Delightfully strange and intoxicatingly dangerous.
“To understand a problem, often one must pay particular attention to the unusual.” The unusual is well within the purview of Specialist Joe Kellerman. With gifts ranging from supernatural private investigating to avant-garde artistic abilities, Joe can handle just about anything that comes his way, including bloodied bodies, severed heads and all the darkest elements that prowl Carthage City. But what Joe can’t deal with is a failing relationship. Heartbreak only makes staying focused on his night job more challenging, but his special skill set makes Kellerman the right man for one onerous task. Dubbed the Nightwalker Killings, mutilated and drained remains of young women are turning up in the city’s seedier parts. Joe is brought on to consult with the dead killer in a bizarre ritual that is part alchemy and part hallucinatory nightmare, literally looking into the mind of a vampire. Unfortunately for Joe, some things simply can’t be unseen nor can they be easily forgotten. And the foggy corners of one man’s fractured mind only hint at a darkness that poses a greater threat.
The line between death and life is blurred into a hazy, darkened image imprinted on the streets of Carthage City in Tom Mock’s The Long Nights. Filled with gritty back alleys, morally deficient characters and rainy nights, this inventive novel combines elements of crime noir with familiar occult themes and forms them into a clever urban fantasy. Unique in its meticulousness and maturity, The Long Nights is a bold novel that can hold its own in many different fictional genres. Mock has a masterful grasp on language, manipulating the chilling narrative so as to be precise and direct, yet at the same time mysterious and ambiguous when necessary to forward the tight plot. The overall effect is an eerie story with scares coming from the shadows, both inside and out. Delightfully strange and intoxicatingly dangerous, The Long Nights is a paranormal horror that will immerse readers in a dark world of psychological thrills.
