Drummer Boy: A Supernatural Thriller [Kindle Edition]

Scott Nicholson (Author)

Book Description

One misfit kid is all that stands between an Appalachian Mountain town and a chilling supernatural force.

DRUMMER BOY: A Supernatural Thriller

On an Appalachian Mountain ridge, young Vernon Ray Davis hears the rattling of a snare drum deep inside a cave known as “The Jangling Hole,” and the wind carries a whispered name. According to legend, the Hole is home to a group of Civil War soldiers buried by a long-ago avalanche. Everyone, especially Vernon Ray's dad, laughs at him...because he's different.

On the eve of an annual Civil War re-enactment, the town of Titusville prepares for a mock battle. But inside the Hole, disturbed spirits are rising from their dark slumber, and one of them is heading home.

And Vernon Ray stands between the battle lines of the living and the dead, caught between a world where he doesn't a belong and world from which he can never return...
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The second book in the Sheriff Littlefield Series that starts with The Red Church. Professionally formatted by Dellaster Design and DRM-free.

From the author of DISINTEGRATION, THE RED CHURCH, THE SKULL RING, and SPEED DATING WITH THE DEAD comes a new masterpiece of supernatural suspense.

"Keep both hands on your pants, because Nicholson is about to scare them off."--J.A. Konrath/Jack Kilborn, author of Serial, The List, and Endurance

"He has entered a literary shadow land between Ray Bradbury and Neil Gaiman."--Sharyn McCrumb, The Hangman's Beautiful Daughter

"Scott Nicholson understands that the best horror novels achieve primal fear through a combination of sustained atmosphere, richly drawn characters, and believable if uncanny evils that draw unholy power from everyday lives."--Christopher Ransom, author of The Birthing House

"A master of atmospheric suspense." --Eric Wilson, NY Times bestselling novelist

"Like Stephen King, he knows how to summon serious scares."--Bentley Little, His Father's Son

"Always surprises and always entertains."--Jonathan Maberry, Rot And Ruin

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Scott Nicholson is the author of 10 novels, including The Red Church, The Skull Ring, Disintegration, and They Hunger. A Writers of the Future grand prize winner and finalist for the Stoker Award, he's also written three story collections and six screenplays. Nicholson works as a journalist and freelance editor in the Blue Ridge Mountains of North Carolina. His Web site is www.hauntedcomputer.com.

Product Details

• File Size: 513 KB
• Print Length: 360 pages
• Simultaneous Device Usage: Unlimited
• Publisher: Haunted Computer Books (April 3, 2010)
• Sold by: Amazon Digital Services, Inc.
• Language: English
• ASIN: B003F77EP4
• Text-to-Speech: Enabled
• X-Ray: Enabled
• Lending: Enabled
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #122,382 Paid in Kindle Store (See Top 100 Paid in Kindle Store)

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

17 of 17 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars You'll never look at a re-enactment the same way again... April 9, 2010

By Patroo

Format:Kindle Edition

I enjoyed this lively novella about the passions of the Civil War, present in both today's living people and the revenants of the past, drawn to a final action during a local battle re-enactment. A mysterious cavern, the back of it blocked by a rockslide, has the strange sounds of snare drums coming from the depths, like those played by young boys at the battles of the Civil War. The drums helped marchers keep rhythm, and were another way to signal commands by their different tattoos. What is this mysterious drummer trying to say?

The boys who first hear the phenomena are the sort that don't really fit in with all the other kids. They rely on each other's company, support and companionship. They are familiar with local history after watching many re-enactments and seeing local collections of relics. There are stories about the local battle, and descendants of the participants still live in the area.

More things begin to happen, including sightings of phantom soldiers around the community. One young man has been affected mentally by a past visit to the Jangle Hole cavern years before. He was only a boy at the time, and was found just outside the opening, gibbering and unable to communicate what had happened. Since then he's been a toddler in an adult body, unable to talk or reason, just existing while his aging parents do everything for him. This child-man is drawn to the cave on the mountain, trying to drum with twigs while struggling to escape his watchful father.

A local developer plans to build homes in the area of the Jangle Hole, but are the spirits going to tolerate this?

The South Shall Rise Again...literally.

I also thought this story was very reminiscent of "The Body" by Stephen King. The boys in both of these stories would have liked each other. They have a lot in common.

11 of 11 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars A story for the mind and the heart April 18, 2010

By Christa Polkinhorn

Format:Kindle Edition|Amazon Verified Purchase

The Red Church was the first of Scott Nicholson's novels I ever read. It changed my whole--up to then rather negative--attitude toward the label "horror" or "thriller." But, perhaps, Nicholson is just a much better writer than other authors of the genre. He tells intriguing, mysterious, and suspenseful stories, which are all the more compelling because of their strong and psychologically complex characters, the vivid descriptions, and the sensitive rendering of human emotions.
Drummer Boy is another page turner (or "page clicker", if you have a Kindle reader.) It reminded me a little of The Red Church, not just because some of the characters (Sheriff Littlefield) reappear, but because it depicts the still fragile psyche of adolescent boys, their insecurities, their struggle with love and friendship, and their fear of "not belonging," in a society where you are either "in or "out," "straight" or "gay," "good" or "evil." Interestingly enough, the young boys are more willing and brave enough than the adults to be true to themselves, not matter what the sacrifice.
Having spent my school years abroad for the most part, I am not as intimately familiar with the American Civil War as people who grew up in this country. What came across to me personally from the story was the fact that for many people in the South, the Civil War was never truly resolved. And so, the shadows in the form of ghostly soldiers keep on haunting them. That's true of any war, whether here or abroad. What we're not willing to deal with, will come back to torment us in one form or the other.
There is of course a lot more to the book. Find out for yourself!

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Another Good One October 30, 2010

By Lauralynn Elliott

Format:Kindle Edition|Amazon Verified Purchase

Once again, Scott Nicholson has impressed me with his ability to tell a story. This wasn't exactly a sequel to The Red Church, but it did have a repeat character, Sheriff Littlefield. This book didn't spook me as much as The Red Church, but it was still pretty eerie. I'll keep reading Scott Nicholson novels because I love them!