The Crooked City (+$20 Amazon GC Giveaway!)

Title: The Crooked City 

Author: Ryan Whitwam

Series: N/A

Pages: 300

Date Published: 2015

Format: Kindle

Genre: Sci-Fi Thriller 

Source: Goddess Fish Blog Tours
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Synopsis:
Jonah doesn’t want to run–he has to. There’s only so much pain one man can cause before he needs to start over. Unstuck from his tainted past, he craves the anonymity he can only achieve by vanishing like a specter in the night.

Before his new life is even underway, a chance encounter leaves him in possession of a curious object–something the mysterious Keepers of The Oracle will kill to obtain, but there’s more to the Keepers than Jonah could possibly imagine. They have the ability to do much worse than kill, and now he's in their sights.

The Keepers wield power unlike anything Jonah has ever seen, and they’re closing in fast. He’s placed a new group of innocents in danger this time, and he can’t run away again.

~Try an Excerpt!~

He peeked up over the top of the tombstone to see Ollie walk out from behind the stone angel. There was a soft thud when Ollie heaved his victim to the ground.

Jonah eased out of his hiding place and crept closer. He kept the angel between Ollie and himself. Twenty feet away, ten feet. What could he do? He would be no match for Ollie in a fair fight.

“I don’t have time for this,” Ollie said to the fallen party.

In a blink, Ollie stumbled backward, nearly tripping over his feet as something careened off his head and landed on the cobblestone walkway. Jonah could just make it out in the faint moonlight: a piece of concrete about the size of a grapefruit with jagged bits of gravel and regolith sticking out.

He took his chance and ran at the huge man, who had a hand pressed to his left eye. As they collided, he pushed with all his strength, driving Ollie back into one of the trees along the walking path. The sound of dry bark cracking and coming loose echoed in the night. The hulking mountain did not fall, but he dropped to one knee as Jonah stepped back.

Ollie’s face and hand were covered in wet, stygian black—the color of blood caught in the moonlight. Jonah reached down into the shadows of the gravestones in search of Ollie’s would-be victim. A hand met his, and he pulled it upward. The shadows parted, and Jonah found himself holding Kat’s hand.

Ollie stirred behind them, knocking any other thoughts from Jonah’s mind. There was no time for the surprise to register. There was a scraping sound as the brute clawed at the tree trunk to pull himself back to his feet.

He spun his head around to where Ollie had been. Nothing. Kat was searching as well, with her hand still intertwined around his. It seemed Ollie, large as he was, managed to disappear into the night.

Jonah looked back at the lump of concrete that had been intimately associated with Ollie's head moments before. Its rocky protuberances stood out in the dim moonlight. Had Ollie simply cut his losses and run?

Kat was disheveled and her eyes were puffy from crying. He opened his mouth to say something comforting, then he heard it. Footsteps on the path, but from where? He spun in a circle, looking for the unmistakable shape of Ollie. Something shimmered in the corner of his vision, but as he chased the shadow, it was always out of reach.

Kat tightened her grip on his hand. Her fingers pressed deeply into his flesh. "Just run!" she hissed at him. Her eyes were wide with fear.

~Meet Ryan!~ 

Ryan lives in Minnesota with his wife and dogs. He writes words like the ones in this book, as well as some very different words on the internet about technology and science. He likes smartphones, sci-fi, and people who read his book. He's not very good at describing himself.

Ryan will be awarding a $20 Amazon or Barnes and Noble GC to a randomly drawn winner via rafflecopter during the tour.

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