His captor has informed him that he intends to keep him alive for twenty years, and while he feels certain that his body will last, he wonders about his mind. Already, it is breaking down. To know and understand that you’re going crazy is perhaps the worst brand of torment he has ever withstood. He’d rather spend a year in the gurney.
And so he is essentially a soul trapped in an earthbound body.
His approach to living could almost be described as Zen.
The ten square feet where he eats and sleeps and shits is his world.
He has an intimate knowledge of the cracks and fissures in the concrete beneath him—studies their patterns like the word of God.
The space beyond his length of chain has become as mysterious and unreachable as the universe.
Occasionally, screams trickle down from the warehouse several floors above, but mostly, there is only silence and darkness.
Recently, his captor brought down an antiquated typewriter and ten reams of paper.
A sick joke, but more and more he’s considering writing if for nothing more than the diversion of something new to pass the hours.
He talks to Orson all the time.
He tells himself stories that he may one day write.
In the strangest of them all, none of this is really happening. He’s just a character trapped in the twisted story of a semi-famous writer who lives on a lake in North Carolina. He keeps trying to finish the story. To write in some weakness in the chains, some error in judgment on the part of his captor that might allow him to escape, but nothing ever seems right.
At last, on the story’s hundredth incarnation, he arrives upon the answer.
A character returns unexpectedly to the warehouse and saves him.
As the story closes, he’s lying in a luxurious bed, drifting in and out of sleep.
He hears approaching footsteps and smiles.
Because the covers are warm.
Because he feels no pain.
Because those footsteps belong to Violet.
She’s coming to nurse him back to health.
Momentarily, she’ll be through the door.
And she’ll sit on the bed and feed him from a bowl of steaming soup, and when she’s finished, crawl into bed with him and run her fingers through his hair and whisper that he’s safe now. That the pain is behind him, behind them both, and in this warm, soft bed—everything that matters.
Author’s Afterword
So when can you expect the end of the Andrew Thomas/Luther Kite saga?
I’m good friends with thriller author J.A. Konrath, and our writing has covered many of the same themes of good and evil. I love Joe’s Det. Jack Daniels Series, which showcases his own unique, disturbing take on the serial killer genre.
In 2010, we wrote a novella together called SERIAL UNCUT, combining some of the characters from his work and my work, including Jack Daniels, Taylor (from AFRAID and TRAPPED, written under Joe’s pen name, Jack Kilborn), and Mr. K. It also features Orson Thomas and Luther Kite from DESERT PLACES and LOCKED DOORS.
Joe approached me with a simple, yet unique, idea: Wouldn’t it be fun to have Jack and Luther square off in a full length novel that was also the conclusion to both of our series? I was all for it. That novel is STIRRED, which we’re currently writing, and it will be released at the end of 2011.
If you’re new to my books, or Joe’s books, and want to get caught up on the entire history of these characters before reading STIRRED, here is the order they go in, along with the characters they spotlight:
SHOT OF TEQUILA by JA Konrath (1991, Jack Daniels)
DESERT PLACES by Blake Crouch (1996, Andy Thomas, Luther Kite)
LOCKED DOORS by Blake Crouch (2003, Andy Thomas, Luther Kite)
WHISKEY SOUR by JA Konrath (2004, Jack Daniels, Alex Kork)
BREAK YOU by Blake Crouch (2004, Luther Kite, Andy Thomas)
BLOODY MARY by JA Konrath (2005, Jack Daniels)
RUSTY NAIL by JA Konrath (2006, Jack Daniels, Alex Kork)
DIRTY MARTINI by JA Konrath (2007, Jack Daniels)
SERIAL UNCUT by Blake Crouch, Jack Kilborn, and JA Konrath (1978-2010, Jack Daniels, Luther Kite, Taylor, Mr. K)
KILLERS UNCUT by Blake Crouch and JA Konrath (1970s - 2010, Jack Daniels, Luther Kite, Alex Kork, Charles Kork, Lucy and Donaldson)
AFRAID by Jack Kilborn (2008, Taylor)
JACK DANIELS STORIES by JA Konrath (2004-2010, Jack Daniels)
FUZZY NAVEL by JA Konrath (2008, Jack Daniels, Alex Kork)
CHERRY BOMB by JA Konrath (2009, Jack Daniels, Alex Kork)
TRAPPED by Jack Kilborn (2010, Taylor)
SHAKEN by JA Konrath (2010, Jack Daniels, Mr. K, Luther Kite)
STIRRED by Blake Crouch and JA Konrath (2011, Jack Daniels, Luther Kite)
This may seem like a devious effort by us to get you to buy everything we’ve written. I swear it isn’t. If it was, I would have mentioned Joe’s novels ORIGIN, DISTURB, THE LIST, and ENDURANCE, and my novels ABANDON and SNOWBOUND.
Seriously, though. It really isn’t necessary for you to read any of these previous novels to enjoy STIRRED.
But we’d love you even more if you did. :)
Blake Crouch
February 8, 2011
Durango, Colorado
Read on for an interview with JA Konrath and Blake Crouch and excerpts of Desert Places, Locked Doors, and the 7th Jack Daniels novel, Shaken...
Interview with Blake Crouch and J.A. Konrath
Originally Published in Crimespree Magazine, January 2011
J.A. Konrath has a lot going on right now. Besides the print release of his seventh Lt. Jacqueline "Jack" Daniels book, Shaken, he's also penned two sci-fi novels for Ace Berkley under the name Joe Kimball for release in 2011. Timecaster and Timecaster: Supersymmetry take place in Chicago 2064 and feature Jack's grandson as the hero. Konrath is currently working on several collaborations, including a few with Blake Crouch. His blog, “A Newbie's Guide to Publishing,” has become the hot spot for self-publishing information, fueled by Konrath's ebook sales, which have topped over 150,000 since 2009.
Blake Crouch is the author of Desert Places, Locked Doors, Snowbound, and Abandon, which was an IndieBound Notable book last summer. He has frequently collaborated with J.A. Konrath on such projects as the 250,000-download smash-hit Serial which offended masses of people, Draculas (a collaboration with Konrath, F. Paul Wilson, and Jeff Strand), and the upcoming Stirred, conclusion to both Konrath’s Jack Daniels series and Blake’s Andrew Z. Thomas/Luther Kite series. Blake’s short fiction has appeared in numerous anthologies, Ellery Queen, and Alfred Hitchcock’s Mystery Magazine, where his novella, “The Pain of Others” has just been published.
Blake: What's been your single, most satisfying moment as a writer?
Joe: It's hard to top my first book deal, with Whiskey Sour. But the most sustainable satisfaction has been self-publishing over the last two years. I've sold over 100,000 ebooks, all on my own. It's been eye-opening, humbling, and has made me a very happy man.
Blake: Do you ever get sick and tired of talking about ebooks? It seems to take a lot of time away from writing.