Shivery Playlist for a Creepy Halloween
by Jeri Westerson
I must confess, my playlist isn’t
the typical fare of “Monster Mash” and “Love Potion Number Nine.” It’s about
the soundtrack I like to listen to when I’m writing my paranormal tales. These
are for my series Booke of the Hidden that takes place during all of the month
of October and culminates on Halloween. The series wraps up with the fourth
book, THE DARKEST GATEWAY. Tea proprietor Kylie Strange finds and opens the
mysterious Booke of the Hidden, and must capture deadly creatures she’s
unwittingly unleashed, while juggling the advances of an alluring and dangerous
demon and a very human and handsome sheriff. So I need different tunes to get
me in the mood.
So let’s start with “Devils” from Say Hi.
Because my urban fantasy deals with a supernatural Booke and a demon guardian
who gets intimately close to Kylie, the song deals with the devil getting hold
of everything in the singer’s life, even “he make it to my heart”—just like
Kylie.
The next one is Valerie Broussand’s “A
Little Wicked”, because Kylie and Erasmas Dark, the demon, do get a little
wicked. Especially when she can’t decide between the handsome sheriff or the
demon. Who would YOU chose?
And then there’s “In the Shadows” by Amy
Stroup. This mysterious and evocative tune really takes you there. There
may be humor in these books, but there is still something not quite right,
not…quite…human going on. It’s a song that gives me the shivers.
And just to lighten things up—and
because the First Werewolf comes out of the Booke and bites one of Kylie’s
friends—there’s the incomparable Warren Zevon’s “Werewolves
of London”. Who doesn’t like a werewolf with a pina colada in his hand
“…and his hair is perfect.”
And finally, a haunting song that
will spirit you away, right to the dark shadows of Samhain, Halloween, with all
the dangers and powers that shimmer and awaken this night. Loreena McKennitt’s “The
Mummer’s Dance” recalls strange and secret Celtic festivals in a darkened
wood lit only by moonlight.
The
Darkest Gateway
Booke
of the Hidden
Book
Four
Jeri
Westerson
Genre: Urban Fantasy/Paranormal
Romance
Publisher: JABberwocky Literary
Date of Publication: October 2,
2019
ISBN: 978-1-625674-25-8
ASIN: 978-1-625674-23-4
Number of pages: 301
Word Count: 90,181
Cover Artist: Mayhem Cover
Creations
Tagline: “Whoever said country
life was dull didn’t know Moody Bog.”
Book
Description:
With the arrival of Samhain, the
supernatural Booke of the Hidden is set to release a barrage of deadly creatures
onto the hapless village of Moody Bog, Maine.
Tea proprietor Kylie Strange
knows the showdown is coming and wants to end the Booke for good. But the only
way to accomplish this is a journey to the Netherworld and get the help of the
only being powerful enough to destroy the Booke: Satan himself. And, though the
brooding and elusive demon Erasmus Dark has captured Kylie’s heart against her
better judgment, she ignores his repeated warnings that the mission guarantees
her doom.
Except:
I moved to the
very edge of the road and waited.
The sound grew
louder. It couldn’t be anything except hoofbeats. They clopped, not in a gallop
but in a leisurely canter. And soon, there was the Dullahan coming around the
curve. His head looked even greener and slimier under his arm than it had
before, if that were possible.
His weirdly
roving eyes spotted me easily. He kicked his red-eyed horse’s sides and hurried
toward us. All the while, he swung that spine whip. With each revolution around
his headless neck, the weapon grew longer and longer.
I kept the spear
close to my side. I didn’t want that whip to catch it the way it had gotten the
crossbow the last time.
He was almost
upon me when he shrieked, “Kylie Strange!”
“That doesn’t
work on me, you idiot!” I yelled.
The face frowned
under his arm. It cast its googly eyes toward Erasmus and opened his mouth to
yell his name.
“He’s a demon,
remember? We’ve been through this before. Boy, you sure have a short memory.
Must be because your brain is decaying faster than the rest of you. Looks like
a bad case of melting Roquefort you got there.”
His dead face
either grimaced or it really was melting. “Then I don’t need to say your name,”
he said in a high screechy voice.
He spun the
whip. Before I could get out of the way, it came at me and wrapped around my
body, trapping my arms at my sides. I barely got out a yell before I was yanked
off my feet.
The horse
started galloping and I was flung out behind it almost parallel to the road. I
couldn’t bring the spear up. I was whipping around in the air and getting a
little seasick, but it was better than being dragged behind on the asphalt.
There wouldn’t have been much left of me after that.
The bones of the
spine whip were digging sharply into my skin. I tried wriggling free. If
Headless decided to fling me off a cliff, there wasn’t much I could do about
it. I knew Erasmus must be around somewhere, but this was up to me to figure
out…if I could.
The Dullahan
galloped around a sharp curve and I was thrown and dragged through the limbs of
pine trees shouldering the road.
“Dammit!” I
yelled, spitting out pine needles. “I am so going to kill you!”
He lifted his
head up with his other arm. It swiveled and glared at me. “Not if I kill you
first, Mistress Strange.”
“No need to be
so formal,” I grunted, struggling. I slammed into some holly bushes and OW!
The face cackled
and turned away, tucked back under his arm again. Then I looked up and saw what
he was cackling about. The next curve of the road didn’t have any nice prickly
holly bushes or spikey pine boughs. It was just granite all the way up the rock
face. “Shit!”
About
the Author:
Los Angeles native JERI WESTERSON
is the author of twelve Crispin Guest Medieval Noir Mystery novels, a series
nominated for thirteen national awards from the “Agatha” to the “Shamus”. Her
fifth novel BLOOD LANCE was named one of the Ten Hot Crime Novels for Colder
Days by Kirkus Reviews, and her sixth, SHADOW OF THE ALCHEMIST, was named Best
of 2013 by Suspense Magazine. For BOOKE OF THE HIDDEN, her urban fantasy
series, Publishers Weekly said, “Readers sad about the ending of Charlaine
Harris’s MIDNIGHT, TEXAS trilogy will find some consolation in Moody Bog.” The
fourth and final in the series, THE DARKEST GATEWAY, releases October 2, 2019.
Jeri also writes the humorous SKYLER FOXE LGBT MYSTERIES under the pen name
Haley Walsh. Jeri’s short stories were included in several mystery anthologies,
including Shaken: Stories for Japan (for the 2011 Earthquake Relief Fund). Jeri
was also featured on two local NPR shows, “My Awesome Empire” and KVCR-Arts.
She has served two terms as president of the Southern California Chapter of
Mystery Writers of America, twice president of the Orange County Chapter of
Sisters in Crime, and as vice president and California Crime Writers Conference
co-chair for the Los Angeles Chapter of Sisters in Crime. See more about Jeri
at JeriWesterson.com, BOOKEoftheHIDDEN.com, and
SkylerFoxeMysteries.wixsite.com/novels.
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3 Stars