Ghostly Summons can be purchased at:
Kindle, Nook, Kobo
Prices/Formats: $3.99 ebook, paperback
Pages: 312
Publisher: Dark Continents Publishing
Release: March 14, 2013
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About the AuthorJohn A. Karr believes fiction writing each day helps keep the demons at bay. Ghostly Summons is his first full-length novel for Dark Continents Publishing. DCP has also published his Weird West novella, Ujahwek. He is the author of a handful of other novels: Death Clause, Hippocrates Shattered (scheduled for reprint by World Castle Publications as Shattered), Rhone, and Van Gogh, Encore. His short stories have appeared on webzines Allegory, The Absent Willow Review, and Danse Macabre. More works are in progress and in the marketing queue.
Karr is an ardent believer in the quote by Carl Van Doren (1885-1950), U.S. man of letters: Yes, it's hard to write, but it's harder not to.
Links to connect with John:
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