Painted Fire by Mark L. Fowler
Actress Kate Tolle falls victim to an illness that baffles the medical world.
In desperation her husband Ben appeals to the public, and an anonymous benefactor comes forward. Soon the couple find themselves on a flight bound for San Francisco.
Where the enigmatic Merle is waiting.
Kate’s health appears to improve as people around her die horrifically. Merle tells Ben that healing comes at a price and questions what he’s willing to pay.
But what does Merle want?
And what is the chilling truth waiting out in the desert ... in Las Vegas and beyond?
About the author
Mark writes detective crime fiction, and psychological and supernatural thrillers. He is the author of the popular Tyler & Mills detective crime series set in Staffordshire. RED IS THE COLOUR was shortlisted for the 2018 Arnold Bennett Prize and begins with the grim discovery of a schoolboy who disappeared thirty years earlier. BLUE MURDER involves a missing singer and a murdered guitarist, elevating an obscure band to sudden fame and fortune. THE DEVIL WORE BLACK unveils the mystery of a crucified priest. The latest book in the series, THE SMELL OF COPPER, finds Tyler out on a limb as the detectives uncover high level police corruption. All the books can be read as standalone crime novels.
Other detective mysteries include THE BATHROOM MURDERS. A series of women are found hacked to death while taking a shower. This is the first in a new series set in Manchester, featuring female detective Charlie Reed. TWIST has the eponymous private investigator returning, against his better judgement, to the city of nightmares to look into the strange case of a dead philosophy student. THE MAN UPSTAIRS introduces hard boiled Frank Miller, discovering he’s a fictional detective and that his author is plotting to kill him.
Mark also writes psychological and supernatural thrillers. SILVER finds journalist and crime writer Nick Slater obsessed with an unpublished manuscript that a best-selling author was working on when she was murdered, and which her family refuse to publish. SEXTET explores the twisted rivalry between twin sisters, the weird games they played as children, and the rising murder rate in a small English town. COFFIN MAKER is a gothic tale. Death is sent two apprentices amid warnings from an out-of-favour priest that the devil has arrived on Earth. Mark’s latest book PAINTED FIRE finds a writer travelling to America’s West Coast in a desperate bid to find a cure for a baffling illness afflicting his wife. An anonymous benefactor has offered to help, but at what price?
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As part of the blog tour I have the pleasure of being able to share an extract of the book with you.
The carnival was buzzing.
I’d spent a dismal hour in the marquee watching my father drinking, my mother sampling the pastries. That was the ritual; trying to look my Sunday best while my parents got on with their day. I was never anything but the dutiful son.
Except that on that fateful day something was different. For me everything was set to change.
I was standing close to the entrance to the marquee, catching glimpses of the outside world framed in the late summer sunshine, wild and mercurial snatches of sounds drifting in off the August crowd. The irresistible tug of curiosity was getting the better of me. I wanted to see what was going on; what all the screaming and laughter was about.
I fought the urge to investigate, and was putting up a good fight too; but even a Sunday-best child, in the end, is only flesh and blood. All the promise of fun invading from outside finally overpowered me, and I made my move leaving my parents to their pleasures.
A few steps, I promised myself, nothing more than that. Stay close, just in case; the world, as my parents had so often impressed upon me, could be a dark and treacherous place.
With those few cautious steps everything turned on its head. I ventured out of the tent, cautiously at first, to find a strange reality waiting, though in truth no stranger than the one my guardians insisted on. Characters from the stories I hungrily devoured every night had been set free from the pages. The Seven Dwarfs were failing to stop Snow White from eating the poisoned apple, while across the way Alice was having tea with the Mad Hatter. I caught Goldilocks’ eye, and I’m certain that she smiled at me. I didn’t even blush.
I didn’t much care for the Narnia Witch, and so moved on to watch the Fire-Eaters and the Human Balloon, with enough change left in my pocket to lose twice on the shooting gallery and still buy an ice-cream. I watched the Knife-Throwing Angels, and the Bearded Baby showing card-tricks to a spellbound audience. And no-one was more spellbound than me.
Aware that I had lost track of the time, I started to make my way back towards the marquee, stopping to applaud as Snow White and her friends finally defeated the evil queen. But when I got back to the tent my parents had gone.
The screams from the carousel had, like the clowns and circus freaks, turned grotesque, and a storm of tears was building in my chest. I knew that I was about to cry. Then I remembered, in the nick of time, what my father had told me. That I was too big to cry and to never forget it or else he’d give me something to cry about.
I stood outside the tent trying to hold the panic down. Best to stay put, I knew that much. Wait for them to come back and find me.
The Alligator Girl and the Dog-Faced Boy were looking over, and the Fattest Lady in England was rubbing her belly like she was thinking about eating a little boy lost. I closed my eyes, wishing that the day would quickly turn into tomorrow.
Then a hand snatched mine.
“Come with me, child.”
