Author Inspired by Stephen King, Dean Koontz and the Roman Catholic Church

Author Inspired by Stephen King, Dean Koontz and the Roman Catholic Church

The inspiration for James Markert’s second novel, “Eyes in the Darkness,” began with the recent priest scandal in the Roman Catholic Church.

“I am a Catholic and it angered me a little over how the church covered up the sex abuse scandals, simply moving priests from church to church to avoid problems,” the thirty-one year old Louisville, Kentucky writer said about his new book, published this past October by Aventine Press.

“Any fan of Stephen King, Dean Koontz, and James Patterson would enjoy it,” he said. “This book is a great suspense novel that I believe many thousands of people would love if they only knew about it.”

The book, which lists at $16.95, is available at Markert’s website http://www.jamesmarkertbooks.com and online book stores such as Barnes & Noble.com and Amazon.com

“Eyes in the Darkness” is a novel about an ex-Catholic priest who is sentenced to death in the electric chair for the kidnapping of children, and the killer in the novel pushes the envelope with the church with claims of a new messiah.

Markert loves to put words on paper and “make my imagination come alive.” He wrote his first novel during college and hasn’t stopped writing novels and screenplays since.

“Eyes in the Darkness” captures Markert’s passion for creativity as he explains, “When Father Devlin Chambers is arrested for the abduction of dozens of children, he leaves behind, on his way to death row, a dormant legacy of horror - one that will stir back to life seventeen years later on the night of his execution. Hours later a cop is murdered. Children are missing.”

The story unfolds as female Detective Karen Dawson, daughter of the murdered officer and mother to one of the kidnapped children, demands to work on the case. She and her partner, along with her estranged husband, a psychologist, set out to track the killer and rescue the little girl. Karen battles her worst fears to hunt down the Outcast-a killer that seems linked to the late Catholic priest.

The plot thickens as “Noah Nichols, their prime suspect and the only child ever to survive Father Silence’s captivity, is now a grown man, locked up in a mental institution, hopelessly tied up in a tangle of multiple personalities. Inside his mind lies the key. But the truth may lie in Karen’s memory, occluded since the day, seventeen years ago, that she witnessed terrifying events that no one else did. Killers, cops, psychologist and psychotic all converge on the site where it all started-Father Silence’s house of horrors,” says Markert.

Others agree the book is a thriller:

David Holland, author of Murcheston: The Wolf’s Tale, writes, “James Markert has crafted a tense, taut thriller with Eyes in the Darkness. His crisp writing style propels the story forward. The plot mixes traditional mystery elements with nail-biting suspense and a touch of the supernatural, and his characters crackle with emotion and energy. An exciting debut from an assured, accomplished writer.”

Jeff Schneider, author of The Fix, also praises the book:“A great fiction writer can remove you from the real world for hours at a time. And after reading James Markert’s splendid, spine-tingling Eyes in the Darkness you might not ever want to come back.”

Phillip Allen, author of Play Money, writes, “James Markert’s sensational, white-knuckle thriller, Eyes in the Darkness, takes you over the river and through the woods to a house where you don’t want to go. It will have you checking your closets before you turn out the lights-if you can even put the book down.”

Markert is a graduate of the University of Louisville, where, in his senior year, he was honored as the school’s Most Outstanding History Major. His first novel, The Hell That is Ice was published in 2000 and is set around the coming of the millennium. He is also a USPTA certified tennis professional at Louisville Tennis Club and works with several of Indiana’s top junior players.

To learn more about Eyes in the Darkness, check out Markert’s website, http://www.jamesmarkertbooks.com

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James Markert

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