Even Dead Girls Gotta Make A Living"With crackling prose and a heroine that fairly leaps off the page (and worms her way into your heart), R L Wilburn has written a brilliant novel, which sets alight the urban fantasy genre. " -- Amanda Rutter, EditorIn the summer of 1997, nineteen-year-old Charlotte Baum and her little sister Annaliese were abducted off the streets of St.
Louis by a fledgling serial killer. After killing Charlotte too quickly with an overdose of mind-altering drugs, her captor turned to the dark arts to repair his broken toy.
Offering up Annaliese in exchange for the unholy knowledge he needed to bring Charlotte back from the dead, he ended up getting a hell of a lot more than he bargained for. Twenty-six years later, Cherry – as Charlotte is now known - survives as a grave wight, an all-but-immortal reanimated corpse who must feed on the soul of at least one human being each lunar cycle.
She stalks the darkest shadows of her hometown, hunting down violent criminals who slip through the cracks in a broken system, killing with the touch of a hand. Cherry operates by a strict moral code: the people she preys upon must be unquestionably guilty and utterly beyond redemption.
But when the bodies of innocent people start turning up all over the City, each bearing the unmistakable hallmarks of grave wight kills, Cherry and her allies in the Police Department must track down clues to the killer’s identity, a killer seemingly intent on amassing an army of the undead. And Cherry quickly realizes that the culprit may be someonecloser to her than she ever imagined.
About the AuthorRich Wilburn has had a lifelong fascination with stories and storytelling in all media, particularly in the realms of sci-fi, fantasy, and tales of the sea. His yarn-spinning idols include Glen Cook, Patrick O’Brian, Joss Whedon, Glen Larson, J.
R. R.
Tolkien, Quentin Tarantino, and – yes – even George Lucas. He is also quite possibly one of the most confused, conflicted people you will ever encounter in your life, and he honestly wouldn’t have it any other way: He loves people, but hates crowds; He loves to fly, but is terrified of heights; He loves the ocean, but despises the beach; He’s fascinated by sailing and ships, but get can get car-sick on a highway off-ramp; He holds a black belt in tae-kwon-do, but has never been in a fight in his life; He’s terrible at math, so of course he became an engineer.
And don’t even get started on his taste in music – his everyday playlist runs the gamut from contemporary to classical to pop to rap to classic country to jazz to standards to funk to folk to whatever the hell it is Jimmy Buffett sings. Rich (barely) graduated from the University of Illinois with a BS in Civil Engineering and is currently the principal civil engineer for a small suburb of St.
Louis. He lives in southwestern Illinois with his long-suffering wife, has successfully raised two fully-functional adult offspring, and is the proud owner of the smartest Shih-Tzu in the known universe.
. .