Connemara Eyes

Dream Reaper Virtual Tour

From October 24th through November 24th, DREAM REAPER will be on tour! There will be giveaways! Check out Silver Dagger Book Tours for dates and times!

“Alistair Cross’s DREAM REAPER is an intriguing tale that pits evil against good and keeps the reader on edge with surprising shifts and changes.”
Dianna Love, New York Times Bestseller

“Dream Reaper sets the bar high for urban fantasy; Alistair Cross brings thrills, chills, and otherworldly delights to every page. I’ve never read a novel like it – it delivers terrifying in-your-face horror even as the romance and humor melt your heart and make you laugh out loud. I came away from this book pumped full of adrenaline and deeply satisfied. An excellent read!”
Tamara Thorne, international bestselling author of Haunted and Candle Bay

“Dream Reaper is as lush and ethereal as it is visceral and unholy. A demonic horde seeks to swallow up the citizens of Prominence made vulnerable by their weaknesses. Those who take a stand against the evil are emotionally damaged as well; particularly a sheriff who battles his personal demons in a bottle. The author had me rooting for each of them in spite of, or maybe because of their flaws. With masterful pacing, Cross brings a small mystery to a raging boil that threatens every soul in Prominence. His exquisite prose drew me into the story as if I were living it. Highly recommended.”
QL Pearce, author of the Scary Stories for Sleep-Overs series, and Spine Chillers: Hair-Raising Tales

Reaping Dreams and Stealing Souls

• 

Here it is ~ the new cover and title for the book that is soon-to-be formerly known as The Angel Alejandro. This edition focuses on the demonic villain rather than the angelic hero of the story, and the reasons for this are two-fold.

First, due to the amounts of blood, sex, and death in the book, the original cover is somewhat misleading ~ it looks more like a romance than a horror novel, and while there is plenty of romance to be had here, overall, the horror reigns supreme.

The second reason has to do with the man on the cover. That top hatted devilish fellow with the cracked (but handsome) face is Gremory Jones, aka, Mr. Jones, aka, the Dream Reaper, who survives on the power of the things you think you need, the things you long for, the things you dream of … and he’s not finished with you yet.

There’s long been talk of Gremory getting a series of his own and while that’s a ways down the line, that would technically make this book the first in that series ~ and we wanted the packaging to reflect that. I think it does.
As hard as it was to let go of the original cover (it was always my favorite) I love this new one and have to agree that it far better represents the story. If you read it, I think you’ll agree. This new edition with it’s new title and cover art will be available in the coming weeks, just in time for Halloween…

~ Alistair

An Update from Alistair

I’m both excited and saddened to announce that in the coming weeks, my book, the Angel Alejandro, will be receiving a new title and cover ~ one that will more accurately convey its content. As much as I love the current packaging (it’s probably my favorite cover, in fact), Alejandro is a very dark story ~ too dark, I think, for this cover art.

This cover pretty much screams high romance, and while there is a good amount of that to be found here (under it all, Alejandro really is a love story) there’s also a lot of sex, death, and gore that isn’t being represented. In other words, I don’t want you thinking you’re getting Twilight when you’re really getting Salem’s Lot. Not that Alejandro has anything to do with vampires ~ that’s just the best comparison I could come up with on the fly and I really have to hurry because Tamara is tapping her foot, waiting for me, and she gets kinda stabby if I take too long on these things …

Anyway … I have seen the new cover and title and I have to say I love it. I’ll be sharing it with you soon but I wanted to make all the proper announcements ahead of time in hopes of minimizing confusion.

 

~ Alistair

The Ghosts of Ravencrest is on Sale!

Our gothic horror novel, The Ghosts of Ravencrest (book 1 in the Ravencrest Saga) is on sale for $0.99 in #ebook at Amazon today through the 20th!

THE GHOSTS OF RAVENCREST

(Book 1 in The Ravencrest Saga)

Ravencrest Manor casts long, black shadows across its grand lawns, through the surrounding forests, and over the picturesque town of Devilswood, below. It holds its memories – and its ghosts – close to its dark heart.

When governess Belinda Moorland arrives at Ravencrest to tutor Eric Manning’s children, it’s the most beautiful place she’s ever seen, but she soon learns that not only is it built on secrets, but its inhabitants keep plenty of their own – from the elegant English butler to the power-mad administrator, to handsome millionaire Eric Manning himself, who watches her with dark, fathomless eyes. But Belinda soon realizes that the living who dwell in Ravencrest have nothing on the others – the ones who walk the darkened halls by night … the ones who enter her dreams … the ones who are watching … and waiting … 

Ghostly screams echo as bony fingers clutch at her in the indoor pool. The spirit of a long-dead child calls to her. A trio of gibbering nuns haunts her, their mad black eyes blazing. Ravencrest is a house of spirits and Belinda is thrust into a world of waking nightmares where there is no distinction between the living and the dead.

