by Blake Crouch
2008 — The events in JA Konrath’s novel Fuzzy Navel, featuring Jack Daniels, Alex Kork, Munchel, Swanson, and Pessolano occur next…
A twisted murderer bent on revenge…
Three vigilantes who want to silence a cop…
No way to escape, nowhere to run…
The next eight hours will be the worst of Jack’s life. And that’s saying something.
2009 — The events in Blake Crouch’s novel Abandon, featuring Isaiah Brown, occur next…
On Christmas Day in 1893, every man, woman and child in a remote mining town will disappear, belongings forsaken, meals left to freeze in vacant cabins, and not a single bone will be found—not even the gold that was rumored to have been the pride of this town will be found. One hundred thirteen years later, two backcountry guides are hired by a leading history professor and his journalist daughter to lead them into the abandoned mining town so that they can learn what happened. This has been done once before but the people that went in did not come out. With them is a psychic and a paranormal photographer—the town is rumored to be haunted. They’ve come to see a ghost town, but what they are about to discover is that twenty miles from civilization, with a blizzard bearing down, they are not alone, and the past is very much alive….
2009 — The events in JA Konrath’s novel Cherry Bomb, featuring Jack Daniels and Alex Kork, occur next…
At the end of Fuzzy Navel—a thriller so gripping countless fans reported reading it in one sitting—JA Konrath surprised readers with a doozy of a cliffhanger: One of Lt. Jacqueline “Jack” Daniels’s loved ones is dead. But who? The Internet has been abuzz with fans clamoring to know more.
The wait is almost over.
Cherry Bomb, the sixth Jack Daniels thriller, opens with a funeral. While Jack stands graveside, tears in her eyes, her cell phone rings, It’s the killer, taunting Jack, drawing her even further into a twisted game of cat and mouse.
Reader beware: Cherry Bomb might be the last Jack Daniels novel, and not everyone gets out of this one alive…
2010 — The events in Jack Kilborn’s novel Trapped, featuring Taylor, occur next…
TERRIFIED…
It was supposed to be a harmless camping trip. Six wayward teenagers who’d run into trouble with the law, and their court-appointed guardians, Sara and Martin Randhurst. Three nights on a small, deserted island off of Michigan’s upper peninsula. A time to bond, to learn, to heal. Then Martin told a campfire story about the island’s history. Of the old civil war prison hidden in there, and the starving confederate soldiers who resorted to cannibalism to stay alive. Everyone thought it was funny. They even laughed when Martin pretended to be dragged off into the woods. But Martin didn’t come back. And neither did Sara when she went in search of him. Then the laughter stopped.
…TO DEATH
The group soon began to realize that this deserted island wasn’t so deserted after all. And perhaps Martin’s ridiculous story had more truth to it than anyone thought. What’s the most horrifying thing you can imagine? This is a hundred times worse…
2010 — The events in Jack Kilborn’s novel Endurance, featuring Sheriff Dwight Roosevelt, occur next…
WELCOME TO THE RUSHMORE INN
The bed and breakfast was hidden in the hills of West Virginia. Wary guests wondered how it could stay in business at such a creepy, remote location. Especially with its bizarre, presidential decor and eccentric proprietor.
ONCE YOU CHECK IN…
When the event hotel for the national Iron Woman triathlon accidentally overbooked, competitor Maria was forced to stay at the Rushmore. But after checking into her room, she quickly realized she wasn’t alone. First her suitcase wasn’t where she put it. Then her cell phone was moved. Finally, she heard an odd creaking under the bed. Confusion quickly turned to fear, and fear to hysteria when she discovered the front door was barred and the windows were bricked over. There was no way out. …
YOU’LL BE DYING TO LEAVE
One year later, four new female athletes have become guests of the Inn. Will they escape the horrors within its walls? Or will they join the many others who have died there, in ways too terrible to imagine? ENDURANCE by Jack Kilborn: Are you brave enough to finish?
2010 — The events in JA Konrath’s novel Shaken, featuring Jack Daniels, Mr. K, and Luther Kite, occur next…
Since her debut in Whiskey Sour, Lieutenant Jacqueline “Jack” Daniels has dealt with her fair share of criminals. But she may have finally met her match in “Mr. K,” the brutal serial killer who has eluded Jack not once, but twice, over the years.
Mr. K is the essence of evil, credited with more than two hundred horrific homicides. Now, on a hot August night, Jack finally gets the chance to face the maniac—unfortunately, she must do so while bound and gagged in a storage locker, primed to be his next victim. As she awaits her fate, Jack looks back on her career, from her first homicide case to her recent retirement.
The twenty-five years in between saw Jack’s attitude toward justice, the law, her job, and her personal life shift drastically. She is a different woman now…but is she good enough to stop a madman? Konrath’s trademark blend of suspense and wry humor are on full display in this tense thriller, a gripping tale that will keep readers on the edge of their seats.
