Timmy Quinn is Used by Ghosts in The Hides
“It’s always the same, Timmy realized, . . . People die and their killers blame the victims.”
“But curtains get old and when the curtain comes down for good, there will be nothing left to hold us, do you understand?”
Ohio horror author Kealan Patrick Burke demonstrates his skill at terrorizing the reader, making the ghosts in the world of Timmy Quinn very potent and dangerous monsters.
Remember, click the mouse on the book covers to get your free copy of The Turtle Boy, The Hides and Vessels from Kealan Patrick Burke’s website — now, before they disappear.
TITLE:
THE HIDES
WRITER:
by Kealan Patrick Burke
COVER ART:
James Higgins
SERIES:
Timmy Quinn Series #2
PUBLISHER:
Cemetery Dance Publications
LENGTH:
165pp.
GENRE:
Horror Fiction,
DESCRIPTORS:
Murder, Suicide, Good vs. Evil, Ghosts, Revenge, Horror Novel, The Stage, The Curtain, Leather Factory, Fishing, Delaware, Ohio, Small Town Communities, Dungarvan, Ireland, Marriage, Infidelity, Betrayal, Family, Irish Republican Army,
CHARACTERS:
Timmy Quinn, A boy who can see and interact with ghosts, although he doesn’t know it yet.
Mr. Paul Quinn, Timmy’s beloved father.
Mrs. Sandra Quinn, Timmy’s beloved mother.
Kim Barnes, Timmy’s new friend, despite the fact that she is a girl.
Agatha Quinn, Timmy’s fraternal Grandmother, an elderly Irish woman who welcomes Timmy to Dungarvan, Ireland.
Aldous Quinn, Timmy’s later fraternal Grandfather who made life hell for Agatha.
Dan Meehan, Paul’s boss at the leather factory.
Harlan Knox, Jack’s missing son.
Jack Knox, Harlan’s father, a lighthouse keeper.
Lucy Conlon A very beautiful woman and Phillip’s wife.
Phillip Conlon, A member of the Irish Republican Army and Lucy’s husband.
SUMMARY:
Jack Knox comes to seventeen year old Timmy for help finding his lost son — only his son isn’t so lost as much as dead — and Jack really needs Tim to stop the ghost from torturing him. It’s the kind of thing Timmy feels compelled to do — try to help the people and the ghosts, often putting his life at risk . . .
And there are many ghosts in Delaware, Ohio.
As his parents are divorcing, Paul decides he and Timmy should travel to Dungarvan, Ireland to visit family and maybe get a new start on life. Paul can get a job and watch over his elderly mother while Tim would be far away from Delaware Ohio and all those dangerous ghosts.
Tim is angry at being dragged away from Kim, but despite himself, he’s hopeful that there will be no ghosts in Ireland. Those hopes are smashed early on when he sees the Blue Woman climbing out of the sea demanding to know if he will help her or is he an enemy?
Paul gets a job at the local leather factory working on a dangerous machine that softens leather. However, the building is filled with menace and Timmy realizes that as dangerous as the Blue Woman is, something stalks the leather factory that is much worse.
It’s a creature from behind the curtain that Timmy has never seen before — something that has no human face or reasoning qualities.
Something monstrous and angry and implacable . . . and it wants Timmy’s father.
APPEAL:
Originally published by Cemetery Dance Publications in 2005, as a hardcover novel, The Hides went on to be nominated for the 2005 Bram Stoker Award for Superior Achievement in a First Novel.
Last year Kealan Patrick Burke made The Hides, along with the other two books in the series, available as a free download from his website. The Hides is available as a Microsoft Word document (a .doc not a .docx so most versions of Word can open it) file. There is no artwork and the layout is typical word processor. Not beautiful but not an impediment if you want the story. And you do want the story.
The Turtle Boy begins the life of Timmy Quinn from the Summer his power first manifested at Lake Myers in Delaware, Ohio. The Hides begins Timmy’s quest to escape the ghosts that use him and begins to reveal disturbing information about their true nature.
Middle books in a trilogy tend to be a yawner because things have already begun and things cannot yet end. Kealan does a neat side-step, avoiding the weakness of middle books by beginning Timmy’s education into the true nature of the ghosts, the Stage and the Curtain in a story that profoundly changes Timmy and his relationship with his family.
The characterization is key and the mystery — who is the Blue Woman, what is going on at the leather factory — is one Timmy uncovers — or has uncovered for him. Kealan doesn’t talk down to the reader but takes you by the hand and begins the next stage of his horrific tale in the most innocent way possible.
One of the most chilling lines I’d read in a long time was the second quote above — when Timmy’s spectral visitor announces “But curtains get old and when the curtain comes down for good, there will be nothing left to hold us, do you understand?”, it not only foreshadows the events in the next books, it cemented the Stage-Actors-Curtain metaphors of the afterlife that Kealan started working on in The Turtle Boy.
At this time, The Turtle Boy is sold out, as is The Hides and the third book Vessels could sell out at any time.
However, for the last year and for a while longer, you can get all three books as free downloads from Kealan’s website. Click here to find and download all three books in the Timmy Quinn series If you read it, you’re invited to tell Mr. Burke what you thought of it on his blog: Something Stirs.
READALIKES:
If you like The Hides, you might want to try the next three stories in the Timmy Quinn series: The Turtle Boy, Vessels and the soon to be published “prequel” The Turtle Boy: Peregrine’s Tale which will hopefully set the stage for the projected final book tentatively called Nemesis.
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