#BlogTour-‘Ghost Mine’ by @huntershea1

• About the book…

‘‘Ghost Mine’ by Hunter Shea is available in paperback from 30/05/2019 ,published by Flametree Press, wherever good books are to be found!

Deep in a Wyoming mine, hell awaits. Nat Blackburn is given an offer he can’t refuse by President Teddy Roosevelt. Tales of gold in the abandoned mining town of Hecla abound. The only problem – those who go seeking their fortune never return.

Along with his constant companion, Teta, a hired gun with a thirst for adventure, Nat travels to a barren land where even animals dare not tread. Black-eyed children, strange lights and ferocious wild men venture from the deep, dark ghost mine…as well as a sinister force hungry for fresh souls.

Is this a historical novel? Is it a western? Is it a horror tale? Yes yes and YES! ‘Ghost Mine is all of this and more! I started the book with a cautious trepidation as Flametree Books can be pretty hair raising, but the opener put the shivers right up me and then in went darker still.

The reader is taken into the bowels of the earth, at a time when America was still in its infancy and gold mining was taking off. Theordore Roosevelt was the president and opportunity was there, in the vast expanse of the American North for anyone who was prepared to work hard enough to make things happen for them.

Roosevelt calls in  a favour from a friend,New York Cop Nate Blackburn, a former ‘Rough Rider’, part of his elite cavalry who fought in the Spanish-American War. Roosevelt has sent troops to the town of Hecla, Wyoming to look for gold in the mines, but they don’t return. He asks Nate to investigate, and , having nothing better to do and sensing a mystery, he takes his buddy,Teta, down to Wyoming to investigate what is going on in the mines. What he finds, however, is beyond rational explanation.

In order to mine gold, you need to dig so deep into the earth that you risk distrubing things which would be best left forgotten. Elemental, dark forces, and creatures which now have a way out to the surface….

Nate and Teta face down their internal and external demons as they try to bring some sense of order to the town of Hecla( which is an actual town, a ghost town, seriously,look it up!) Hecla comes from the Nordic word ‘hekla’ meaning cloak, and you could definitely say that this town is well named as it is hiding all manner of evil things better left alone.

It’s brilliantly atmospheric and reminiscent of an American James Herbert-Shea’s Nate reminds me of so many of Herbert’s ordinary men who find themselves thrust into circumstances that they could never have imagined, and places where they need to use their wits to escape from . This is high praise from me, Herbert was one of my most influential authors as a teen and I am currently reading ‘The Fog’ which is still as scary as it ever was! I am most definitely going to be on the lookout for further titles by Shea, I am HOOKED! This is great, classic horror with a great deal of work behind it into making it historically accurate, vivid and well rounded. Scaring people with your fiction is one of the hardest tasks you can undertake and ‘Ghost Mine’ piles shivers and thrills on the hapless reader without letting up!

Many thanks to Anne Cater of Random Things Tours for introducing me to another new author whose books I need to stack my bookshelves with! ‘Ghost Mine’ is available at all good bookshops from May 30th.

About the author…

Hunter Shea is the author of over 25 books, with a specialization in cryptozoological horror that includes The Jersey Devil, The Dover Demon, Loch Ness Revenge and many others. As part of the new horror line at Flame Tree Press, his novel Creature has gained critical acclaim. His novel, The Montauk Monster, was named one of the best reads of the summer by Publishers Weekly. A trip to the International Cryptozoology Museum will find several of his cryptid books among the fascinating displays. Living in a true haunted house inspired his Jessica Backman: Death in the Afterlife series (Forest of Shadows, Sinister Entity and Island of the Forbidden). In 2011, he was selected to be a part of the launch of Samhain Publishing’s new horror line alongside legendary author Ramsey Campbell. When he’s not writing thrillers and horror, he also spins tall tales for middle grade readers on Amazon’s highly regarded Rapids reading app.
An avid podcaster, he can be seen and heard on Monster Men, one of the longest running video horror podcasts in the world, and Final Guys, focusing on weekly movie and book reviews. His nostalgic column about the magic of 80s horror, Video Visions, is featured monthly at Cemetery Dance Online. You can find his short stories in a number of anthologies, including Chopping Block Party, The Body Horror Book and Fearful Fathoms II.

Links-https://huntershea.com/category/ghost-mine/

 https://www.flametreepress.com/about/

Twitter @huntershea1

             @flametreepress

             @annecater