Did Dean Koontz predict the current Coronavirus pandemic in his novel, The Eyes of Darkness? The critics say no, but who believes in coincidence? In his book, which was written in 1981, almost 40 years ago, the 2020 virus was originally named Gorki-400 and then in subsequent editions it was changed to Wuhan-400. No one seems to know why. I don’t know about you, but this makes the hairs on the back of my neck stand up.
In our immediate past, we immersed ourselves in books just like that one to escape reality, but today, with the COVID-19 restrictions, the reality is so weird, we might turn to books to remind ourselves how it was, until recently, in the ‘normal’ world.
In my book, Tara Grace Ericson escaped from her reality by moving to another state and starting a new life. Looking back, she would say it was a shallow life, and not what she would have planned for herself, but the truth was too hard to live with. Her parents had been savagely and brutally murdered in the family home while they slept.
As if that wasn’t bad enough, Jared, her childhood sweetheart, was arrested, tried and convicted of committing the horrendous deed. Tara’s suffered from PTSD ever since, and tried without success not to think about him sitting on death row at Huntsville, Texas. How would she be able to cope with his execution?
A week after the loss of her parents, Tara’s autistic little sister took off, and hasn’t been heard of since. She refuses to believe Cassie could be dead.
Tara has coped with the heartache and anguish by staying away from her family home most of the last ten years, but now her aunt has died and left the property to her and her brother, Cory. He has no interest in it, and the duty of taking control of the property, together with the family business—the Taurus Center for Equine Therapy—has fallen on her shoulders. She loves horses and never ceases to be in awe of their healing power, but the pain of being in that environment again is almost unbearable.
When she arrives in the small Texas town, filled with misgivings and apprehension, her life is turned totally upside down when she discovers that Jared has been pardoned and released from prison. Adrenalin pumps through her at the first sight of him after ten years. Her breathing is rapid and she can’t stop shaking. He still has that beautiful handsome face, sexy body, and now there’s a hardness in his eyes that adds a little danger to his intense stare.
Jared is on a mission to find the real killer. Tara’s brother, Cory believes the killer is long gone by now, but terror strikes hard when it soon becomes clear that he’s still in the area, still very much alive and is not done with the mayhem he started. . .
Trish Jackson, Author 