Deep Blue

From award-winning author David Niall Wilson, what Publishers Weekly calls : "...an engrossing, poetic novel of spiritual evil..." ""Blue" reminds me of first discovering Anne Rice in my 30s,; the richness, the cellular examination of detail on every level, the flesh of the characters, the music, time... a unique work, a unique writer..." - Johnette Napolitano - Concrete Blonde Brandt is a down-and-out guitarist and vocalist who believes his life has hit rock bottom. He can't make the rent on his apartment, he drinks so much he can barely make it to the crappy gig that keeps his band afloat, let alone play when he gets there. When he leaves the bar one dark night with a bottle of Jose Cuervo in one hand and his guitar case in the other, he finds he’s locked out of his apartment with no where to go. In an alley filled with trash can fires and homeless vagrants, Brandt meets Wally, an old black man who can play the music that Brandt dreams of – the blues. In the ensuing encounter, Brandt is gifted – or cursed – with new abilities. He feels the pain building up around him and inside him. Not his own pain, but the pain of others, the pain of those who have passed away, the pain of those who died with no one to hear their stories. He becomes a conduit for the pain of the world. What follows are a series of revelations, one for each member of the band, and one for a young girl named Liz, drawing them together, and ultimately reuniting them with Brandt. Together, Brandt, Sinthia, Shaver, Dexter and Liz take off to the mountain town of Friendly California for a date with pain, destiny, and a silver haired Reverend who would like to see them dead. In the final showdown, they must meet the challenge of the music, the pain, and their mingled histories and stand, or fall, with the pain of the world in the balance. PRAISE FOR DEEP BLUE: "Wilson demonstrates that a horror novel doesn't need gallons of blood to succeed, that spiritual terror can be even more effective." - Publisher's Weekly "Through some great musical imagery and engrossing sub-plots, David Niall Wilson has written a captivating story that is full of surprises." - SF Site -Featured review "Wilson paints liquid rainbows when he describes each band member's experience behind his or her newly-rediscovered instruments and skills, and if this were all that the book were about, it would be enough. But there's plenty more going on in Deep Blue to satisfy the author's fans (who are used to him not sticking to genre conventions) and to draw in plenty of new ones." Craig's Booklist Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

In this engrossing, poetic novel of spiritual evil and the possibility of salvation from Wilson (This Is My Blood), a burned-out musician, Brandt, is playing in an obscure band when he hears a homeless black man, Wally, play the purest blues on the harmonica he has ever heard, music that encapsulates all the pain of the world. Brandt begs Wally to teach him how to play the same way. He disregards Wally's warning that he would have to take the pain into himself, and then play to purge it lest it consume him. Brandt's performance that evening changes the lives of his fellow band members. Together they discover that they can play not to wake the dead but to settle restlessly roaming spirits. Opposing them is a sinister figure masquerading as a man of God, who wishes the pain to go on and on. As Brandt and the other band members slowly and convincingly come to realize that a larger world surrounds them, Wilson demonstrates that a horror novel doesn't need gallons of blood to succeed, that spiritual terror can be even more effective. FYI: Wilson is a past president of the Horror Writers Association and an ordained minister. Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

About the Author

David Niall Wilson lives in North Carolina.

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