science fiction and urban fantasy Archives

Marionettes by Kerry Alan Denney

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GENRE: Supernatural thriller

Cover designed by Nicolle Brown

MY REVIEW

The creepy cover of Marionettes by Kerry Alan Denney hints at the story inside. This supernatural thriller has enough twists and turns to keep me reading and marveling at the thought provoking scenarios David is forced to work through as he battles the evil lurking around every corner.

David Flint awoke in a hospital bed, confused and struggling to remember what happened. All he could think was WTH is going on. Have you ever had an out of body experience? David Flint has, but it goes so much further than that…he is the Marionette Man. He can mind jump. He not only knows what people think and feel, but he can control their actions.

I loved the scene in the hospital with the junkie. I wonder if I would have done the same…or worse, but you will have to read the book to find out more.

The Marionettes takes place in Gulfport, Mississippi, a place I know very well. In fact I just returned from a trip there on Tuesday. I know the devastation of a hurricane, which is what killed David Flint. His wife had died in a senseless accident some time before but her family still welcomed him with open arms. Eleana, his mother-in-law, is a hurricane force of her own, giving and well intentioned. Benny, his father-in-law, has a funny streak and is quite the comic, but can be counted on when needed. Shaina, his sister-in-law, has always been in love with him, yet she is determined to be his best friend, if that is what he needs to recover from Karin’s loss. She suffers from Karin’s loss too. She is quite the character and I wonder what their relationship will be.

When David Flint pisses off the wrong guy who is capable of so much more than David, I wonder how he could come out of this alive. The evil grows and challenges every resource he has.

I chuckled at the shower scene…and it’s 5 0’clock somewhere, so if David’s having a beer, I don’t want him to drink alone…so CHEERS.

What would be the repercussions of mind jumping? What moral and ethical dilemmas would arise? Maybe some secrets are best kept.

Marionettes makes me ask the question, “How far would I go to save the ones I love?”

I haven’t read a story quite like Marionettes and I love it. Kerry Alan Denney’s imagination and creative writing lend the story a sense of reality and brought mind jumping to life as I wondered if I would be able to follow the straight and narrow or would I bend the rules for my own personal gain? As David deals with his demons Kerry Alan Denny gives me food for thought and I feel the questions will linger long after I finish reading

I will be checking out more of Kerry Alan Denney’s award winning work and I look forward to taking another fantastic adventure through the pages with him.

I received a copy of Marionettes by Kerry Alan Denney in return for an honest review.

5 Stars

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BLURB

Resuscitated after he drowns and dies in a flood, David Flint discovers he has returned from the other side with an uncanny ability: He can “jump” into people’s bodies and minds, and control their thoughts and actions.

David believes it’s a gift, and wants to use it to help people. Then four members of a ruthless drug ring savagely attack his fiancée and leave her in a coma, and David tries to use his new power to destroy the whole ring. But the ringleader, a voodoo priest known as the Zombie Master, is a formidable man with a deadly secret: He has the same incredible ability as David.

When the two human marionette masters clash in a brutal bloody showdown, using the ring’s members as their puppets, David discovers he’s battling for much more than his life—he’s fighting to rid the world of an evil human abomination.

Marionettes illuminates the greatest achievements of the human spirit and the darkest corridors of our minds, and answers the age-old question: What are the consequences of absolute power?

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EXCERPT

My whole life changed after I drowned and died in the flood.

Upon my resurrection, I thought I was dreaming. My head felt fuzzy. A little man inside it was drilling away at my brain with a tiny but immensely effective jackhammer. My mouth felt like it was glued shut, my tongue ten times normal size and made of sandpaper. A crew of little men sliced furrows in my throat with dull rusty swords, cackling merrily as they destroyed my trachea.

Some sadistic bastard apparently burned a branding iron into my corneas.

It was far worse than any hangover I ever had—and I’d had some doozies since Karin died and left me alone, lost, and unmoored in a callous world.

When I woke, the acrid tang of antiseptic mixing with an unpleasant odor stung my nostrils. Through a crimson haze, I saw a pretty nurse gaze down at me and smile. She looked like an angel.

“Hi, David!” she sang, her perfect white teeth gleaming as if lit from within. “Welcome back.” She caressed my face with a warm hand, glanced at some monitoring equipment beside the bed I lay in, and turned and hit a switch behind me. “Laura, page Dr. Yamaguchi. Mr. Flint’s awake.”

The angel turned back to me. “I bet you’re thirsty. We’ll fix that shortly, okay? After the doctor sees you, maybe we can give you some ice chips.”

I shut my eyes to block out the combined glare of her smile and the overhead fluorescence. When I opened them again, an attractive Asian woman in her forties with close-cropped black hair streaked with gray stood over me. Her brow wrinkled, a tentative smile curling the corners of her lips upward.

“Welcome back, Mr. Flint,” she said. “I’m Dr. Yamaguchi. You’re lucky to be alive. It’s a miracle the couple who brought you in were able to resuscitate you. We almost lost you twice last night. Apparently you lead a charmed existence. Don’t try to speak yet.”

I tried anyway, but couldn’t. The miniature swordsmen in my throat were having a blast trying to cut their way out. I nodded, then grimaced as the movement made the mad Lilliputian with the jackhammer pound more little holes in my brain. I shut my eyes again and drifted off.

It was all surreal. I remembered my name and profession, but I couldn’t remember what happened to me. Every time I strained for the memory, it receded while raging torrents of dark waters overwhelmed me.

Consciousness was an assault upon my senses. But in what I initially mistook for dreams, my perception and sense of taste, touch, and smell were immaculate.

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AUTHOR Bio and Links

Colleagues and readers have dubbed Kerry Alan Denney The Reality Bender. The multiple award-winning author of the paranormal thrillers Dreamweavers (Juju Mojo Publications, August 2015) and Soulsnatcher (Juju Mojo Publications, April 2014), the post-apocalyptic sci-fi/ horror thriller Jagannath (Permuted Press, February 2015), and numerous short stories published online and in anthologies, Kerry blends elements of the supernatural, paranormal, sci-fi, fantasy, and horror in his work: speculative fiction at its wildest and craziest. With joy, malicious glee, and a touch of madness, he writes reality-bending thrillers, even when the voices don’t compel him to. His protagonists are his children, and he loves them as dearly as he despises his antagonists… even when he has to kill them.

On July 24, 2015, Jagannath became a #1 Amazon bestseller. On March 31, 2015, Soulsnatcher won 2nd Place as 2014 Book of the Year in The Drunken Druid’s International Book Award competition. Jagannath and Soulsnatcher each received a rave blurb from New York Times bestselling author James Rollins.

Kerry lives in Stone Mountain, Georgia with his golden retriever Holly Jolly, a veteran professional Therapy Dog, where he is currently writing his next supernatural thriller… and deciding who to kill in it.

Be on the lookout for Kerry’s new post-apocalyptic/ paranormal thriller A Mighty Rolling Thunder, coming December 3, 2016 from Burning Willow Press.

Website / Twitter / Goodreads / Facebook / Amazon / Google+

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GIVEAWAY

Kerry Alan Denney will be awarding a $20 Amazon/BN GC to a randomly drawn winner via rafflecopter during the tour.

ENTER THE RAFFLECOPTER GIVEAWAY HERE