Sakima is a sleepy little city in the Hudson Valley. It’s one of those places where everyone knows each other. Boasting an incredibly low crime rate, Sakima’s medical examiner Dr. Laura Powell spends more time with her private medical practice than performing autopsies.
Then a local high school student is found dead. At first glance it appears to be a suicide, but Laura discovers a strange growth inside the body … a substance she’s unable to identify.
Laura reaches out to her scientist ex-boyfriend, Booker Coates, and together they find something deadly has taken root in her little town. This toxic organism quickly spreads through the city, causing minds to change at an alarming rate. As the organism takes over the population, the townspeople form violent mobs, seeking the uninfected. Laura and Booker have to stop the organism before they succumb to its power, but how can they stop something they don’t understand?
Why we’re excited about this book:
No stranger to horror fiction, Nicholas Kaufmann brings a modernized approach to his stories while never losing sight of his old-school roots. The author of 100 Fathoms Below (with Steven L. Kent), Dying is My Business, Die and Stay Dead, Chasing the Dragon, In the Shadow of the Axe, and Hunt at World’s End, Kaufmann’s short fiction has appeared in Interzone, Black Static, and such anthologies as One of Us: A Tribute to Frank Michaels Errington, The Rocketeer: Jet-Pack Adventures, and Dark Fusions: Where Monsters Lurk!, as well as his collection Still Life: Nine Stories. With his latest novel, Kaufmann taps into our collective fears with a body horror shocker that’ll keep you reading well into the night. Sarah Langan (Good Neighbors, Audrey’s Door) says: “Nicholas Kaufmann’s The Hungry Earth is required reading for anyone who loves tightly plotted horror. It’s a gleeful throwback to the best body horror of the ’80s, updated with a modern premise. His best work to date. Devour it, before it devours you!” and Ray Garton (Live Girls, Ravenous) says: “If you’re like me, The Hungry Earth will make you squirm out of your skin. Nicholas Kaufmann offers up an unputdownable blend of gruesome body horror and fast-paced suspense that will have you looking suspiciously at mushrooms for a long time to come.”
Releasing 5 October 2021 from Macabre Ink, The Hungry Earth by Nicholas Kaufmann is available for pre-order now.
BOB PASTORELLA