Bargain eBooks #248:

The Devil and Preston Black by James Miller

Genre: Supernatural Suspense

Price: $1.99

Where to Get It:

Amazon.com (Kindle)
Smashwords (all eBook formats)


You'd think finding a song named after you on an old record would be
kind of cool. But that's not how it goes down for Preston Black.

What starts out as a search for his old man fast becomes a quest for
an original version of "The Sad Ballad of Preston Black". Turns out
the song is about his deal with the devil, a deal Preston doesn't
really remember making.

When the devil decides it's time to cash in things get really
interesting. People he loves get hurt, and Preston starts to wonder
if a long fall into an icy river is his only way out.
Lucky for Preston, he has help. A music ethnographer with connections
in some of Appalachia's darkest hollows convinces him that his
salvation can be found in the music. Preston can buy that. It's the
hexes, curses and spells he has a hard time with.

And it's the ghost of John Lennon who convinces Preston to do
something about it.

What they're saying about it:

"With this new book, Jason Jack Miller has single-handedly cornered
the market on Appalachian Noir fiction, and deservedly so. The Devil
and Preston Black is a page-turner laced with an audiophile's longing
for the days when music was genuine, and the storytelling reminded me
of a strange array of similar stories -- High Fidelity, Crossroads,
Justified... -- yet it stood out from the pack as fresh, thanks to
Miller's authentic Appalachian voice. Any lover of guitar music or the
history of the blues will instantly see themselves reflected in the
story, filtered through a noir fuzz pedal, amped up with the
electricity of dark fantasy. Miller's flair for words is evident even
in the title alone: I can't think of a more appropriate name than
"Preston Black"! With just the right touch of magical realism, this
hip take on the 'deal with the devil' story conjures up a tale that's
vastly enthralling and compulsively readable. Highly
recommended."-Michael A. Arnzen, Bram Stoker Award-winning author of
GRAVE MARKINGS.

"With the photographic clarity of a beat poet's metaphor and the
soulful twang of a bluesman's axe, Jason Jack Miller draws the reader
down a trail of folksong breadcrumbs to the haunted backwoods of
Appalachia, where the worst devil of all may be the one that stalks
our hopes and dreams."-Christopher Paul Carey, co-author of The Song
of Kwasin