The Desolate

by Brian J. Jarrett

In an attempt to rebuild his life from the wreckage of a failed marriage, Scott Stevenson moves to a small town miles away from the problems of his former life. There he buys a new home, makes a friend, and even catches the eye of a local girl.

But something is very wrong in this idyllic, Midwestern town.

Mutilated bodies of young women are turning up, chilling displays of savage brutality the town has never before seen. The victims all bear a striking resemblance to the new lady in Scott’s life and, worse still, the law is more than suspicious of the “new guy in town”.

Scott soon finds himself in the way of a killer. Fearful for the safety of his girlfriend and himself, Scott must tap into his darker side, his evil side, in order to survive.

There he’ll discover a path to a place more desolate than he could ever imagine.

The Desolate is a fast-paced horror thriller filled with murder, suspense, mystery, and deception.

This book contains strong language and graphic scenes of violence. It is recommended only for mature audiences.

227 pages, Kindle Edition

First published July 15, 2012

About the author

Brian J. Jarrett is a computer programmer and a horror/thriller writer. His debut novel, Into the Badlands, went on to spend months in the Amazon horror top 100 list. He’s since written a sequel and more than a half-dozen novels featuring horror, crime, sci-fi, and post-apocalyptic themes, all delivered in a fast-paced thriller style that will grab you and keep you turning those pages.

Bored with long-winded backstory and a fan of all things horror, Brian writes books that will appeal to fans of Stephen King, J.A. Konrath, Blake Crouch, Keith C. Blackmore and Tim Curran, to name a few.

Brian currently resides in St. Louis, Missouri with his wife and children. When not writing he can be found building star schemas, walking arrays and occasionally disappearing into the woods where no cell phone phone signal can be found.

Reviews

[Keith Blackmore · Rating 5 out of 5]

Just finished reading "The Desolate" and thought I'd write a review. I first picked up Brian's Book "Into the Badlands" and enjoyed it, giving it a four star rating. For a PA story of survival, I had a few nit picks with it, but Brian's characterization won me over in the end. I looked forward to his next novel.

"The Desolate" is it. This thing moves *fast*--I started it yesterday and finished it only 20 minutes ago. In a genre which really hasn't interested me since "The Silence of the Lambs." Jarrett has constructed a literary Tasmanian devil here, with some very very sharp teeth. I was pleasantly surprise at how well paced this story is, and its tractor pull on my attention. His characters are, as always, exceptionally drawn, focused, and ... released upon the reader.

Scott Stevenson is a haunted character. Bad luck seems to follow him around, and some of it is his own creation. In an attempt to escape the residue of a messy divorce, he relocates to a small town in Missouri, with the intent of making a fresh start. A new lady catches his eye, but she has a past, and couple of jilted lovers who aren't quite over her.

I clicked away the pages in this carefully wrought bear trap of a horror novel, and when the first boot fell, I was surprised. When the second boot dropped, well... by that time I could only read on to the unexpected finish. Production wise, "The Desolate" is a high quality novel of deception and surprising revelations. When Jarrett has his magic working, it's dark and viscous. This is a taunt, screaming guitar string of a horror story, and there are a few scenes that, I'll admit, made me squirm uncomfortably. Take heed of the "graphic scenes of violence" warning (and the strong language too, for that matter).

I think he's going to get a lot of attention with this one.

It has bestseller all over it.

[Barbara · Rating 2 out of 5]

When I read about this book, I was kinda excited to read it as at the end of the blurb said:

"This book contains strong language and graphic scenes of violence."

Which I had never seen before when reading about a book, so I thought it must be pretty bad if they have that written there. I also then read the one review on here of the book and that person was saying about how graphic the scenes of violence were and also how bad the language was. So these two things kind of sucked me in to reading this book.

When I read the book though, I was disappointed because it really wasn't anymore graphic when it came to the violence than any other of these kinda books I have read (then again for some people it might be but for me personally it wasn't bad at all but I read splatterpunk books so maybe I am a little desensitized when it comes to really graphic scenes of violence, I don't know.)and as for the strong language I swear worse in real life than anything I read in this book and thinking back to reading it, I can't even really remember much swearing in it at all but I have a mouth like a sailor, so maybe that is the reason I didn't find the swearing bad.

Having said that though, the book was fine to read, I didn't think it was anything to write home about but I didn't hate it.

I was kinda disappointed that I worked out who the killer was really early on in the book but that didn't deter me from finishing the book though, cause it was kinda interesting. Although I did find the serial killers MO a bit boring to be honest, didn't find it very original at all.

One thing I wasn't expecting when reading this book was that the main character had actually killed his ex wife and was just hallucinating about the phone calls with her, which was a nice surprise, especially after I had already guessed who the killer was.

I wouldn't say I felt like this book was a waste of time, I just personally thought it was average.