Brian Russell's SCRIBE Set for 9/23 Release

The idyllic Scottish country town of Kilbride hides a bloody past. Once home to a murderous tyrant and site of an epic battle for independence from England, now the quiet town's biggest source of excitement is the pub band led by local beauty Moira McLeod. In Brian Russell's SCRIBE (Kengorus Publishing/Amazon; September 23, 2013), the arrival of Hollywood director John MacIntyre and his beautiful movie star wife, Valerie, means things are about to get a lot more interesting. And deadly.

Valerie hopes the couple's long summer holiday will help them rekindle the closeness they once had. John hopes he'll discover the inspiration for the novel he plans to write. Initially charmed by the town and its residents, the couple are happier together than they've been years, but before long John's writing becomes an almost dangerous obsession, and Valerie turns to the ruggedly handsome Graham Ne sbit for comfort and companionship.

There's more to the charming, easygoing Graham Nesbit than the MacIntyres know; a local history expert, he's also the gatekeeper of the allegedly cursed tomb and secret passageways beneath the ruins of the Keep. Intrigued by this local landmark so feared by the residents, John finds himself writing an historical novel set within its ominous, forbidden ruins. As he and Valerie explore Kilbride, he realizes that many of the characters he thought he had made up were once real, historical figures and he grows increasingly convinced that the story he's writing isn't coming from his own imagination, but is being channeled through him from some supernatural source. He stays up all night, drinking and writing, only becoming aware of his growing disconnection with his wife when he sees her and Graham embracing on a boating excursion.

One night, after hearing her sing at the local pub, John becomes fascinated with Moira McLeod--after all, she is the living embodiment of Eileen MacLeod, the heroine of his novel. In this story within a story, Eileen is forced to break her engagement to her beloved Robert Douglas and marry Campb e ll, the cruel ruler of the Keep, Eileen fights to the end to escape the marriage. And when the end becomes inevitable, Robert and his men make a doomed bid to save her. Eileen makes the ultimate sacrifice in hopes of saving Robert, leaving the Keep with a bloodstained legacy and a story crying out across the ages to be told.

That cry lures John to the Keep despite the townspeople's superstitions. One day he encounters Moira, who knows the secrets of the ruin and is harboring a dangerous secret of her own. Soon Moira and John fall into a passionate affair, and John becomes embr oi led in an elaborate plot involving Scottish nationalism, ritual sacrifice, sex, drugs, and a hidden treasure of staggering wealth, all orchestrated by the sinister Reverend Drummond.

At first considering Drummond a helpful resource and fellow history buff, John strikes up an acquaintance with the minister, who also leads a solemn, devoted group of boys called The Covenanters. Drummond shows John a secret room beneath the church, full of maps and ancient relics that is in someway connected to the Keep. But the minister is more than he seems. Feeding the townspeople a heady ble nd of Scottish nationalism, paganism, Christianity, and good old-fashioned blackmail, it soon becomes clear that Drummond is roping the village residents into his schemes. And with a hidden hand manipulating the murders, disappearances, and even romantic affairs of the village, it's starting to look like the story from John's historical novel is repeating itself in real life.

Then Moira disappears and revelations about the depth of their relationship threaten John's marriage to Valerie. Looking for a scapegoat, the once-friendly townspeople ostracize the MacIntyres, and the clim ate in town grows distinctly threatening. After Graham, in a drunken rage, confronts John about his infidelities, the local man crashes his car and Valerie insists he recuperate at their home. An uneasy alliance grows between John and Graham, as they search through the seedy underbelly of rural Scotland in an effort to find Moira before it's too late.

When one of the couple's closest friends is killed, John is accused, and Valerie and John must decide whether they can work through his betrayal to clear his name, find Moira, and identify the real killer before they become targets th emselves. SCRIBE is a romantic and atmospheric supernatural thriller that transports readers to a close-knit Scottish village where bonds of community and blood are so tight that not even death can sever them.

To post a comment, you must register and login.