“The Ghosts of Ravencrest delivers on every level. Delicate, creepy, detailed, and beautifully crafted, this reinvention of the gothic ghost story into a sexy, sleek modern chiller is a marvel of suspense and atmosphere. A knockout of a horror yarn!”

– Jay Bonansinga, New York Times bestselling author of The Walking Dead: Invasion, Lucid, and Self Storage

Book 2 in the Ravencrest Saga, THE WITCHES OF RAVENCREST, is also available at Amazon.

The Ravencrest Saga: EXORCISM

The first serialized installment of of the book 3 in the Ravencrest Saga is coming soon.

“Midnight. The witching hour. Watery echoes in an empty building. The grand indoor pool at Ravencrest Manor babbles and gurgles as chlorine-scented water pumps, flowing like cool blood in veins and arteries. The moon, full and high above the arched glass ceiling, shines its light into the cobalt pool, casting splintered rays across the water, picking up golden highlights as it hits the constellations, the planets, and their moons set into the bottom of the pool.

The statues surrounding the water are alive with moonlight and reflection. Poseidon, enthroned at one end, frowns over his Kingdom, alabaster eyes flickering with moonbeams. Across the long spanse of water, a jovial Dionysus is surrounded by his Maenads, who shimmer and shimmy in the moving glow of the moon.

Elsewhere, all along the blue-and-star-tiled floor bordering the plunge, marble sylphs and nymphs watch from the shadows. Where the pool narrows to a river, turning and weaving like a snake behind the main body of water, only to return again, a clutch of Muses titters at anyone brave enough to venture so far from the main room.

A phantasmic sound. A spring and thunk from the tall diving board that obscures the darkened dressing rooms beyond. Then a splash as someone dives in, and somehow, water explodes into the air. The sound ebbs and flows with movement.

But if no human ear is present to hear it, no eye to see it, can these sights and sounds be real? Or are they merely tricks of light and sound, magic courtesy of Mother Nature?
Something white and serpentine slithers and stirs beneath the water like glistening cold silk, there and gone again in an instant.

And then, music, faint but unmistakable, rises and echoes. Eddie Cantor. If You Knew Susie Like I Know Susie. Oh, oh what a girl.

Laughter. The sounds of a party, of voices, of glasses clinking.

A cloud passes before the moon, and the stage goes dark and silent but for the gurgle of water. No statue moves. The music is ended, if it was ever there at all. And then…

Chanting, soft and sinister, from somewhere nearby. An echo. Malignant minor-keyed singing – something reminiscent of the Dies Irae, but warped rather than tragic, disturbing rather than sorrowful. Day of Wrath and Doom Impending. We welcome your darkness; we bathe in your shadows.

The cloud passes, moonlight filters through the arched glass once more. The water is still now; there is nothing except, perhaps, the faint agonizing sound of a scream.”

Get the previous books in THE RAVENCREST SAGA:

The Ghosts of Ravencrest:
Ebook: http://tinyurl.com/jgasppc
Paperback: http://tinyurl.com/y6wllbjy

Witches of Ravencrest: (available for $0.99 in eBook April2 – April 9)
Ebook: http://tinyurl.com/y85tyc9f
Paperback: https://tinyurl.com/y7vmqn7j

For book deals, updates, specials, exclusives, and upcoming guests on Thorne & Cross: Haunted Nights LIVE!, join our newsletter: http://eepurl.com/ckaBrr

Back in Business

The Ravencrest Saga is back in business! We’ve begun the third book in the series and next week, subscribers to the Thorne & Cross newsletter will get to see the cover art for the next series of installments. And boy, is it creepy. If you haven’t subscribed, just go here: http://eepurl.com/ckaBrr 

If you need to catch up on the specters, scandals, sinister goings-on at Ravencrest, get both on Amazon:

The Ghosts of Ravencrest

The Witches of Ravencrest

The Angel Alejandro – A Review

A review of THE ANGEL ALEJANDRO:

“It’s hard to go wrong with anything by Alistair Cross, but The Angel Alejandro is a true stunner. Madison O’Riley is brought back from the brink of death by a mysterious, beautiful stranger who has no memory of who he is. In one of the most memorable (and funniest) scenes I’ve read in a long time, they settle on calling him Alejandro. As the unlikely (and adorable) pair set out to uncover Alejandro’s lost memories, another stranger comes to town, a salesman named Gremory Jones who, quite frankly, is the most terrifying fictional villain I’ve met since Hannibal Lecter in Silence of the Lambs.

