Gazing Into the Abyss

by Kelly Cheek

Unfinished business can keep a spirit clinging to the physical realm, and it’s up to Suzy Quinn to discover what that unfinished business entails. That job becomes especially difficult when the ghost was a friend.

When someone from Suzy’s past dies, she asks for Suzy by name. But her unfinished business brings unexpected longing, excitement and danger into Suzy’s life.

How can Suzy help her friend let go of the past when she can’t let go of it herself?

"Heartbreaking, even infuriating, . . . A real page-turner. Definitely recommended." - C.W. Lovatt, author of the bestselling Charlie Smithers series

"A gripping, page-turning supernatural thriller, full of intrigue, mystery and suspense." - Readers' Choice Book Awards

209 pages, Kindle Edition

Published January 20, 2023

About the author

Kelly Cheek has been closely following a creative muse for his entire life. He grew up in the big city of Sacramento, California and the small town of Parsons in southeast Kansas. As a devoted introvert, he never really fit in with most social circles, but was happiest when stuck away in his room with his creative pursuits – art, writing songs and playing them on his guitar, and writing stories.

Kelly was a natural. Born creative, many of the earliest photos of him, back before color was invented, show him with a pencil in his hand. He was drawing before he could read, but once he learned to read, he began writing.

He started writing actual short stories in his teens, and though he had naïve dreams of becoming a celebrated author, none of those stories were ever published. One, however, lasted for decades. Kelly wrote and rewrote it several times over the years as he learned more about writing. In time, though he enjoyed the process of writing it, he came to realize that the story was not really viable as a commercial novel. But he liked some of the characters and their accounts enough that he has since lifted them from their original story and placed them in other projects where they could live out their natural lives outside the confines of the perpetually unfinished original.

Now, having spent years honing his craft, he’s a lover of history, a writer of both novels and nonfiction, and enjoys writing stories set against real historical backgrounds. He is particularly fascinated with how the past interacts with and influences the present, and the scenes in his stories often alternate between past and present.

Kelly Cheek now lives in Denver, Colorado, where he can often be found hunched over his computer, pouring his lifeblood into his next opus.

Reviews

[C.W. Lovatt · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is the fourth book in the SpiritSense series but could just as easily stand on its own. Suzy Quinn, a gifted paranormal, has been summoned by her deceased friend, Michelle, through the offices of Michelle’s mother. I don’t know about you but that right there is enough to catch my attention, but there’s so much more. Michelle (who can truthfully be referred to as a wild child) was a regular in the clubbing scene and all that entailed – sex, drugs and rock and roll – and embraced it with vigor … only to have it pointed out to her through a well-meaning friend, how shallow it was. In her first foray into her past, Suzy finds that Michelle’s search for Mr Right has led her into the arms of Suzy’s own (now deceased) husband, Mark, in the days prior to Suzy and Mark becoming an item. Naturally, this caused Suzy to wonder if she could carry on with the case, but the lure of being with her deceased husband again, even if it was through the memories of someone else, was impossible to refuse.
Gazing Into the Abyss takes us into the life of an addict and Michelle’s attempts to kick the habits engrained over an extended period of time. It’s not pleasant and, in places, heartbreaking, even infuriating, but it strikes a chord and many of us might think, ‘There but for the grace of God go I.’ But, while the reader is captivated with this story, the question always remains in the back of our minds, why was Suzy summoned in the first place? Answer: read the book and find out.
A real page turner. Definitely recommended.

[Linda Combellick · Rating 5 out of 5]

Kelly Cheek is a great author to read. This series is based on paranormal experiences and, normally, they take you back into another period of history solving mysteries and murders. I highly recommend the series! This book has the same team exploring paranormal experiences and playing detectives with the information, but it's too modern to be called a historical mystery. I would call it a drama, and a very good one at that. There are romantic twists, sexy scenes, and complex troubles that take us into a mystery just as compelling as all of his other books. The thing I like best about this book is the character development. I'm fascinated by their histories and how they came to be the way they are. With all of that, along with moments of thriller action, I found the book to be a hard one to put down and when I did, the story went with me into my everyday life, questions still rolling around in the back of my head. Have fun!