Then Came Darkness

Summer. 1936. Upstate New York.

First, the banks were coming for their farms.

Then, a record heat wave scorched the land.

And then came Joshua Bloomfield, driven by revenge and greed, seeking to reclaim an inheritance of blood money and the family he believed was rightfully his.

Will Evelyn Kydd find a way to save her farm and protect her family from the monster in their midst, or will they all be devoured by the darkness descending upon the hills?

Find out in, Then Came Darkness, the new Depression-era historical thriller from Mabus Publishing.

Available in trade paperback ($13.99 USD) and Kindle eBook ($5.99 USD) editions.

Read an exclusive excerpt below.

Meet nine year-old Tyrus Kydd, hiding in a tree, holding a secret that could change his family’s fortunes…

Night fell over the hills. Suppertime passed. He watched as Sally went across the fields to the Abrams’ house to fetch the meat for what would inevitably be tomorrow night’s stew. A soft welcoming glow came gently out into the darkness from the illuminated rooms of his house; the living room downstairs partially lighting the front porch, the light from his mother’s bedroom seemingly pulsating. It was getting cold, and he was beginning to shiver there in his short-sleeves and knickers. He wanted to go inside and apologize to his mother for missing supper and tell her his secret so that maybe she wouldn’t have to accept charity from the Abrams or from some church she didn’t even go to. It seemed right then as he stared up through the darkened leaves at the first stars appearing in the night sky that even Sue had abandoned him by not coming back outside and waiting under the tree for him to descend and pet her. It was growing darker…colder.

He looked over at the Abrams house whose glow was obscured by the shadowy barn but from which he could see smoke rising up from their woodstove through the chimney. He wondered if they were already cooking part of Myra’s poor old horse. He looked down the dirt pathway to the main road and saw nestled at the foot of the hills in glorious straight lines the streetlights in town and the spiked top of a distant steeple. He looked the other way back up into the deep hills and saw nothing but darkness. All he wanted to do now was climb down that tree, go inside to that warm glow, go upstairs to his bedroom and crawl into his bed and sleep…forget about all of this…the dead horse, Myra, his father, his secret, the descending cold blanket of darkness.”

Buy the paperback from Amazon.com for $13.99.

Download a copy to your Kindle for $5.99, or always free with Kindle Unlimited.

Ask your local indie bookstore to stock their shelves through Indiebound.

About the Author:

D. H. Schleicher’s new collection of literary and speculative fiction, WHEN WE COME BACK, will be forthcoming in early 2023. His preceding collection, AND THEN WE VANISH, explores characters longing to disappear or left behind by those who already have. He currently resides in the South Jersey suburbs of Philadelphia with his wife and son.

You can follow his blog, theschleicherspin.com, where he shares his views on books, movies, and travel.

Cover Photo courtesy of Unsplash by Felix Besombes

Header Image: Walker Evans’ Torn Movie Poster