The
Shift
Fiona
Dodwell
Genre: Horror/Psychological
Publisher: Double Dragon Publishing
ASIN: B00CQ59LKM
Number of pages: 230 pages
Formats available: Ebook and
paperback
Book Description:
Michael White is a man desperate to
escape his past. After tragedy costs him his job and marriage, he finds himself
abandoned in a world of depression, loneliness and unemployment – until a new
start working at a luxurious care home is offered.
But Hill Wood House isn't like any
other care home. What are the shadowy figures that follow Michael? What do they
want? And beyond the paranormal, who is stalking Michael? Who is entering his
home at night and leaving disturbing messages across his walls?
Can anyone ever really escape their
past? Michael is about to go on a dark journey to uncover the truth behind what
is haunting him – a truth that will wreak death and destruction to those
Michael cares about.
Short
Excerpt:
He leaned forward,
pressing his face close to her mouth and listened, waiting for breath that
would not come. Her skin was a pallid colour, void of the pink that used to
tint it, and her lips were blue, an impossible blue. He gaped as he stood
upright, looking down at her body while resisting the urge to vomit.
It was the most
terrible thing he’d seen in his entire life.
He lifted her
wrist into the air and her hand fell limply forward. He felt for a pulse and
found none; it was useless, the confirmation of a fact he already knew.
She was dead.
The stale air in
the room suddenly became too thick, too hot, and he struggled to find his own
breath. He gagged, then lurched over to the bedroom window and pushed it open,
allowing the cool night air to swiftly enter. He breathed deeply, the air cold
and sharp as it hit his lungs. The moon hanging above him in the navy sky was
wide and looming, sending darkened shadows across the lawn below.
Everything looked
different, somehow; everything seemed marked.
He turned back,
reluctantly, his eyes falling on the corpse lying in front of him.
In life, she had
been beautiful, despite her problems. In life, she had been wonderful. Now
death had claimed her and the mask of that eternal sleep was already sliding
into place.
Soon she would be
stiff with rigor mortis, her slender skin toughened under the blanket of death.
Soon she would be taken away, zipped inside a body bag, a label attached to her
toe or wrist.
She was gone.
He fell to the
floor, the weight of the reality sitting firmly on his shoulders as he wept
bitterly.
He would never
forget this day for the rest of his life.
It would change
everything.
Guest Spotlight – Excerpt
from The Shift
It
came to him in his dream that night, as he lay under the glowing light of
the glowing moon. His window was open
slightly, allowing cool air to seep into
the warm room in which he slept. He tossed and turned as Sandra appeared in his
mind. She was young, elegant, the way she was the day they had met. She was
moving towards him through a crowd, but she was finding it difficult to reach
him. The people surrounding her were a mass of activity, standing in the way,
pushing her back against the current of shoppers. Michael called out her name,
tried to find his voice, but nothing left his lips. He felt empty. Alone.
Scared. Wanted to reach her.
Sandra
moved, her steps like fluid along the pavement, almost as if she was floating.
The shoppers lining the street finally parted and she moved forward, closer to
him. A smile weaved itself across her lips as she finally reached him. She
leaned forward, kissing him lightly on the cheeks. He stepped back, looked her
up and down. It was her, the woman he loved more than anyone. She nodded, as if
understanding something and then pulled something out of a bag she was holding.
It was a white box, covered in red ribbon. She reached forward, trying to hand
it to him. Michael looked at it, repulsed, tried to back away, but Sandra kept
motioning for him to take it from her. Finally,
in agonising reluctance, he took the box from her and slipped off the red silky
ribbon. It fluttered with the silence of snowflakes hitting the floor as he
slid open the lid. Sandra burst
into laughter when she saw the face Michael pulled when he peered in, seeing
the contents of the box. He shook his head in disbelief, frightened, frozen in
a mask of fear. The box was covered in drops of blood. Tucked neatly in the
centre of it he saw an eyeball, peering up at him, veins and tendons still
loosely attached. He dropped the box and it fell silently to the ground.
Gasping and shaking, he looked up at Sandra and saw the black, muddy hole where
her eye should have been, the other eye looking at him reproachfully.
Author
Biography
Fiona grew up in Buckinghamshire in
the UK. She has had a passion for the written word since she was a child, and
found herself a regular visitor of local book stores and libraries from a young
age. Growing up, Fiona became a big fan of the supernatural and horror genre –
in both film and literature. She devoured Susan Hill, Dean Koontz and Stephen
King novels with relish, and soon realised she wanted to create dark fictional
worlds of her own.
Fiona has studied a variety of
subjects in recent years, from Theology and Psychology, to Film Studies and
Drama. Her passion for writing, though, is what she focuses on now. In 2011,
she released her debut horror novel, The Banishing, and then went on to publish
Obsessed and The Shift. These novels were published with Double Dragon
Publishing and Damnation Books.
Fiona also enjoys writing articles
and has written for Paranormal Underground Magazine, Pinched Literary Magazine,
Supernatural Magazine and also runs her own website, which contains various
selections of her articles, interviews and reviews.
In September of 2015, Fiona signed
a contract with Media Bitch Literary Agency where she is now represented. She
has recently finished several short stories and is working on her new novel,
The Risen, which she hopes to release in 2016.
Fiona currently lives with her
husband, Matthew, and her unruly ginger cat, Oscar.
Twitter: angel_devil982
Facebook Author Page: https://www.facebook.com/fionadodwellauthor
Tour
giveaway
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