As the plot thickens (and by this I mean it just keeps getting more sick and twisted) the entire town of Prominence falls under an unholy influence that threatens to tear the community to pieces. I was open-mouthed and gasping as the townfolk went on their respective wicked warpaths. I haven’t seen such lunatic (and guiltily riveting) rampages since, well, ever.

Over all, The Angel Alejandro has everything I like in a good book and I rate it a 5 full stars based on plot (compelling), pacing and execution (both top-notch) lifelike characters (the kind you can really sink your teeth into and care about) and the kind of atmosphere that comes to life and fully pulls you into an intriguing new world. Easily one of my all-time favorites and I can see myself returning to it again and again. Recommended for anyone looking for an epic tale of good versus evil with a unique brand of romance and more than a little screaming mad terror along the way.

Fans of Stephen King will love Alistair Cross, and The Angel Alejandro is the perfect place to start.”

Available at: https://www.amazon.com/Angel-Alejandro-Alistair-Cross-ebook/dp/B01N347ZE8/ref=pd_sbs_351_1?_encoding=UTF8&psc=1&refRID=S678NCHAFSGDM4PSW1VE

 

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A Review – The Angel Alejandro

A review of The Angel Alejandro:

“At the core, The Angel Alejandro by Alistair Cross is about greed and lust and its effects when all restraints are removed. A true good versus evil story. The book is rather long (521 pages) and took longer than I thought to read. The reason for the slow read was not the speed of the plot, but I found myself totally absorbed in the story and wanted to go slower and savor all the details.

Alejandro is an angel that has been pulled into this world when Madison O’Riley fell from the roof of her home. He saved her life, yet he cannot remember who he is and strange things happen around him. He hears voices calling for help in his mind and when he responds to one such voice his powers are revealed to the entire world. There is an immediate media frenzy and everyone seems to want a piece of him, including another new comer in town, Gremory Jones.

Since Mr. Jones and his various associates have arrived in the small town of Prominence, to open a night club, there has been nothing but chaos. Their evil influence has taken hold in this normally sleepy, small town. The residents are rocked by one shocking event after another, each worse than the one before. With few exceptions, the entire town seems to have gone crazy.

Nick Grayson is the new chief of police and also a new arrival to Prominence. In all his years in law enforcement he has never seen the likes of what is happening. As a recovering alcoholic, his resolve is pushed to the breaking point as he deals with each new crisis and rising crime and murder rates. For law and order to be restored, Nick will have to learn to believe in things not of this world and seek the help of his new found friends.

This is a new take on angels and the devil for me. It made for an imaginative and fascinating read. I do want to issue a word of caution, the subject matter was dark and the details were graphic. Some readers might find it disturbing and I would not recommend this for younger readers. However, if you like urban fantasy and horror mixed with a tad of romance this is the book for you.”

Available at: https://www.amazon.com/Angel-Alejandro-Alistair-Cross-ebook/dp/B01N347ZE8/ref=pd_sbs_351_1?_encoding=UTF8&psc=1&refRID=S678NCHAFSGDM4PSW1VE

 

THE CRIMSON CORSET is on SALE!

To celebrate October, Halloween, and last week’s show at Thorne & Cross: Haunted Nights LIVE! with vampire author extraordinaire, Laurell K. Hamilton, THE CRIMSON CORSET is on sale at Amazon for just $0.99 in ebook, now through October 6th.

“Alistair Cross’ new novel THE CRIMSON CORSET … is taut and elegantly written taking us into the realms where the erotic and the horrific meet. Reminiscent of the work of Sheridan Le Fanu (CARMILLA, UNCLE SILAS) in its hothouse, almost Victorian intensity, it tells a multi-leveled story of misalliance and mixed motives. The language is darkly lyrical, and the tale is compelling. Read it; you’ll be glad you did.” – Chelsea Quinn Yarbro, author of the Saint-Germain Cycle

“This drop-deadly tale of seduction and terror will leave you begging to be fanged … ” – Tamara Thorne, international bestselling author of HAUNTED and MOONFALL

“I couldn’t put this book down. It’s got more hooks than a day boat out of San Pedro Harbor!”  – QL Pearce, bestselling author of SCARY STORIES FOR SLEEP-OVERS