"What if I told you I have drawn ships ashore? What if I told you I have taken what I wanted, that I've drawn this very blade down a soft belly?" The voice continued, soft and sonorous. "What if I admit to you that I have killed for the game alone? What good does this knowledge do you? It only confirms what you already know. But knowledge is not proof. Civilization won't condemn me until I pull my blade from its heart." Cole roused himself. "You are a murderer," he said. Pomp shrugged. "I may kill, and you, no doubt, save. We have chosen different sides of the chessboard. But as the game proceeds, the pieces mix, and their intent can change." But first it must begin... Rise of the Mooncusser, prequel to the award-winning novel Fog, once again transports the reader to the wild shores of 19th century Cape Cod, a world of shipwreck and quick death, and the beginnings of a tale that will eventually threaten to alter the course of America's future. Here the unforgettable characters of Fog begin their journey toward their eventual fates: lifesaving Keeper Daniel Cole and his strong-willed wife Sara, the irrepressible Willie Bangs, the Reverend Marmaduke Matthews, fiery orator and tormented soul, the canny whore Abby Hierdal, the brutish John Kilbride and, of course, Pomp, philosopher and seer, arbiter of justice and dispenser of death, a man who walks outside the boundaries of civilization, a mooncusser whose only allegiance is to the whispers inside his head. Cast your eyes to the storm swept ridgelines of the outer beach and witness a shrouded and matchless evil.
About the Author: Ken McAlpine is the author of five books. Rise of the Mooncusser is the prequel to his novel Fog, described as "a 21st century Moby Dick that pits Pomp, an obsessed character who will stop at nothing, against Daniel Cole, a good man who has an opportunity to stop the madness but can't. McAlpine writes in the style of Melville, Conrad and Hemingway" and "one of the most intelligent, richly detailed, deeply felt and evocative novels I've read." His novel Together We Jump was praised by Sunset Magazine as "lyrical, evocative and deeply moving... a luminous American novel", and by the Los Angeles Review as "a poetic roller coaster ride through the mind and soul... rendered with eerily realistic plot and dialogue". His first book, the non-fiction work Off Season: Discovering America on Winter's Shore, was a Barnes and Noble Discover Great New Writers selection. His follow-up non-fiction book Islands Apart: A Year on the Edge of Civilization was called "a rumination on what it means to be human", and McAlpine was lauded as "a humorous and humble guide who takes his contemplation of our busy world into unexpected places." He is also the author of West is Eden: Reflections on this Gift Called Life, a collection of essays. McAlpine's magazine articles have earned three Lowell Thomas awards, travel writing's top award. More important to him, assignments from magazines ranging from National Geographic Traveler to Sunset, have provided him unbridled opportunity for play; from diving with white sharks, to running the Inca trail to Machu Picchu, to sparring with the world shoot fighting champion (you cannot learn a martial art in a week). He likes to stand in his yard at night looking at the stars, but he does not like to spend any time during the day doing yard work.