Steel Breeze (26 page)

Douglas Wynne is the author of
the rock n roll horror novel 
The Devil of Echo Lake
,
which was a first place winner of JournalStone's 2012 Horror Fiction
contest.

He lives in Massachusetts
with his wife and son and spends most of his time hanging out with a pack
of dogs when he isn’t writing, playing guitar, or swinging a
sword. You can follow him on Facebook and Twitter and at 
www.dougwynne.com
 

Rena Mason
proves she is a rising new voice in horror.“ —
JG Faherty
, author of
The
Burning Time, Cemetery Club, Carnival of Fear,
and the Bram Stoker
Award® nominated
Ghosts of Coronado Bay
.

William
(Billy) Burke and William Hare were two real-life, beer-swilling, fist-fighting
lowlifes who managed to stumble their way into infamy in Edinburgh, Scotland in
the late 1820s. Step by step, they graduated from the unemployment line to
petty thievery, to grave robbing, and then on to cold bloody murder –
ultimately becoming Britain’s first documented serial killers.

What history doesn’t know
about, or consider, is the possibility that Burke and Hare may not have been
acting on their own; and the blame for those heinous crimes might not entirely
be theirs. Two mysterious strangers have arrived in the city–an old sculptor
and a stunningly beautiful actress–both of which use their money and influence
to manipulate the young Irishmen into searching for an ancient artifact rumored
to have the awesome power of Heaven and Hell combined.

Seized by the vicious killings
of Jack the Ripper, Victorian London’s, East End is on the brink of ruin.
Elizabeth Covington, desperate and failing to follow in her beloved father’s
footsteps, risks practicing medicine in the dangerous and neglected Whitechapel
District to improve her studies. News of a second brutal murder spreads.
Elizabeth crosses paths with a man she believes is the villain, triggering a
personal downward spiral taking her to a depth of evil she never knew existed.
Only she knows the truth that drives the madness of a murderer.