Book Title: The Nightmarchers
Character Name: Dr. Lydia Greer
How would you describe your family or your childhood?
What a dull question. Surely my work in epigenetics would be of more interest.
But perhaps that’s just a deflection because my father landed on the wrong side of history, although, ironically enough, we are fast approaching a time when parents will be able to have a say in the genes of their offspring. Designer babies and all that.
I do fondly remember the first time I was invited into my father’s laboratory to dissect a piglet. The thrill of cutting into soft flesh preserved by formaldehyde, peering into the secrets of the liver, the intestines, the heart. I was six I believe.
What was your greatest talent?
Ruthlessness. A quality I share with my father but which skipped entirely over my sisters and great-niece, Julia.
I don’t know why our species took this odd detour into sentimentality, but you must be ruthlessly clinical when it comes to research, particularly in regard to “Mother Nature.”
Did you know that after copulation, it’s common for the female praying mantis to decapitate her partner and then eat him? And yet we anthropomorphize nature into this loving, beneficent being as if we’re not all out here biting and killing and eating each other. Quite amusing.
Biggest challenge in relationships?
Finding good help. They don’t keep secrets the way they used to. The investment one must make in surveillance these days is astonishing.
Do you have any enemies?
Oh my. Who, in pursuit of godlike powers, wouldn’t? But I think the term enemies has an emotional connotation, so I think adversaries would be more apt. And the people who consider themselves my competition are more of a nuisance, really, because I always have a plan within a plan within a plan.
Although now that I think about it, perhaps my neighbors are enemies. They keep trying to entice me into selling my estate—designed by Wallace Neff no less—so some developer can raze it to build another cul-de-sac of dreary tract homes like theirs. They recently accused me of deliberately releasing giant red-headed centipedes into the neighborhood to poison their cats.
How do you feel about the place where you are now? Is there something you are particularly attached to, or particularly repelled by?
I am repelled by the prospect of my death, which, given my age, is imminent unless…well, let’s just say that I fully anticipate that my great-niece Julia will have a productive trip to Kapu. A very unique place, that island in the Pacific. Would have kept Darwin busy for decades had he known about it.
Do you have children, pets, both, or neither?
Again, a sentimental pursuit. I do, however, have an exceptional collection of plants, butterflies and insects in my greenhouse, each the perfect genetic embodiment of their species, and quite a few that would be deadly if you inadvertently brushed against them.
Actually, would you mind not including that in the final publication of this article? My neighbors might start flinging lawsuits my way.
What do you do for a living?
Play God.
Greatest disappointment?
I was devastated when I wasn’t allowed by the Church of Eternal Light to bring my sister’s remains home and that instead they would molder on Kapu. Granted, we were decades away from the wonderful techniques available now, like DNA sequencing and forensic anthropology, but I could have certainly done a better job preserving her tissue for future study. I hope Julia finds enough left that will shed light on how she truly died, and…well, best not to go into that.
Greatest source of joy?
At my age, every morning when I open my eyes and realize that I am, indeed, still here. Because there is so much yet to accomplish.
What is your greatest personal failing, in your view?
Dwelling on personal failings is a useless endeavor and one I never really entertained. I am a creature of my genetic inheritance intermingled with my education and upbringing. I am no more responsible for these factors than a great white shark’s taste for seals, so I see no point perseverating on a version of me that would be more acceptable to the politesse of a society that pretends to be one thing but is in fact another. This kind of clarity is, I understand, rare among women until their young is threatened. Then they’re all teeth.
What keeps you awake at night?
My arthritis.
What is the most pressing problem you have at the moment?
I am a bit troubled by the fact that Julia has not communicated with me since she arrived on Kapu. I don’t have a lot of time to waste, and my backup plan would be quite unpleasant to put into motion. For her and me both.
Is there something that you need or want that you don’t have? For yourself or for someone important to you?
Immortality. I’ll leave it to your imagination as to whether that’s literal or figurative.
Why don’t you have it? What is in the way?
My dear, if I were to share that with you, your life would be in jeopardy. But in a general, allegorical sense, I believe the island of Kapu is in my way. I just have to be ruthless enough to pry out its secrets regardless of cost or consequence.
Which I am.
From the award-winning author of Dead Souls and Poe comes an all-new bone-chilling novel where a mysterious island holds the terrifying answers to a woman's past and future.
In 1939, on a remote Pacific island, botanical researcher Irene Greer plunges off a waterfall to her death, convinced the spirits of her dead husband and daughter had joined the nightmarchers—ghosts of ancient warriors that rise from their burial sites on moonless nights. But was it suicide, or did a strange young missionary girl, Agnes, play a role in Irene's deteriorating state of mind?
It all seems like ancient family history to Julia Greer, who has enough problems of her own. A struggling journalist, she’s recovering from a divorce and is barely able to make rent, let alone appeal the court’s decision to give sole custody of their daughter to her ex-husband. When her elderly great-aunt offers her an outrageously large sum to travel to this remote island and collect samples of a very special flower, as well as find out what really happened to her sister Irene all those years ago, Julia thinks her life might finally be on an upward swing. She’s also tasked to connect with the island’s Church of Eternal Light, which her great-aunt suspects knows more about Irene’s tragic death than they’ve said.
But Julia finds this place isn’t so quick to give up its secrets. The Church is tight-lipped about the deaths that have contributed to its oddly large cemetery, as well as Irene’s final fate. The only person who seems to know more is a fellow traveler, Noah Cooper, who thinks that Julia's not the only one on a mission to find the rare flower...which, if the rumors are true, could have world-changing properties.
What Julia does know is that the longer she stays on the island, the more the thin line begins to blur between truth and lies, reality and the fantastical...until she finds herself face to face with the real reason why the island is taboo....
Horror | Thriller [Gallery Books, On Sale: October 29, 2024, Hardcover / e-Book, ISBN: 9781501110955 / eISBN: 9781501110962]
About Fenn
J. Lincoln Fenn is the award-winning author of the bestseller Poe, which won the 2013 Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award for Sci-Fi/Fantasy/Horror, and the acclaimed novel Dead Souls, called 'wickedly entertaining' by The New York Times Book Review, and The Nightmarchers which is coming out in paperback Oct. 24.
Fenn grew up in a small New England town and graduated Summa Cum Laude from the University of New Hampshire, studying with poet laureate Charles Simic, and author John Yount, a mentor to John Irving. She's lived in Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Los Angeles, the San Francisco Bay area, and Maui. Currently Fenn lives with her husband in Seattle.
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