Thicker Than Blood - Crouch Blake - Страница 121
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The space beyond his length of chain has become as mysterious and unreachable as the universe.
Occasionally, screams trickle down from the warehouse several floors above, but mostly, there is only silence and darkness.
Recently, his captor brought down an antiquated typewriter and ten reams of paper.
A sick joke, but more and more he’s considering writing if for nothing more than the diversion of something new to pass the hours.
He talks to Orson all the time.
He tells himself stories that he may one day write.
In the strangest of them all, none of this is really happening. He’s just a character trapped in the twisted story of a semi-famous writer who lives on a lake in North Carolina. He keeps trying to finish the story. To write in some weakness in the chains, some error in judgment on the part of his captor that might allow him to escape, but nothing ever seems right.
At last, on the story’s hundredth incarnation, he arrives upon the answer.
A character returns unexpectedly to the warehouse and saves him.
As the story closes, he’s lying in a luxurious bed, drifting in and out of sleep.
He hears approaching footsteps and smiles.
Because the covers are warm.
Because he feels no pain.
Because those footsteps belong to Violet.
She’s coming to nurse him back to health.
Momentarily, she’ll be through the door.
And she’ll sit on the bed and feed him from a bowl of steaming soup, and when she’s finished, crawl into bed with him and run her fingers through his hair and whisper that he’s safe now. That the pain is behind him, behind them both, and in this warm, soft bed—everything that matters.
AFTERWORD
So when can you expect the end of the Andrew Thomas/Luther Kite saga?
I’m good friends with thriller author J.A. Konrath, and our writing has covered many of the same themes of good and evil. I love Joe’s Det. Jack Daniels Series, which showcases his own unique, disturbing take on the serial killer genre.
In 2011, we concluded our Serial series with SERIAL KILLERS UNCUT, a double-novel we wrote that brought together every major character from Konrath's work and my work, including Orson, Luther, Andy, Violet, Jack Daniels, and numerous others.
Then Joe approached me with a simple, yet unique, idea: Wouldn’t it be fun to have Jack and Luther square off in a full-length novel that was also the conclusion to both of our series? I was all for it. That novel is STIRRED, which we’re currently writing, and it will be released at the end of 2011.
If you’re new to my books, or Joe’s books, and want to get caught up on the entire history of our shared Crouch/Kilborn/Konrath Universe before reading STIRRED, here is the order they go in, along with the characters they spotlight:
ALL CAPS = Novels
Italics = Novellas and Short Stories Contained within SERIAL KILLERS UNCUT
A Watch of Nightingales by Blake Crouch (1969, Orson Thomas, Andy Thomas)
A Day at the Beach by Blake Crouch (1977, Luther Kite, Maxine Kite, Rufus Kite)
A Pitying of Turtle Doves by JA Konrath and Jack Kilborn (1978, Donaldson and Mr. K)
The One That Stayed by JA Konrath (1983, Charles Kork, Alex Kork)
A Night at the Dinner Table by Blake Crouch (1984, Luther Kite, Maxine Kite, Rufus Kite)
Cuckoo by Blake Crouch (1986, Luther Kite, Rufus Kite)
SHOT OF TEQUILA by JA Konrath (1991, Jack Daniels, Tequila)
A Wake of Buzzards by Blake Crouch and Jack Kilborn (1991, Orson Thomas, Donaldson)
A Brood of Hens by Blake Crouch (1992, Orson Thomas, Luther Kite)
A Glaring of Owls by Blake Crouch and JA Konrath (1993, Orson Thomas, Luther Kite)