Lovebirds
2011
The pain was constant.
Unrelenting.
It didn’t even let up during sleep—what little sleep he could get between nightmares.
That’s how it had been for years.
He was hooked on narcotics. Always wore two codeine patches for the ruins that were his legs. Thrice-daily Vicodin and Norco. Ativan to help him sleep. His lungs were scarred, making each labored breath a wet, raspy wheeze. He had six fingers left, and only four of them still worked properly.
Sometimes, it got so bad he couldn’t stop trembling, shaking for hours on end. If he’d been the type of man to believe in karma, or justice, or some higher power that dished out retribution, he might have drawn the obvious conclusion and realized this was what he deserved.
That’s what the judge, and the jury of twelve, had said while sentencing him to this hellhole.
Him and his partner.
Partner. What a fucking joke.
A fucking joke that became a fucking self-fulfilling prophecy.
Though he’d killed many, and was widely known as a monster, the extent and permanence of his debilitating injuries deemed him no longer a threat to society, so this medical facility wasn’t even maximum security. Sometimes, they forgot to lock the door to his room at night. One of his doctors even had the balls to tell the court that there was zero concern about escape, because that would mean being away from the pain meds.
The court agreed. Their mistake. One they’d pay dearly for.
Groaning, he shuffled down the hospital hallway, supporting himself with the rolling IV stand, his backless gown exposing the latticework of scars covering him from neck to heels. Nurses didn’t even bother looking at him. To them, he was as harmless as a toothless puppy. Even with full doses of various medications swirling through his system, walking was agony, each step an electric jolt of pain, firing the nerve endings he still had left—an unremitting reminder of the horror he had endured.
He reached the end of the hall, pausing to catch his tortured breath, which rattled in his chest like a BB in a can of spray paint. He was getting close to his stamina’s limit, and contemplated leaning against the wall to rest for a moment. But rather than give in to the fatigue and pain, he pressed onward, turning the corner, limping down four more doors until he reached her room.
She was sprawled out in bed like a broken, violated angel. Pretty once. Now an apocalypse of scar tissue and skin grafts and tubes and stitches. Her latest operation had been a week ago—a setback that had cost them a lot of precious time.
He pushed his way inside, seeking the nearest chair, collapsing into it with a sigh of relief even as his nerves flared in uni
son.
“Hey,” he rasped. “How you doing?”
She peeked her remaining eye open. “Aces. You?”
He cupped a hand to the hole where his ear used to be and said, “Louder.”
She repeated, at a higher volume. “Aces. You?”
“Each sunrise is a gift from the Lord. We still on for two days from now?”
“Yes.”
“You sure?”
“Yes, I’m sure. As long as your fat ass doesn’t gobble up all our pills.”
The fat ass comment was a nod to the past. He hadn’t been fat for some time. Fat required the ability to eat solids.
“Two days then,” he said, nodding to himself. “Then we’re fucking out of here.”
Over the last six months, the duo had been stockpiling medication. Soon they would have enough to survive on the outside for two weeks without needing to find another supply.
Two weeks would be more than enough time to do what needed to be done.
“You scared?” she asked.
“Of getting out? Or of what we have to do?”
“Both.”
“Hell no. It’s my only reason for living.”
“Me, too.”
He stood up, waited for the pain to abate a bit, then headed for the door.
“See you in two days, Donaldson.”
“Two days, Lucy. Then we go after the bitch.”
He twisted what was left of his face into a smile.
Jack Daniels, here we come…
2011 — The events in JA Konrath’s and Blake Crouch’s novel Stirred, featuring Jack Daniels, Luther Kite, and some surprise guests, occur next…
Blake and Joe are currently writing this book, which should be out late 2011/early 2012. It will be the conclusion to Blake’s Andrew Thomas Series (Desert Places, Locked Doors, Break You, etc.) and JA Konrath’s Jack Daniels’ Series (Whiskey Sour, Bloody Mary, etc.).
2013 — The events in Blake Crouch’s novel Run, featuring Kiernan, occur next…
5 D A Y S A G O
A rash of bizarre murders swept the country…
Senseless. Brutal. Seemingly unconnected.
A cop walked into a nursing home and unloaded his weapons on elderly and staff alike.
A mass of school shootings.
Prison riots of unprecedented brutality.
Mind-boggling acts of violence in every state.
4 D A Y S A G O
The murders increased ten-fold…
3 D A Y S A G O
The President addressed the nation and begged for calm and peace…
2 D A Y S A G O
The killers began to mobilize…
Y E S T E R D A Y
All the power went out…
T O N I G H T
They’re reading the names of those to be killed on the Emergency Broadcast System. You are listening over the battery-powered radio on your kitchen table, and they’ve just read yours. Your name is Jack Colclough. You have a wife, a daughter, and a young son. You live in Albuquerque, New Mexico. People are coming to your house to kill you and your family. You don’t know why, but you don’t have time to think about that any more.
