A hundred years ago, in what is now called Old Tuonela, a killer known as the Pale Immortal walked the streets. When darkness fell children were rushed inside, doors and windows locked up tight. Some claimed the Pale Immortal bathed in blood, and that blood flooded the streets until the ground became saturated. Even after the Pale Immortal's reign of terror ended, people were afraid. His death had come too late.
Many claimed the ground was cursed, and so a mass exodus took place. Every single person relocated to a new development five miles from the old one. A better location, they claimed. And prettier. On a bluff overlooking the river. Why had anyone settled at the old place, in such a dark valley?
Let's pretend Old Tuonela doesn't exist. Let's pretend we always lived here, in the new place.
Even though a hundred years has passed, many locals still like to pretend Old Tuonela isn't just beyond the outskirts of town where the softly rolling hills end abruptly, the valleys become dark and deep, and the roads turn back on themselves.
Look closely through the trees and you might see it on the other side of the Tuonela River.
Book description: The sleepy town of Tuonela, Wisconsin, is known for one thing: the killer who stalked its streets one hundred years ago, drinking the blood of his victims. And when the drained corpse of a young girl is found, the citizens fear their past has risen from the grave -- and point their fingers at one man.... Evan Stroud can never see the light of day. The prisoner of a strange and terrible disease, he lives in tragic solitude, taunted for being a "vampire" --until the son he never knew he had shows up in Tuonela, and is drawn into its depraved, vampire-obsessed underworld. Then Evan must rely on his childhood friend, coroner Rachel Burton, for help. But the evil that they face is powerful and elusive -- and about to take them to the very edge of madness.
Praise for Pale Immortal: "Easily the best work I've read in 2006. This is just simply a masterpiece." -- Maximum Horrors "Anne Frasier has written a very scary novel with Gothic and supernatural overtones... This is a stupendous work, and worthy of an award nomination." -- The Best Reviews
"Frasier is an expert at haunting the reader... Pale Immortal is the kind that lingers. The characters are rich, complex. The story is masterfully spun." Spinetingler Magazine
"Frasier is creepy, compelling, and often brilliant." J.A. Konrath
About Anne:
Anne Frasier (a.k.a. Theresa Weir)is an award-winning, USA Today bestselling author. Her books have spanned the genres of suspense, mystery, thriller, romantic suspense, paranormal, and memoir. and have been printed in both hardcover and paperback and translated into twenty languages. Her memoir, The Orchard, was a 2011 Oprah Magazine Fall Pick, Number Two on the Indie Next list, a featured B+ review in Entertainment Weekly, and a Librarians’ Best Books of 2011. Writing as Theresa Weir, she won a RITA for romantic suspense (COOL SHADE), and a year later the Daphne du Maurier for paranormal romance (BAD KARMA). In her more recent Anne Frasier career, her thriller and suspense titles hit the USA Today list (HUSH, SLEEP TIGHT, PLAY DEAD) and were featured in Mystery Guild, Literary Guild, and Book of the Month Club. HUSH was both a RITA and Daphne du Maurier finalist. Frasier served as hardcover judge for the Thriller presented by International Thriller Writers, and was guest of honor at the Diversicon 16 conference held in Minneapolis in 2008.