New Voice in Horror Will Take You on a Chilling Journey in The Ride

A red 1955 Ford truck crashes, the dying driver hands an envelope containing gold keys to Carl Lee with the words, "Hide them." Carl, the owner of a body shop, restores the red truck and gives it to his seventy-five-year-old grandfather, Thaddeus, as a birthday present. And so begins The Ride, an extraordinary journey that propels Thaddeus back in time to the dark side of his past life. Standing in his way to change the past are a mysterious "man in grey," a menacing black truck, and a cast of unearthly creatures who either ooze from the slime, advance zombie-like, or attack violently with murderous intent.

A successor to Edgar Allan Poe as the master of horror, H. P. Lovecraft once wrote, "The oldest and strongest emotion of mankind is fear, and the oldest and strongest kind of fear is fear of the unknown." The Ride," by southern author, Tom Brandner, is a thriller, a mystery, and a horror story that calls upon elements of the unknown to blur the distinction between reality and nightmare-the human and the non-human-to create a place where things too evil to exist in the world can reside.

Continuing in the dark, macabre tradition of Stephen King and Peter Straub, Tom Brandner builds suspense and a remarkable sense of the unknown as he develops this complex plot where both realistic and fantastic elements join to unveil some ancient mystery. At a breakneck pace, The Ride takes the reader along with a man possessed to save the life of another, and in so doing, to restore meaning to his own.

The Ride is Tom Brandner's second novel. His first, The Rain, is a terrifying vision of a monstrous evil that lurks just beneath the ground of a drought-afflicted North Carolina town. Brandner gives his readers an excellent sense of place, and his characters are vivid and multidimensional. As are his monsters.

About the book:

The Ride by Tom Brandner

ISBN: 0980037743 (Hardcover)

Publisher: Grey Swan Press

Date of publish: Sept 2008

Pages: 399

About the author:

Tom Brandner was born and raised in the suburbs of Baltimore, Maryland. He comes from a large family growing up with five siblings, two brothers and three sisters. In 1985 Tom moved to Kinston, North Carolina, where he received degrees from Lenoir Community College and Mount Olive College. Tom still resides in Kinston, North Carolina with his wife, Belinda, and his two children, Thomas and Ashley. He is currently working on his third novel, The Lord of All Imaginary Friends.

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