I am happy to be hosting a stop on the blog tour for DEADFALL by Stephen Wallenfells ! I have an excerpt to share with you today check it out and enter to win the giveaway below!
About The Book:
Title: DEADFALL
Author: Stephen Wallenfels
Pub. Date: December 11,
2018
Publisher: Disney-Hyperion
Formats: Hardcover,
eBook
Pages: 384
Twin brothers Ty and Cory Bic are on the run. When they encounter a dying deer in the middle of a remote mountain road with fresh tire tracks swerving down into a ravine, they know they have to help. But when they reach the wrecked car the vehicle appears empty, with signs that the driver escaped.
Until they hear a sound coming from the trunk.
Ty and Cory are escaping demons of their own. But what they discover in the trunk puts them in the crosshairs of something darker and more sinister than their wildest nightmares.
Told through a gripping, lightning-fast narrative that alternates between present and past, this unputdownable survival thriller unravels the tangled circumstances that led Ty and Cory to the deer in the road and set them on a perilous course through the wilderness of the Pacific Northwest.
Now on to the excerpt!
We run the final thirty feet. Inhale the
stink of gas and oil and burning rubber. Shattered bits of glass are
everywhere. I shed my pack while Ty checks out the driver’s door, which is
crushed inward.
The window is gone. He crouches down, pokes his head inside. I run to
the rear passenger window, which is also gone, and shine my headlamp inside,
fully expecting to see multiple dead bodies. But the backseat is empty. I don’t
see anyone in the front passenger seat.
Ty says, “Nobody here. But there’s plenty of blood on the airbag and the
steering wheel. Oh, and there’s more on the roof. Shit. There’s a lot on the
roof.” Then, “Hey. Check it out.” Ty shines his headlamp on the seat belt clip.
A six-inch piece is hanging down, sliced at an angle. He says, “Looks like the
driver had to cut his way out.”
“Any sign of a passenger?”
“Don’t see any blood. And the airbag
didn’t happen.”
I say, “The gas smell is pretty bad back
here.” Then I step away from the car and throw up.
Ty knows the drill. He waits till I stop
heaving, says while I’m wiping my face with my sleeve, “There’s a bloody
handprint outside the driver door. And a couple boot prints going that way.” He
points up the slope we just hiked down. “Looks to me like he didn’t want to
hang around here with all this gas leaking.”
“I know how he feels,” I say as my stomach
finally settles and the surrounding trees wind down to a slow spin.
He says, “So? What’re you thinking?”
“If he’s bleeding as much as you say, he
could be hurt pretty bad. Since we didn’t see him up at the road, or on the way
down, it could mean he collapsed somewhere between here and the road. With this
fog it would be easy to miss him.”
“Or her.”
“Right. Or her.”
“So? Can we go now, or do you need to
search for the body?”
“Maybe we should yell first. Do you mind?”
“Go for it.”
I yell, “HEY! WE’RE HERE TO HELP! WHERE
ARE YOU?” We wait. Hear nothing. I yell again. Still nothing.
“Well?” Ty says.
Then I do hear something. But it’s not coming from the forest. It’s
close by. A muffled, metallic sound. I look at Ty. “Did you hear that?”
“Hear what?”
“A sound. Kind of a clunky metal sound.”
“Nope. All I heard is you yelling.”
We wait a couple more seconds. The
fog-drenched silence seeps in from the trees, coils in our headlamps, crawls up
and over the big rock where the trunk of the car is resting. Whatever the sound
was, it’s gone.
“And the verdict is . . . ?”
I say, “Let’s spread out. Stay about
twenty feet apart and hike to the car. If we don’t find the driver, then we’re
back to plan A.”
Ty smiles. “Okay. Let’s do it. But do it
now. I don’t want to kill the battery.”
I put on my pack. Ty finds another boot
print. It’s about the same size as his hiking boot, so I figure the driver is
our size, six foot, maybe a little more. Ty walks fifteen feet away, starts
hiking up the hillside. I walk fifteen feet in the opposite direction, then
head straight up, scanning the beam from my headlamp in 180-degree arcs. I walk
ten steps, when I hear the same sound again. But this time there’s no question
about the source.
I call out to Ty, “Wait! I heard
something.”
He swings around.
I run to the car. Bang on the frame with
my fist and yell while scanning the interior, “Hey! Where are you?”
By this time Ty is back. He says, “Cory.
The car’s empty. We checked. There’s nothing—”
Then he hears it. A muffled thump, thump.
He looks at me, says, “Oh shit.”
The sound is coming from the trunk.
About Stephen:
Stephen Wallenfels lives in Washington state with his wife. He wrote freelance for the Health and Fitness
industry for fifteen years before turning writing novels. His passions are family, hiking, cooking,
reading, movies, climate change, and especially writing.
Giveaway Details:
3 winners will receive finished copies of DEADFALL, US only.
Tour Schedule:
Week One:
12/3/2018- Simply Daniel
Radcliffe- Review
12/4/2018- My Books-My World- Excerpt
12/5/2018- BookHounds
YA- Excerpt
12/6/2018- Here's to Happy
Endings- Review
12/7/2018- Confessions
of a YA Reader- Excerpt
Week Two:
12/10/2018- Book Bite Reviews- Review
12/11/2018- FUONLYKNEW- Spotlight
12/12/2018- A Dream Within A
Dream- Review
12/13/2018- The Pages In-Between- Review
12/14/2018- Sincerely Karen Jo Blog- Excerpt
Week Three:
12/17/2018- Rhythmicbooktrovert- Review
12/18/2018- Savings in Seconds- Review
12/19/2018- Lifestyle of Me- Review
12/20/2018- Eli to the nth- Review
12/21/2018- Literary Meanderings- Excerpt
Week Four:
12/24/2018- Falling For YA- Excerpt
12/25/2018- Books,Dreams,Life- Spotlight
12/26/2018- Good Choice Reading- Excerpt
12/27/2018- Wishful Endings- Excerpt
12/28/2018- Two Chicks on Books- Excerpt
Week Five:
12/31/2018- All the Ups and
Downs- Excerpt
This is a gripping story of twin brothers in a bad situation that gets worse. Two stories, one told in present tense, one in past tense, intertwine and develop each other for a stunning conclusion. I love the diverse cast of characters and Wallenfels’ vivid turns of phrase, which hook the reader through the very last page.
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