Darkness Hides ~ Book Blog Tour Review & Giveaway!

DARKNESS HIDES
by J.C. Gatlin

Book Details:

Genre: Adult Fiction (18 + yrs),
Categories: Mystery / Suspense
Publisher: Milford House Press
Pages: 251 pages
Release date: April 2021
Content Rating: PG-13 (mild swearing)

Book Description:

Someone she knows is watching.

Someone she knows is stalking.

And something hides in the darkness.

With a Category 4 hurricane about to make landfall, boat safety instructor Kate Parks is running out of time. Bodies are piling up--and they're not from the raging storm. An injury may have ended her career as a Fish and Wildlife officer, but nothing can keep her away from the investigation.

And it doesn’t take long for her to see that the clues have one thing in common: a connection to the recent death of her five-year-old nephew.

In a brewing storm of rage, guilt, and family secrets, Kate fights to protect her grieving sister just as the hurricane threatens everything she knows and loves. But before her world is completely ravaged, she must uncover one final truth:

Run from the water.

Hide from the wind.

Flee from the shadows where a weeper seeks revenge.

Buy the Book:
Amazon
Sun Bury Press
add to Goodreads

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Review:

HALL WAYS REVIEW: For anyone who regularly reads my reviews, it'll come as no surprise that I wanted to read this book because of 1) the cover, and 2) the creepy premise. To elaborate on the latter: all the creepy business is happening in a town on the Gulf Coast as a Cat 4 hurricane is approaching. The hurricane, an ominous force inching ever closer throughout Darkness Hides, took that premise next level. There will be death and destruction: but will it be by Mother Nature's hand or a killer of the human kind?

Author JC Gatlin peppers Darkness Hides with a cast of quirky characters that will keep reader interest piqued. Main character Kate has a menagerie of rescue animals that nearly steal the show. Truly, the animals are almost the only characters I really like, and their antics provide wonderful comic relief when the tension runs high -- and oh, my! Does the tension run high! Whether it's the weather, the complex relationships, or the body count, readers will feel engulfed -- even alarmed -- as the story unfolds. When I had to step away from reading, the story stayed with me. I felt like I needed to DO something to help; the story blanketed me with unease and a real desire for resolution.  

Gatlin does a great job nailing mood, tone, and setting. No qualms there. Where the story fell short for me may not bother others. For this reader, I was asked too often to suspend my disbelief, and most of the characters weren't likable and made some unlikely decisions. Also, the book needs editing to fill those plot holes and eliminate the typos. Even so, reading Darkness Hides is a complete escape, which is always a good thing, and time between the covers is time well-spent. 

As the hurricane creeps towards making landfall, the action in Darkness Hides ratchets up with edge-of-your-seat suspense. It's here that the multiple sub-plots collide, and the detritus scatters. Author Gatlin pieces it all together with many loose ends tied up and an ending that puts readers at ease and feels hopeful. (Much appreciated because I was distressed!) 

Gatlin has written several other books (there's a free download of one on his website), and I'll be perusing those and hoping for audio versions -- Darkness Hides would be great to read with your ears!  I recommend Darkness Hides for readers looking for a quick-hit mystery that has all the elements of satisfying fiction. Don't miss it.

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Meet the Author:

JC Gatlin lives in Tampa, Florida, and writes mystery novels that include sunny Florida locales and quirky locals as characters. His last novel, H_NGM_N: Murder is the Word, won the coveted Florida Royal Palm Literary Award for Best Mystery in 2019. He is active in the Florida Writer’s Association and is a board member on the Florida Writer’s Foundation, a charity organization that fights illiteracy.

connect with the author: website ~ facebook ~ linkedin ~ goodreads

 

Enter the Giveaway:  

THREE WINNERS!

