Blood Red

Praise for BLOOD RED

“FAST-MOVING with a good mix of sex, gore, and laughs . . . Moore knows how to keep the pages turning and the blood running. Sad, introspective vampires in powdered wigs need not apply.” —Page Horrific

“BLOOD RED DOES WHAT ALL THE BEST VAMPIRE NOVELS DO; it . . . digs for blood beneath the skin.”

—Rick Kleffel, The Agony Column

“OFFERS PLENTY OF . . . HORROR CHILLS leavened with flashes of humor.” —Publishers Weekly

“THE COMPARISONS TO VINTAGE STEPHEN KING ARE JUSTIFIED. Brutal and scary, Blood Red has restored my faith, not only in the vampire subgenre, but in horror as a whole.” —Kealan Patrick Burke

“THERE IS SO MUCH TO ENJOY ABOUT BLOOD RED. Moore is powerfully descriptive.”

—Baryon-online.com

“MOORE HAS WOVEN TOGETHER THE BEST THREADS OF VAMPIRE LORE with lust, power, and brutality . . . Grab this treat, turn off the phone and enjoy a refreshingly inventive take on the vampire tale.”

—Monsters and Critics.com

Praise for SERENITY FALLS and the Serenity Falls Trilogy: WRIT IN BLOOD THE PACK DARK CARNIVAL

“QUITE POSSIBLY THE BEST HORROR NOVEL SINCE SALEM’S LOT. [It] will grab you and horrify you while maintaining a death grip on your interest throughout. This is the ultimate page-turner . . . Fully fleshed, well developed characters. Immerse them in a great plot and superb action where the menace and mystery increase with each paragraph and you have a truly important novel. James A. Moore’s Serenity Falls shows some of the strength of a young Stephen King, some of the flavor of the current Bentley Little and a dash of the wit and perverseness of Dean Koontz. In the end, Serenity Falls is a major accomplishment in the horror field. Read it and you will echo my praise.” —Jim Brock, Baryon-online.com

“INTENSIFYING TERROR.” —The Best Reviews.com

“A TREMENDOUS HORROR STORY WORTHY OF THE MASTERS. James A. Moore is perhaps the most talented writer of this genre to date.” —Midwest Book Review

“A SPRAWLING EPIC . . . Moore creates and develops a whole population’s worth of memorable characters . . . This is easily the best horror novel to appear this year. It’s more ambitious than the last three novels you’ve read put together. If there’s any justice in the world, James A. Moore will be the genre’s next superstar. He’s the only horror author out there who’s already writing at the level of the modern greats. The name James A. Moore will soon be spoken in the same reverent tones we now speak of King, Straub, and Koontz. Count on it.” —Garrett Peck

“YOU’RE GOING TO GET YOUR MONEY’S WORTH WITH THIS ONE, in terms of both quality and quantity. You’ll become immersed very quickly, and once caught up in the story, you’ll find it difficult to put the book away until you’ve finished it.” —Chronicle

“BRINGS TO MIND EARLY STEPHEN KING—think of it as Dawson’s Creek as written by King. In Serenity Falls, James A. Moore has written a novel where all hell breaks loose—literally. His descriptions of small town quirks and foibles hit the mark on all cylinders . . . a great horror novel.” —James Argendeli, CNN Headline News

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

No book is written alone and truer words have never been spoken. The author would like to thank Paul Miller for his insights, kind words of encouragement, and enthusiasm. Thanks also to my wife, Bonnie, for her amazing patience and love. You have always been and remain my heart and soul. Thanks also to Kelly Perry, one of the finest editors I have ever had the pleasure of working with. Under incredible time constraints, Kelly kept me on track and made Blood Red five times the book it would have been otherwise. For those reasons and a thousand others, this book is dedicated with awe and admiration to the people listed above. Thank you, more than I can say with mere words, thank you.

—James A. Moore

QUOTH THE RAVEN

AN INTRODUCTION BY SIMON CLARK

“Stone the crows.” A figure of speech uttered in exclamation. “A murder of crows.” A collective noun for a gathering of crows. There are more, including the evocative “a story-telling of crows.”

These devourers of corpse meat are found pretty much across the planet. There are over a hundred different species of the crow family, including the carrion, hooded, and American crows, plus rooks, jays, choughs, jackdaws, and Poe’s iconic raven. Some are big and ominous-looking; as dark as black holes in the sky. Several of the species are small. One is even white.