You only have time to….R U N
To read about the exploits of Tequila, read Shot of Tequila by J.A. Konrath. Return to scene.
To find out what happened to Orson Thomas, read Desert Places by Blake Crouch. Return to scene.
To find out what happened to Luther Kite and his parents on the North Carolina Outer Banks, read Locked Doors by Blake Crouch. Return to scene.
To find out what mayhem ensues between Charles Kork and Jack Daniels, read Whiskey Sour by J.A. Konrath. Return to scene.
To see what happens when Lance decides to become the movie star he resembles, read Famous by Blake Crouch. Return to scene.
To see what trouble Barry Fuller causes for Jack Daniels, read Bloody Mary by J.A. Konrath. Return to scene.
To see Jack Daniels and Alex Kork’s first showdown, read Rusty Nail by J.A. Konrath. Return to scene.
To watch Javier in full, terrifying form, read Snowbound by Blake Crouch. Return to scene.
To read about Jack Daniels’ attempt to apprehend The Chemist, a psychopath poisoning Chicago’s food supply, check out Dirty Martini, by J.A. Konrath. Return to scene.
To find out what happens to Taylor, read Afraid by Jack Kilborn. Return to scene.
To see what happens when Kurt Lanz, M.D. and many others become infected in a vampire outbreak at Blessed Crucifixion Hospital, read Draculas by Blake Crouch, Jack Kilborn, Jeff Strand, and F. Paul Wilson. Return to scene.
To find out what happens when Alex Kork escapes, read Fuzzy Naval by J.A. Konrath. Return to scene.
To find out what happens when Isaiah Brown and a couple of marine buddies go after a stash of gold in a ghost town high in the Rocky Mountains, read Abandon by Blake Crouch. Return to scene.
To see Alex Kork and Jack Daniels’ final, bloody showdown, read Cherry Bomb by J.A. Konrath. Return to scene.
To see Taylor on an island of psychopathic cannibals, read Trapped by Jack Kilborn. Return to scene.
To learn the disturbing reason why Sheriff Roosevelt is so interested in bullets that don’t draw blood, read Endurance by Jack Kilborn. Return to scene.
To see Jack Daniels go up against Mr. K, read Shaken by J.A. Konrath. Return to scene.
For the conclusion to J.A. Konrath’s Jack Daniels series, and Blake Crouch’s Andrew Z. Thomas series, featuring Jack Daniels, Luther Kite, and many others, don’t miss Stirred coming later this year from Crouch and Konrath. Return to scene.
To find out what happens when Kiernan and tens of millions of Americans lose their minds, read Run by Blake Crouch. Return to scene.
In Which Blake and Joe Interview Each Other About the Experience of Writing SERIAL KILLERS UNCUT…
JOE: So once again, here we are, discussing the never-ending saga that has ultimately become SERIAL KILLERS UNCUT.
It seems like we’re writing an epic novel in installments.
BLAKE: We were talking about this recently, how if SERIAL KILLERS UNCUT (hereinafter, “SKU”) had been released by a legacy publisher, it would have taken us over two years to get to this point, and…
(a) no one would have gotten to read SERIAL, BAD GIRL, TRUCK STOP, SERIAL UNCUT, KILLERS, KILLERS UNCUT, or BIRDS OF PREY yet; and
(b) Even worse, we would just now be turning this novel in, which means it still wouldn’t be coming out for another 12-18 months, which is what, three and a half years after we initially released SERIAL?
JOE: In a way, we’re following the same model as independent musicians. Release the songs as they’re completed, then release the EPs (a few songs at a time), then the final album with everything together.
Do you feel like we’re ripping off our readers by doing this? Or being generous by releasing things as we write them, rather than making them wait months or years?
BLAKE: I can only put myself in their shoes. If I had the choice to read the work of my favorite novelist right now, as opposed to three years from now, I have to go with now every time. Besides, it’s not like we’re releasing $26.95 books every time out. Many of the individual stories that comprise SKU were priced at $.99 or $2.99. And SERIAL was and still is free. There may be some overlap between projects, certain stories being present in several omnibus collections, but I think that’s a small price to pay for having immediate access to our work. It simply wouldn’t work any other way.
Did you think when we started SERIAL it was going to morph into a 120,000-word double-novel?
JOE: No way. This project was a strange one for myriad reasons. Wonderful, and rewarding, but strange. We’re both fans of F. Paul Wilson (in fact, we wrote a novel, DRACULAS, with him), and Paul has done an admirable job linking his entire oeuvre together. The majority of his stories intermingle, and characters can pop up in seemingly unrelated books and stories.
As a fan, I LOVE this. It is rewarding to see a character
I remember from a previous story come back in another one. So that’s the approach I wanted to take with this series.
The point of SERIAL was to see how two killers interacted when they met up on the road.