Enter to win a copy of JC Gatlin's DARKNESS HIDES

(USA and Canada only; ends July 16, 2021)

 DARKNESS HIDES Book Tour Giveaway

 

Tour Schedule:
 

June 14 – Olio by Marilyn – book spotlight / author interview
June 14 – Olio by Marilyn – book review / giveaway
June 15 – Sefina Hawke's Books – book review
June 16 – Cover Lover Book Review – book spotlight / giveaway
June 16 – GivernyReads – book review / author interview
June 17 - World of My Imagination – book spotlight / guest post
June 17 - Books for Books – book review
June 18 – I Read What You Write – book spotlight / guest post / giveaway
June 21 – Elizabeth McKenna – Author – book spotlight / giveaway
June 22 – A Crane Between the Pages – book review
June 22 - The Momma Spot – book review / giveaway
June 23 – PuzzlePaws Blog – book review / giveaway
June 23 - Sadie's Spotlight – book spotlight
June 24 – Book Corner News and Reviews – book review / giveaway
June 25 – Hall Ways Blog – book review / giveaway
June 28 – Adventurous Jessy – book review / giveaway
June 28 - The Eclectic Review – book review / giveaway
June 29 – Bound 4 Escape – book review / giveaway
June 29 - Jazzy Book Reviews – book review / giveaway
June 30 - JB's Bookworms with Brandy Mulder – book spotlight / guest post / giveaway
June 30 – Splashes of Joy – book review / author interview / giveaway
July 1 – Gina Rae Mitchell – book review / giveaway
July 1 - Leels Loves Books – book review
July 2 – Kam’s Place – book review
July 2 - Locks, Hooks and Books - book review / giveaway
July 6 – Working Mommy Journal – book review / giveaway
July 7 – @twilight_reader – book review
July 7 - Cheryl's Book Nook – book review / giveaway
July 8 – @books_and_bagels (Instagram) – book review / giveaway
July 8 - Literary Flits – book spotlight / giveaway
July 9 – Pick a Good Book – book review / author interview / giveaway

 

River, Sing Out ~ Lone Star Book Blog Tours Book Trailer & Giveaway!

   

RIVER, SING OUT

BY

JAMES WADE

 

Categories: Contemporary / Literary Fiction

Rural Fiction / Crime Fiction / Coming-of-Age

Publisher: Blackstone Publishing

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Date of Publication: June 8, 2021

Number of Pages: 315 pages

 

“And through these ages untold, the river did act as the lifeblood of all those things alongside it.”

Jonah Hargrove is celebrating his thirteenth birthday by avoiding his abusive father, when a girl named River stumbles into his yard, injured and alone. The teenager has stolen thousands of dollars’ worth of meth from her murderous, drug-dealing boyfriend, but lost it somewhere in the Neches River bottoms during her escape. Jonah agrees to help her find and sell the drugs so she can flee East Texas.

Chasing after them is John Curtis, a local drug kingpin and dog fighter, as well as River’s boyfriend, the dangerous Dakota Cade.

Each person is keeping secrets from the others—deadly secrets that will be exposed in violent fashion as all are forced to come to terms with their choices, their circumstances, and their own definition of God.

With a colorful cast of supporting characters and an unflinching violence juxtaposed against lyrical prose, River, Sing Out dives deep into the sinister world of the East Texas river bottoms, where oppressive poverty is pitted against the need to believe in something greater than the self.

PRAISE FOR RIVER, SING OUT

''With echoes of Jim Harrison, Cormac McCarthy (and perhaps a smidge of Flannery O'Connor), River, Sing Out is a beautiful, brutal meditation on survival and love in the face of nearly unspeakable violence and depravity in an East Texas community ravaged by the meth trade. Taut, lyrical, and precise, the prose soars in this important new novel by James Wade.'' --Elizabeth Wetmore, New York Times bestselling author of Valentine

''If you read one novel this year, make it this one. James Wade's River, Sing Out, is an instant classic filled with characters that will break your heart, lyrical prose as haunted as the river it evokes, and a Southern Noir undertow that wholly sucks you in and keeps you turning the pages until it's searing, masterful conclusion.'' --May Cobb, author of The Hunting Wives

''Wade, whose striking debut, All Things Left Wild (2020), traveled back a century in Texas history, uses an unlikely friendship to explore an equally wild present-day landscape...A haunting fable of an impossible relationship fueled by elemental need and despair.'' --Kirkus Reviews

PURCHASE LINKS:

║Blackstone Publishing ║ Amazon ║Books-a-Million║

║Indie Bound ║ Downpour ║ Hudson Booksellers ║

   

 

James Wade lives and writes in the Texas Hill Country with his wife and daughter. He is the author of All Things Left Wild, which is a winner of the 2016 Writers' League of Texas Manuscript Contest, a winner of the 2021 Spur Award for Best Historical Fiction, and a winner of the 2021 Reading the West Award for Best Debut Novel. His fiction has appeared in various literary journals and magazines.

 

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