Sunday, March 12, 2023

Dark and Lonely Water by Graeme Reynolds

 

Release date: March 10, 2023
Subgenre: Horror
 

About Dark and Lonely Water:

 

When Samantha Ashlyn is forced to return to her home town to write an article on a series of drownings, she initially resists, finding disturbing similarities to her childhood experiences. However, once she starts looking into the assignment, she finds that things are not what they seem. An ancient evil is rising again, aided by what appears to be a centuries-old conspiracy to keep it hidden. With the help of a disgraced police diver, Sam races to stop the nightmare before more lives are lost. Not realising that her investigation has put herself and those she loves in terrible danger.

 

Excerpt:

 

CHAPTER ONE


Brendan Simms gives the beer-soaked bar one last half-hearted wipe, then throws the sodden cloth into the sink. “That’s me done now, Paul,” he calls across the empty dance floor where his boss collects the evening's takings from the tills. He picks up his jacket from one of the bar stools and heads to the nightclub entrance. Brendan puts the coat on, reaching for his wallet that would ordinarily be nestled in the inside pocket, only to find it missing. He feels a surge of panic, believing for a second that it’s been stolen from the staffroom. Then he remembers. Shit! He’d taken his wallet from his jeans and tossed it onto the bed while he got ready for work. Never picked it up again.
“Hey, Paul! Any chance you can sub me for a taxi home? I’ve left me fuckin wallet in the house.”
His boss looks up from the till roll and shakes his head. “Sorry, Bren. Can’t do it. Andrea goes off her tits if I start giving out subs. Screws the payroll right up, then I get it in the neck for the rest of the week.”
It’s been a long night. He enjoys this job—far more than the weekday slog at the Co-Op—but tonight had been a challenge. The club was filled with particularly obnoxious drunks all evening. Now it’s after four in the morning, and all he wants to do is fall into bed beside Jimmy. Sleep until lunchtime. Brendan sighs heavily. “Can you not lend me a tenner then? It’s three miles to my flat, and I’m dead on me feet.”
“Sorry,” Paul says. “Don’t carry cash on me when I’m working. It’s a nice night, though. The walk‘ll do you good.”
Bastard. He knows that Paul is lying. He saw him fold twenty quid out of a fat roll of notes earlier to buy some weed off one of the customers. He considers calling his boss out on his bullshit but what’s the point? He doesn’t have the energy for the argument. Instead, he says, “Yeah, thanks, mate. Thanks for fucking nothin. I’ll just be off then?”
Paul gives a half-hearted wave without looking up as Brendan flings open the wooden double doors and storms down the stairs, muttering curses.
The evening is still warm outside the sweaty confines of the club, and a mild breeze wafts against Brendan’s face. He can almost pretend that he is somewhere exotic, about to stroll along a beach instead of shuffling through the back streets of Preston. The smell makes it hard to maintain the illusion, though. The air reeks of urine, vomit, and discarded kebabs. Ah! Preston Fishergate in the early hours of a Sunday morning. What a place. What a fucking place.

 

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About Graeme Reynolds: 

Graeme Reynolds was born in England in 1971. Over the years, he has been an electronic engineer in the Royal Airforce, worked with special needs children and been a teenage mutant ninja turtle (don't ask).

He started writing in 2008 and has had over thirty short stories published in various ezines and anthologies before the publication of his first novel, High Moor, in 2011. He went on to write High Moor 2: Moonstruck and High Moor 3: Bloodmoon before moving on from werewolves to focus on his publishing empire and new stories that didn’t involve writing quite so many transformation scenes.

When he is not breaking computers for money, he hides in deepest darkest Swindon and dreams up new ways to offend people with delicate sensibilities.

 

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