A Murder of Crows by Blake Crouch and JA Konrath (1995, Orson Thomas, Luther Kite, Charles Kork)
Bad Girl by Blake Crouch (1995, Lucy, Orson Thomas, Luther Kite, Andy Thomas)
DESERT PLACES by Blake Crouch (1996, Andy Thomas, Orson Thomas, Luther Kite)
The One That Got Away by JA Konrath (2001, Alex Kork and Charles Kork)
LOCKED DOORS by Blake Crouch (2003, Andy Thomas, Luther Kite, Violet King, Sweet-Sweet & Beautiful)
An Unkindness of Ravens by Blake Crouch, JA Konrath, and Jack Kilborn (2003, Luther Kite, Alex Kork, Charles Kork, Javier Estrada, Kiernan, Isaiah Brown, Donaldson, Mr. K, Swanson, Munchel, Pessolano, Jack Daniels, Tequila, Lucy, Clayton Theel, Barry Fuller, Sheriff Dwight Roosevelt)
WHISKEY SOUR by JA Konrath (2004, Jack Daniels, Charles Kork)
The One That Didn't by Blake Crouch and JA Konrath (2004, Luther Kite)
FAMOUS by Blake Crouch, (2004, Lancelot Blue Dunkquist)
Break You by Blake Crouch (2004, Luther Kite, Andy Thomas, Violet King)
BLOODY MARY by JA Konrath (2005, Jack Daniels, Barry Fuller)
RUSTY NAIL by JA Konrath (2006, Jack Daniels, Alex Kork)
SNOWBOUND by Blake Crouch (2007, Javier Estrada)
DIRTY MARTINI by JA Konrath (2007, Jack Daniels)
Truck Stop by JA Konrath and Jack Kilborn (2007, Donaldson, Jack Daniels, Taylor)
Serial by Jack Kilborn and Blake Crouch (2008, Lucy, Donaldson)
Killers by Jack Kilborn and Blake Crouch (2008, Lucy, Donaldson, Luther Kite, Kurt Lanz, M.D.)
A Schizophrenia of Hawks by JA Konrath and Blake Crouch (2008, Luther Kite, Alex Kork)
AFRAID by Jack Kilborn (2008, Taylor)
DRACULAS by Jack Kilborn, Blake Crouch, Jeff Strand, and F. Paul Wilson, (2008, Clayton Theel, Kurt Lanz, M.D.)
FUZZY NAVEL by JA Konrath (2008, Jack Daniels, Alex Kork, Swanson, Munchel, and Pessolano)
ABANDON by Blake Crouch (2009, Isaiah Brown)
CHERRY BOMB by JA Konrath (2009, Jack Daniels, Alex Kork)
TRAPPED by Jack Kilborn (2010, Taylor)
ENDURANCE by Jack Kilborn (2010, Sheriff Dwight Roosevelt)
SHAKEN by JA Konrath (2010, Jack Daniels, Mr. K, Luther Kite)
Lovebirds by JA Konrath (2011, Lucy, Donaldson)
STIRRED by Blake Crouch and JA Konrath (2011, Jack Daniels, Luther Kite)
RUN by Blake Crouch (2013, Kiernan)
Thanks for reading!
Blake Crouch
BONUS FEATURES
Interview with Blake Crouch by Hank Wagner
Originally Published in Crimespree, July 2009
According to his website, Blake Crouch grew up in Statesville, a small town in the piedmont of North Carolina. He graduated from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in 2000, where he studied literature and creative writing. He currently resides in the San Juan Mountains of southwestern Colorado. Crouch’s first book, Desert Places, was published in 2003. Pat Conroy called it “Harrowing, terrific, a whacked-out combination of Stephen King and Cormac McCarthy.” Val McDermid described it as “An ingenious, diabolical debut that calls into question all our easy moral assumptions. Desert Places is a genuine thriller that pulses with adrenaline from start to finish.” His second novel, Locked Doors, was published in July 2005. A sequel to Desert Places, it created a similar buzz. His third novel, Abandon, was published on July 7, 2009.
HANK WAGNER: Your writing career began in college?
BLAKE CROUCH: I started writing seriously in college. I had tinkered before, but the summer after my freshman year, I decided that I wanted to try to make a living at being a writer. Spring semester of 1999, I was in an intro creative writing class and I wrote the short story (called “Ginsu Tony”) that would grow into Desert Places. Once I started my first novel, it became an obsession.
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