Author: Jason Parent
Genre: Horror/ Suspence/ Dark Humor
Pages: 308
Publisher: Double Dragon Publishing
Author Website: http://authorjasonparent.com/
Goodreads Link: http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/15828555-what-hides-within
Book Synopsis:
In all of us, there is darkness. In Clive, it’s tangible, and it’s aching to get out.
What Hides Within tells the story of a man held captive by an unknown evil. Clive Menard is a spineless slacker leading an ordinary existence. But when Chester enters his life, it becomes far from ordinary.
A disheveled Clive stands alone in a hospital waiting room. A series of incidences have led him to undergo unnecessary neurosurgery. A voice inside Clive’s head nags him to kill the doctor.
Weeks prior, a murder investigation and an unrelated kayaking excursion set the story’s interlocking events in motion. When a remorseful killer, a bomb-happy psychopath and a mysterious widow spider converge upon Clive, they bring with them destruction and death. Clive must discover who or what is steering his very existence before he, too, is consumed by the carnage around him.
With a driven detective following his every step and a vicious killer hiding within his circle of friends, Clive must walk a narrow and dangerous path, teetering between salvation and damnation. He must confront Chester and his own demons. But is he powerless to overcome them?"
Author Guest Post:
Top Moment No. 3
After a few moments of perusing absolutely nothing, Dr. Allen returned his attention to Clive. “Let’s have a look in that mouth, shall we?”
Here we go with this “we” thing again. But Clive had bigger problems to tackle than Dr. Allen’s grammar. He put it out of his mind.
“My problem is with my ear.”
“Mr. Menard, may I remind you that I’m the doctor here.”
Dr. Allen removed a pencil from his upper coat pocket. The end of it appeared chewed, and the eraser had somehow mutated from pink to black.
“Now, open wide.”
Clive cringed as he accepted the pencil into his mouth. When Dr. Allen elevated to peek down his throat, Clive noticed the Popsicle stick that resided snug beside the pencil’s former resting place. He realized too late that the doctor had grabbed the wrong instrument.
Fucking nasty! Clive shrugged it off as best he could. Well, I’m sure this guy must have a reason for checking my mouth. He wouldn’t do it just to save face because I called him out on forgetting which body part I came in here for, would he?
After a cursory look, Dr. Allen was done. “Looks good,” he said, withdrawing the pencil. “Now, which ear was that again?”
Asshole. “My right ear.”
“And what kind of problem have you been having?”
Asshole. “It’s been clogged for almost a week. I thought it was water at first, but now I’m not so sure.”
“It could be a pebble.”
“Do you think that’s what it is?”
“No.”
Asshole.
“Well, no sense in speculating. Let’s see what’s in there.”
Dr. Allen withdrew an otoscope from what appeared to have been the front of his pants but what Clive hoped had been one of his pockets. He flipped a switch on its handle, activating a small light, and plunged its cold, cone-shaped nozzle into Clive’s right ear.
“Ewww. That’s disgusting.”
“What?” Clive’s heart went from zero to sixty faster than a Lamborghini. “What is it?”
“Wait a minute.”
Dr. Allen removed the otoscope from Clive’s ear. Clive watched as he examined the earpiece. A large amount of white lint covered its tip, speckled with black crud. One of the speckles had legs, six of them, none of which were moving. It appeared to be a gnat.
“Sorry. I forgot to clean it first.”
I’m the type of guy that only goes to a doctor if one of my limbs is severed and I can’t fix it with Super Glue or duct tape. It’s not that I’m overly macho or immune to sickness. I just find the whole experience as disturbing as finding out your girlfriend was once named John.
More often than not (in my experience), doctors seem to lack people skills entirely, probably due to years of study trumping social interaction. In the scene above, Dr. Allen could be a doctor from my life (although any similarities are merely coincidental – it says so right in the front of my book). Poor Clive has been through a lot of frustration trying to fix his ear, and Dr. Allen unintentionally adds to it, hopefully in a humorous way.
I had fun creating this scene, and I hope it shows. Its dark humor is the type of tongue-in-cheek stuff readers can expect to find within What Hides Within.
Blog Tour Schedule:
10/01 – I Smell Sheep
10/02 Becca Hamilton Books
10/03 SLK Book Reviews
10/04 Bookhi
10/05 Young Adult Fiction & Whiskey Sours
10/06 Fictional Candy
10/07 Urban Fantasy Land
10/08 My Hidden Bookshelf
10/09 Pure Textuality
10/10 A Thousand Lives Book Blog
Giveaway!
There is another EBook up for grabs! This one is also available in epub, pdf, or mobi format. It is also open internationally. With that said… This contest does follow all other policies from My Hidden Bookshelf.
