Excerpt: Goldenseal by Gill McKnight

[reviews_and_ramblings]

Goldenseal by Gill McKnight
Release Date: 09/2009
Publisher: Bold Strokes Books
ISBN-13: 978-1-60282-115-6
Buy Link: http://www.boldstrokesbooks.com/Merchant2/merchant.mvc?Screen=PROD&Store_Code=bsb&Product_Code=mg1-golden&Category_Code=mg1

Amazon: Goldenseal

Blurb: When Amy Fortune returns to her childhood home, she discovers something sinister in the air—but is former lover Leone Garoul stalking her or protecting her? Amy Fortune and Leone Garoul were teenage lovers. Now, years later, Amy returns to Little Dip, the Garoul home valley to help her aunt finish a botanical project. Except Little Dip is no longer the happy place of Amy’s childhood memories. There’s something sinister in the woods. And why hasn’t Leone moved on? Why does she still dog Amy’s every move? As more and more of the Garoul family arrive for a special hunting weekend, parts of the puzzle come together and Amy’s fears escalate as she moves closer to the truth—and the secret that has eluded her since childhood.

Excerpt:

Amy wasn’t sure what woke her. She lifted her head and scanned the tree line hugging the riverside. The birdsong had stopped, and an eerie quiet had descended. Was that what had awoken her? The unnatural silence?

Something drifted into her peripheral vision, dark velvet slinking through the shadows before being swallowed by the forest. She squinted, trying to focus on its fluidity, a liquid whisper that melted from tree to tree. It was nothing more than a penumbra, as vague as a watermark on the surrounding gloom. No sooner had she caught it than it dissolved away into nothingness. She rose onto her knees to look harder but all was now uniform darkness. Nevertheless, she was left with a strong residue of unease. It coated her tongue and cramped her stomach. Tentative birdcalls began to fill the quiet. The ominous pause in nature seemed to flutter, then lurch hesitantly back into the everyday life of the forest.

Amy gave one last sweeping glance along the riverbank. It was then she noticed her fish. Her trout lay several feet away from where she’d left them. Towel in hand, she padded across the stepping-stones to the bank. As she approached she noticed the rapidly drying paw prints circling her catch. They were massive, and clawed, and made every fine hair on her already goose-bumped flesh stand on end. She watched aghast as the prints slowly dissipated before her eyes with the heat of the sun. She dropped her towel and hurriedly grabbed at her clothes, deciding it was best to get dressed and go as quickly as possible.

“Been fishing?” Leone emerged from the tree line just several yards upstream from where Amy stood.

Startled, Amy spun around angrily. As if this wasn’t creepy enough, now I’ve got a peeper ogling me from the woods.