In Conversation: On Elsewhere

Benjamin Percy is a genre-bending novelist, comics writer and screenwriter. His is the author of four novels — most recently The Dark Net. He has published three books of stories — Suicide Woods, Refresh, Refresh and The Language of Elk. He is also the author of a book of essays Thrill Me: Essays on Fiction. Benjamin Percy’s story collection Suicide Woods (Graywolf Press), is a potent brew of horror, crime, and weird happenings in the woods. A boy in his uncle’s care falls through the ice on a pond and emerges in a frozen, uncanny state. A group of people in therapy for having suicidal ideas undergoes a drastic session in the woods with fatal consequences. A body found on a train and a blood-soaked carpet in an empty house are clues to a puzzling crime in a small town. And in a pulse-quickening novella, thrill seekers on a mapping expedition into the “Bermuda Triangle” of remote Alaska are stranded on a sinister island that seems to want them dead. In story after story, which have appeared in several magazines, Percy delivers haunting and chilling narratives. The New York Times Book Review called the collection ” A small masterpiece.”

Fourteen of Dean Koontz novels have risen to number one on the New York Times hardcover bestseller list including titles such as One Door Away From Heaven, From the Corner of His Eye, Midnight, and Cold Fire. His books have also been major bestsellers in countries as diverse as Japan and Sweden. He has sold over 500 million copies worldwide to date. In Elsewhere (Thomas & Mercer), the fate of the world is in the hands of a father and daughter in an epic novel of wonder and terror. Since his wife, Michelle, left seven years ago, Jeffy Coltrane has worked to maintain a normal life for himself and his eleven-year-old daughter, Amity, in Suavidad Beach. It’s a quiet life, until a local eccentric known as Spooky Ed shows up on their doorstep. He entrusts Jeffy with hiding a strange object–something he calls “the key to everything”– and tells Jeffy that he must never use the device. But after accidentally activating the key, Jeffy and Amy discover an extraordinary truth: The device allows them to jump between parallel planes. But its potential for evil is grand, so they are not the only ones interested in the device. Kirkus Reviews called Elsewhere “Colorful, imaginative…a lively, offbeat novel.”