“Texas high school football combined with strange disappearances, supernatural urban legends, and dangerous men hell bent on keeping their secrets makes this debut novel one you don’t want to miss.”
Bentley, Texas holds only two things near and dear to its heart: high school football, and secrets.
When star quarterback Dylan Whitley turns up missing, fear tears through the community. Dylan’s brother Joel, shamed out of Bentley ten years prior, comes home from New York to find out what happened to Dylan. Joel had thought he’d escaped conservative Bentley for good. For Deputy Starsha Clark, Joel’s return home stirs up painful memories about her own missing brother, and with those memories, tons of unanswered questions.
Whispers in the high school hallways suggest some people know more than they’re letting on. As Joel and Starsha kick up more secrets Bentley has tried to ignore, some men in the town will stop at nothing to make sure their crimes remain hidden.
And then there’s the other darkness, thought to be just an urban legend, whispering in their nightmares, calling them to a flicker of light on the horizon … The Bright Lands.
Why we’re excited about this book:
John Fram originally hails from Texas, but now calls New York home. Texas high school football combined with strange disappearances, supernatural urban legends, and dangerous men hell bent on keeping their secrets makes this debut one you don’t want to miss. Josh Malerman (Bird Box, Malorie) says: “Absolutely enthralling. Written with the rhythm of the game Fram writes of. A mystery to get the skin crawling even as you unbury the secrets of those trying to solve it. Despite its nature, there is a warmth to this thriller, and you’ll feel like you’ve come home … a home that still haunts you.”, and Christopher Golden (Ararat, The Pandora Room) said the The Bright Lands “is darker than you think. Fram begins with a Friday Night Lights supernatural mystery, then lures the reader into an insidious labyrinth of human cruelty, voracious supernatural evil, and startling malice. Unsettling, and compelling as hell.”
Releasing 7 July 2020 from Hanover Square Press, The Bright Lands by John Fram is available for pre-order.
BOB PASTORELLA
