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Luminations and Four Visitors Archives
Luminations Archives by Rick Silva 2006 - Revelations Chester Hall was just another unemployed techie geek, scrounging for whatever work he could find in the little New Hampshire town where he?d grown up. Six months of job-hunting right out of college had gotten him nowhere. So he?d found himself back in his childhood bedroom, fighting with his Dad about dirty dishes in the sink or leaving the lights on, while he tutored old ladies who?d been told they needed to learn Word or Powerpoint. Occasionally the temp agency would call with something, and he?d do data entry for a couple of weeks until the he became eligible to be hired on permanent, at which point he?d inevitably be let go. He had started to consider a pretty wide range of future career options from burger-flipper to pizza delivery guy, and he would have considered joining the army if not for the whole war thing. Being a private investigator, however, that was one he?d never given a moment?s thought to. But things change. Hired on to help out with tech support for an ex-cop who chased down bail jumpers and spied on cheating spouses, Chess Hall found himself taking the cases that his boss turned down. The ones who were a little bit? off. The obsessive, the delusional, the paranoid. And the ones who just seemed that way because no one took the time to really listen. Chess has his own practice now, and he?s established something of a reputation. He?s making a living shedding light on the little shadows that touch the lives around him, but he?s beginning to find that if you stare into the shadows often enough, they start to stare back. 01 - Pulp 02 - Chase 03 - House 04 - Foundation 05 - Antiquarian 06 - Murder 07 - Bloodsucker 08 - Safehouse, Part One 09 - Safehouse, Part Two 10 - Questions 11 - Hearing 12 - First Night 2007 - Consequences
Nancy Matteo was just another geek girl with a dream, living in a tiny apartment cluttered with the books that she loved, working a minimum wage job. She had plans to expand her fledgling antique book business into something beyond the trickle of extra income that she collected from online auctions, but dreams have a way of getting pushed aside in favor of making the next rent check. But good fortune came Nancy's way in the form of an unexpected benefactor, a private detective who she'd helped out on a case once suddenly came up with the money to back the store that Nancy had always dreamed of owning? And the money was offered on a no-questions-asked basis. Nancy's benefactor even had a suggestion to help her stock her business: a valuable collection of occult and paranormal books that were about to go up for sale. So Nancy set about making arrangements to follow her dream, only occasionally stopping to remind herself that this is the way that horror stories often begin. And Nancy Matteo knows horror stories very well. Knowing them is part of her job. 13 - Chechaquo 14 - Curiosity 15 - Opening 16 - Assasssination 17 - Easter 18 - Sleuth 19 - Runes 20 - Feast 21 - Elimination, Part One 22 - Elimination, Part Two 23 - Solstice 24 - An Accounting
2008 - Retribution
College campuses can be full of mysteries, especially in the eyes of a new freshman. But Katy McCormick is no stranger to mysteries. She spent her high school years working for private investigator Chester Hall, and along the way, Katy made enemies and she saw close friends end up hurt or worse. Now Katy is on her own, and that's just fine with her. She plans on taking the fight to her enemies, and Chess Hall conveniently left her with the resources to do just that. But when those campus mysteries begin to present themselves, Katy finds that it might not be so easy to keep her crusade against old enemies from spilling over to her new life and her new friends. And as she tries to find some kind of balance, the clues that Katy is following begin to point toward a future shattered by gunfire and a tragedy that just might be all too inevitable. 25 - Entry 26 - Podcast 27 - Conversations 28 - Crossing 29 - Chains 30 - Misdirection 31 - Signing 32 - Date 33 - Escalation 34 - Moments 35 - Intervention, Part One 36 - Intervention, Part Two 2009 - Compromises
Chester Hall is in a world of trouble. He's got an expired private investigator's license and a district attorney breathing down his neck. He's lost friends and he's made enemies, and all he really wants to do is to find someplace to start over. And Chester Hall has another problem, one that he can't run from. He has a ghost living inside his head, and she's got revenge on her mind. Or rather, on his mind. With the clues to the mystery scattered across the country and back through the years, Chess Hall is on the road looking for the answers and tracking down the people responsible for the brutal murder of Mattie Ives. He has her voice in his head guiding the investigation, and he's hoping that when every clue has been uncovered, maybe Mattie's ghost can finally rest in peace. But Mattie has her own agenda, and peace has no part in it.
37 - Subprime 38 - List 39 - Exorcisms 40 - Falls 41 - Connections 42 - Curve 43 - Motel 44 - Isolation, Part One 45 - Isolation, Part Two 46 - Desert 47 - Sand 48 - How It Ends Four Visitors Archives by Rick Silva There is a war going on around us, a shadowy conflict fought in the woods and farms and country roads of little towns that we hardly notice as anything more than an exit number, food, gas, lodging. We drive past the battle-scarred fields, and we read the casualties in the obituaries and crime sections of the local papers, oblivious to anything more than what we're supposed to know. Dansmouth, Rhode Island is on the front lines, its citizens sleepwalking through the conflict as they perform the rituals of winter holidays, spring planting, summer clambakes, and the high school football season. It's a nice little all-American small town, a good place to raise your kids. And a good place to fight a war. With the beginning of the New Year, Dansmouth is going to receive four visitors. And guided by the hands of strangers, a few of Dansmouth's citizens will start to see the patterns around them. They will start to hear the echoes of the conflict that is raging out in the back roads and in the farmers' fields. They'll begin to notice the little details that are just slightly out of place. As the actions of four strangers ripple through the fabric of the town, they will begin to wake up. For a few of Dansmouth's citizens, the long sleep is coming to an end. But the nightmare is only beginning.
01 - Singularity, Part One 02 - Singularity, Part Two 03 - Singularity, Part Three 04 - Duality, Part One 05 ? Duality, Part Two 06 - Duality, Part Three 07 - Trinity, Part One 08 - Trinity, Part Two 09 - Trinity, Part Three 10 - Tesseract, Part One 11 - Tesseract, Part Two 12 - Tesseract, Part Three
Photo by Rick Silva, copyright 2006 |