Broken Barriers

SIX WEEKS AGO: A series of horrific events rock the town of Aiken Mill, Virginia. A weirdly mutilated body vanishes from the town morgue. Numerous individuals go missing without a trace. The local sheriff's department, as well as the FBI, are stymied. And a creeping madness settles over the town. Now, Celeste Muir, a former FBI agent with extensive experience in paranormal phenomena, allies herself with Sheriff Bryce Parrott to face the unknown forces that have terrorized Aiken Mill. Enter Leo Bray: A sinister, grotesque stranger who appears to know more than anyone should about the recent calamities. Every person he contacts begins to suffer anxiety, followed by hallucinations, and then uncanny visions of other worlds. Other dimensions. With their every step forward, Agent Muir and Sheriff Parrott encounter another menacing horror. Who is Leo Bray? What is his connection with the dire events that have plagued Aiken Mill? And what new horror is stirring at Black Tooth Pond—a demon-haunted body of water—just outside the town? Time is running out for the people of Aiken Mill. "A new novel from Stephen Mark Rainey is always cause for celebration, and Broken Barriers does not disappoint. Rainey's story is full of subtle wit and creeping dread, sitting somewhere near the intersection of Twin Peaks, The X-Files, Kolchak: The Night Stalker, and The Kingdom of Nye. I had a blast! - K. L. Young, author of The Secret Language of Spiders and others "The cry of the whippoorwill is not what it seems. Authorities are baffled. And the town of Aiken Mill—"the cold case capital of the world"—holds ancient, terrifying secrets. Cosmic horror readers will devour Stephen Mark Rainey's sequel to The House at Black Tooth Pond!" - Mike Davis, Lovecraft eZine "Stephen Mark Rainey is the only writer whose prose ever gave me an actual thrill of fear. In Broken Barriers, he takes us back to the town of Alken Mill for his own style of combined Lovecraftian and Appalachian horror. The plot hurtles along, gripping the reader with damn near unbearable tension as the characters scramble to make sense of the horror overwhelming the sleepy college town. I sure stayed up way too late, unable to turn the pages fast enough." - Matthew Carpenter, Lovecraft eZine