Synopses & Reviews
All Nate and Sara want is a new life in a new town, away from the crime and poverty of their past. So, after being approached at a roadside diner by a man offering $500 for a ride to Omaha, they wonder if their luck might be changing.
At first it seems like easy money, but within a few hours the man is dead.
Now, forced off the road by a blizzard and trapped in a run-down motel on the side of a deserted highway, Nate and Sara begin to uncover the mans secrets. Who he was, how he died, and most importantly, why he was carrying two million dollars in his suitcase.
Before they know it, Nate and Sara are fighting for their lives, and in the end, each has to decide just how far they are willing to go to survive.
The Cold Kiss is an everyman psychological thriller that pits a young couple against moral corruption, greed, betrayal, and love. More simply, for two characters who may have used up all their chances, its the classic final trip down the dark tunnel that might lead to heaven, but drags them through hell. This is A Simple Plan meets The Getaway, with a pulse-pounding plot and a twist ending. John Rector is name that all thriller fans will come to know and love for years to come.
Review
"Tense, taut, throat-grabbing. John Rector is far more accomplished than his years. Reads like a cross between No Country For Old Men and Deliverance. Terrific to the last drop -- of blood." --Eric Van Lustbader, New York Times bestselling author of First Daughter
"Terrific narrative and real compelling style...a cross between Jim Crumley and A Simple Plan." --Ken Bruen, Shamus Award-winning author of The Guards
"The Cold Kiss is a slice of tragicomic noir Americana, a spiraling tale of bad luck and viciousness leavened only by author John Rector's savage glee at the ever worsening state of his protagonists' circumstances. One of the best debuts I've read in a very long time." --Scott Phillips, award-winning author of The Ice Harvest
Review
“Tense, taut, throat-grabbing…reads like a cross between No Country For Old Men and Deliverance.”--Eric Van Lustbader, New York Times bestselling author
“Theres no better place to spend a few imaginative hours these days than Rectors snowbound motel.”—The National Review
“Terrific narrative and real compelling style...a cross between Jim Crumley and A Simple Plan." --Ken Bruen, Shamus Award-winning author of The Guards
"The Cold Kiss is a slice of tragicomic noir Americana, a spiraling tale of bad luck and viciousness leavened only by author John Rector's savage glee at the ever worsening state of his protagonists' circumstances. One of the best debuts I've read in a very long time." --Scott Phillips, award-winning author of The Ice Harvest
Synopsis
Giving a ride to a snowbound stranger who offers them a lucrative sum in exchange, a recently engaged couple is thrown into a nightmarish situation when the stranger dies in their back seat with more than two million dollars in his possession.
Synopsis
Nate and Sara, on the run from their past, are driving to Reno. When they're approached at a roadside diner by a man offering $500 for a ride into Omaha, they can't help but see it as a sign of blessings to come.
But in a few hours, that man is dead in their back seat . . . and hes got a bag of money . . . more than either one of them know what to do with.
Forced off the road by a blizzard and trapped in a run-down motel, Nate and Sara make a life-altering decision that unleashes a nightmare. Before they know it, Nate and Sara are fighting for their lives and forced to confront every bad decision theyve made along the way.
For two young lovers who may have used up all their chances, this is a final trip down a dark tunnel that might lead them to heaven, but drags them through hell.
Synopsis
“Rector writes with deceptive grace, spinning out irresistible prose with a dark pulse between every line. This is psychological suspense at its most seductive. I loved it.” —Sean Doolittle, author of
Safer Dexter McCray is a farmer with a dark past that continues to haunt him. As a struggling alcoholic, hes used to being looked at with pity and suspicion in his community. After waking from a blackout to discover the body of a teenage girl in the nearby cottonwood grove, he can't be entirely sure he's innocent. With no memory of the previous night, he sees no choice but to investigate the crime himself. Fortunately hes not alone. He has some help . . . in the shape of the dead girl herself.
Is Dexter motivated by guilt or insanity, reason or folly? And how will the young victim provide the help he desperately needs? With plot twists on every page, Rector breathes life into a story that pits reality against hallucination, truth against improbability. The Grove is a sinister tale of one man haunted by the reality of his failed life.
“Tough, dark, and beautifully told.” —David Peoples, screenwriter of Unforgiven, Twelve Monkeys, and Blade Runner
About the Author
John Rector is a prize winning short story writer and author of the novels The Cold Kiss (optioned for a feature film now in development), and The Grove. He currently lives in Omaha Nebraska.