Substratum

by Jonah Buck

Deep beneath the streets of Detroit, someone — or something — is picking off the miners of the Detroit Salt Combine. The company appears to be more concerned with the protection of their equipment than with the safety of their employees, so the miners take it upon themselves to approach the Attican Detective Agency to find out what's happening to their co-workers. Jasper O'Malley, an agent with a reputation for getting things done (at great cost), is assigned to the case. Teamed with Sadie Dupree, a geological expert, and Amelia Rio, an ace driver for one of the Organized Crime families, Jasper ventures underground to investigate the fate of the miners. But there's another factor operating within the labyrinth of tunnels, a factor that would kill to keep its illegal operations undiscovered. And still another factor has infiltrated the hired detective's own group. Yes, there's a Judas working with Jasper, a traitor who knows the secret of the mine, and who will stop at nothing to keep the mine's secret. Can Jasper track down whom or what is responsible for the miners' disappearances, or will he and his one true ally suffer the same fate as the unfortunate workers?

264 pages, Kindle Edition

Published December 14, 2016

About the author

Jonah Buck wanted to study eldritch knowledge and commune with pale, semi-human creatures that flit across the sunless landscape to terrorize the living, so he became an Oregon attorney. His interests include history, exotic poultry, paleontology, and professional stage magic.

Reviews

[Icy_Space_Cobwebs Join the Penguin Resistance! · Rating 4 out of 5]

Review: SUBSTRATUM by Jonah Buck (A Jasper O'Malley Mystery)

Author Jonah Buck illuminates the American Prohibition Era in this horror mystery. Monsters and Pinkertons, gangsters and speakeasies, salt mines and the U.S. Geological Survey! Non-stop action and implacable horror from inescapable monsters. Jasper O'Malley is a delightfully quiet hero, a man who walks "his side of the law," yet a man of character and integrity. A detective for the Attican Detective Agency in 1920' s Chicago, O'Malley is sent to investigate continuing mass disappearances in a Detroit salt mine. What he uncovers is horrifying, and imaginative.

[Stuart West · Rating 5 out of 5]

Buck's horror novel, Substratum, is a wild ride, indeed, an extremely entertaining mash-up of hard-boiled noir, creature feature, Indiana Jones derring-do and cliffhangers, and even a little Cronenbergian body horror stirred in. Set during the prohibition era, tough guy detective Jasper O'Malley is hired out to find out why miners are vanishing in the salt mines deep beneath Detroit. Expect babes, boogie men, and bad guys galore. My one little nitpick is that there's some modern slang used in the tale that seemed out of place, one anachronism too many. Still, it's minor and don't let that stop you from reading this book which gives you a lotta bang for your bucks. Vastly entertaining, I look forward to Buck's future Jasper O'Malley horror detective tales. Recommended.

[Michael · Rating 4 out of 5]

I fell in love with the character of Jasper O'Malley when I first encountered him Jonah Buck's story, "Valley of the Cyborg Dinosaurs from Planet X" (published in ATTACK! of the B-Movie Monsters: Alien Encounters), and then again with his appearance in "Darwin's Ravens" (published in Cranial Leakage: Tales from the Grinning Skull, Vol. 2), so I was thrilled with the idea of a full-length Jasper O'Malley novel. And it doesn't disappoint.

It's thriller/mysterious/monster book all rolled into one that moves at a fast pace and keeps you on the edge of your seat from the first page to the last. Can't wait for more.