Fleeing from what should have been a perfect crime, four crooks in a black Mustang race into the Pennsylvania highlands. On the backseat, a briefcase full of cash. On their tail, a tattooed madman who wants them dead. The driver calls himself Axle. A local boy, he knows the landscape, the coal-hauling roads and steep trails that lead to the perfect hideout: the crater of an abandoned mine. But Axle fears the crater. Terrible things happened there. Things that he has spent years trying to forget. Enter Kwetis, the nightflyer, a specter from Axle's ancestral past. Part memory, part nightmare, Kwetis has planned a heist of his own. And soon Axle, his partners in crime, and their pursuer will learn that their arrival at the mine was foretold long ago . . . and that each of them is a piece of a plan devised by the spirits of the Earth.
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Lawrence C. Connolly's novel Veins was a Black Quill Award finalist for 2008. He followed it the following year with Veins: The Soundtrack (an audio CD featuring music inspired by the novel) and Visions, a collection of his science fiction and fantasy stories from Amazing Stories, The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, Twilight Zone, and others. Over the years his stories have been reprinted in a variety of best-of and retrospective anthologies, such as Karl Edward Wagner's Year's Best Horror, Thomas and Elizabeth Monteleone's Best of Borderlands, and Audible.com's Best of the Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction. Other stories have frequently been included in recommended-reading lists, including those in Year's Best Fantasy and Horror (St. Martin's Press) and Best American Mystery Stories (Houghton Mifflin). Translations of his work have appeared in over a dozen languages. A special-edition collection of his horror stories titled This Way to Egress is available from Ash-Tree Press. His latest novel Vipers was released in September.
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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Very Underrated,
This review is from: VEINS (Paperback)
FROM THE FUNKY WEREPIG
I must admit I had never heard of Lawrence C Connolly before. Not any fault of his, Lord knows his list of accomplishments is impressive. Stories published in all the best magazines and critical praise from Bram Stoker winners. Still, I didn't know what to expect when I began reading his novel. The story is of four desperate losers who think they have the perfect heist planned out. We've seen this before and we know how it always ends. They mess it up, they turn on each other and it gets people killed. But this is where the familiar territory ends. VEINS takes you on a completely unpredictable ride. There are forces at play here older than history itself and Connolly is slick in pulling back the camera little by little to give us a wider perspective on the true story. One of the crooks, Axle, has an ancestral connection to some rather powerful spirits that have plans of their own. Connolly's stereotypical crime story turns into a dark and heavy time-skipping chess game. Now hard core horror fans might not enjoy this book as much. There are no gore filled chapters with terrifying undead creatures who devour your spleen. There is no `End of the World' mutated threat. But what readers will find is a book that moves fast and is rich with characters. Connolly has the gift of pacing and never wastes words. In the most basic overview, VEINS is like a film thriller that hooks the audience for the full 90 minutes. Then he throws in the ghosts. The specters. The angels. Whatever the hell you want to call them. And you realize Connolly isn't going to play fair. VEINS becomes spiritual and ancient and downright creepy. A character wrecks his car and is hanging off a cliff. The reader is sweating along with the poor guy. Finally he makes it and everything is okay. Man, what a wild chapter. Then the character looks up and a winged Earth spirit is silently crouched down in the woods watching him the whole time. It flies off. The dude freaks out. And so do we. This book doesn't make you scream. It makes you look over your shoulder and seek out a room filled with other people. Connolly is a truly original storyteller and a smooth writer. And when I closed the book after the last page, I wanted more. I fully admit I had never heard of Lawrence C Connolly before I received this book for review. But I can guarantee you I know him now. I will pick up anything this man writes. And if you like your horror old school, fast paced and tight, you should too.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Like a lyrical punch in the gut,
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This review is from: VEINS (Paperback)
Mr. Connolly has a way with language. Veins, set in the rural parts of Pennsylvania near my hometown, is vivid in its language and description. Yet the plot can be brutal in its directness and simplicity. The gift of Mr. Connolly is in bringing the language and plot together.
It is not perfect - the occassional bit of brutality breaks the lyricism, an occassional turn of phrase is just a little too flowery - but the ultimate effect is one of disquiet. And this, I believe, is exactly what Mr. Connolly was going for. While an accessible read, this book quietly leaves small thoughts and concepts that will come back and worry you hours and days later. And the hazard sign on the cover is a stroke of illustrative genius.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Gritty but never sordid,
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This review is from: VEINS (Paperback)
Larry Connolly's horror novel pulls you in fast and never lets up, in its tale of a heist that goes terribly wrong, ending with the perpetrators hunted by both human and supernatural forces when they end up in an abandoned strip mine. Good local color, if you know anything about SW PA. Plus you identify with the characters, even though they're what snobs call "trailer trash." (Apologies to friends who live in trailer parks.) The Native American spirit forces are convincing-- no New Age slop here.
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