PRO CONNECT
Jonathan Kieran is an author of fiction and non-fiction works, a screenwriter, and an illustrator who was born in upstate New York and who has lived in the Ventana highlands near Big Sur and Carmel, CA for the past decade. Following a classical theological education at Catholic University, he focused upon intensive relief service work with the homeless and marginalized—these efforts affording him the extraordinary opportunity to live in Paris, Rome, San Francisco, and New York City before settling in the Carmel area.
Jonathan has overseen numerous city-wide community organizing projects and relief council efforts in San Francisco, New York, and St. Augustine, FL while founding and operating his own advertising and marketing company in the early Aughts. He continues to be active at the grassroots level to help improve everyday standards of living while contributing to the diversity of the cultural landscape via his unique approach to multi-media artistic expression.
“An obscure village becomes the site of disconcerting, otherworldly incidents in this supernatural novel ... Crisp prose gives largely abstract occurrences a visual component ... The final act is disturbing and decidedly more visceral, with a satisfying, open-ended denouement. An often mysterious but thoroughly horrifying and macabre tale.”
– Kirkus Reviews
An obscure village becomes the site of disconcerting, otherworldly incidents in this supernatural novel.
A lifelong Californian, Nebraska “Brask” Adams has yearned for a “real small-town experience.” Now that he has a book deal with a publisher as well as an advance, he can escape his dour life, including his devoutly religious, condescending older sister. He opts for an affordable cabin rental in the village of Wistwood, somewhere near Big Sur. At the same time, schoolteacher Schuyler Brody, apparently unhappy with her “insufferable” students, is eying an antiques shop there. But Shep Daltry has darker motivations. He’s a White cop under media scrutiny for savagely beating a woman of color and mother of five. Though his department clears him of any charges, he heads to Wistwood for a new job, which involves sinister “instructions.” It appears there are two enigmatic individuals with a plan that seems initially vague awaiting these people’s arrivals. Brask is hardly settled in Wistwood when he senses something off—at first, just a store but soon, the entire village. Yet even if he can convince fellow villagers, will anyone be able to leave? Parts of Kieran’s chilling story are deliberately hazy, with unknown characters discussing cryptic objectives. But detailed backstories ground the narrative, pitting villagers such as former British rock star Lleyton Grayle against something unearthly. Crisp prose gives largely abstract occurrences a visual component: “When she laughed, brief and mocking, the sounds sprang as arrowheads, razor-sharp and dipped in poison from her lips.” Later chapters offer a few revelations, although the author provides enough clues that most readers will have an idea as to what’s unfolding. The final act is disturbing and decidedly more visceral, with a satisfying, open-ended denouement.
An often mysterious but thoroughly horrifying and macabre tale.
Pub Date: April 10, 2020
ISBN: 978-0-9885681-0-5
Page count: 356pp
Publisher: Brightbourne Media
Review Posted Online: July 9, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2020
Day job
Carpentry
Favorite author
EM Forster
Favorite book
A Confederacy of Dunces
Favorite line from a book
“Stars don’t care what you wish for and no one who sticks his hand in fire doesn’t get burned.”
Favorite word
Incandescence
Passion in life
Ancient Egypt
Unexpected skill or talent
Ornate carving
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