Off The Shelf: The Heavens Rise by Christopher Rice

The book I’m taking off the shelf today to tell you about is perfect for this Halloween season. It’s a riveting tale involving the supernatural by a masterful author.

Multiple New York Times bestselling author Christopher Rice (yes, son of Anne Rice) returns to New Orleans in his first-ever, supernatural novel THE HEAVENS RISE, featuring a group of teenagers who find themselves with mysterious and dangerous powers. He brilliantly conjures the shadowed terrors of the Louisiana bayou—where three friends confront a deadly, ancient evil rising to the surface—in this intense and atmospheric new supernatural thriller.

My name is Niquette Delongpre and on the night before my mother’s forty-seventh birthday, my entire family vanished without a trace. Everyone assumed the swamp swallowed them. They were wrong. The real story begins weeks earlier, in the very soil of the place we called Elysium, which means “final resting place for the heroic and virtuous.” An ironic name, given that the secret unearthed there has the potential to change the course of human history.

It’s been a decade since the Delongpre family vanished near Bayou Rabineaux, and still no one can explain the events of that dark and sweltering night. No one except Niquette Delongpre, the sole survivor who ran away from the mangled stretch of guardrail on Highway 22 where the impossible occurred . . . and kept on running. Who left behind her best friends, Ben and Anthem, to save them from her newfound capacity for destruction . . . and who alone knows the source of her very bizarre—and very deadly—abilities: an isolated strip of swampland called Elysium.

An accomplished surgeon, Niquette’s father dreamed of transforming the dense acreage surrounded by murky waters into a palatial compound befitting the name his beloved wife gave to it, Elysium: “the final resting place for the heroic and virtuous.” Then, ten years ago, construction workers dug into a long-hidden well, one that snaked down into the deep, black waters of the Louisiana swamp and stirred something that had been there for centuries—a microscopic parasite that perverts the mind and corrupts the body.

Niquette is living proof that things done can’t be undone. Nothing can bring her parents back. And nothing can save her. But as Niquette, Ben, and Anthem uncover the truth of a devastating parasite that has the potential to alter the future of humankind, Niquette grasps the most chilling truths of all: someone else has been infected too. And unlike her, this man is not content to live in the shadows. He is intent to use his newfound powers for one reason only: revenge.

Here’s what critics and others are already saying about this captivating story:

       “Creepy, chilling, and almost impossible to put down all describe the new novel by New York Times bestselling author Rice…This is a horror novel, but in the telling of this page-turner, Rice also manages to deftly address issues of race and class in the Big Easy.” — Booklist

       “My first foray into the world twisted by New York Times bestseller Christopher Rice [THE HEAVENS RISE] will absolutely not be my last. With rich, multi-layered characters merging into the lush backdrop of pre- and post-Katrina, south Louisiana, Rice had my attention from the start…In Rice’s world, nothing is as it seems. Every twist and unexpected revelation fell into place smoothly and kept me engaged, wanting to rush ahead to see what may be next. I’ll be first in line looking forward to the next amazing story.” — Suspense Magazine

       "Christopher Rice has written an amazing horror novel with more twists and turns than a mountain road. You'll think you know your destination . . . but you'll be wrong." — Charlaine Harris, #1 New York Times bestselling author of Dead Ever After

       “Christopher Rice has crafted a rich and haunting world in The Heavens Rise. This story of a tormented family and the events that have led to their destruction and onward into the future is tense, tight, disturbing and made very real by a very talented author who obviously knows his way around the Big Easy. An excellent read!” — Robert McCammon, #1 New York Times bestselling author of I Travel By Night

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

Christopher Rice is the author of four New York Times bestsellers. The son of author Anne Rice and the late poet Stan Rice, he was raised in New Orleans. He now resides in Los Angeles, where he is a co-host of the Internet radio program, The Dinner Party With Christopher Rice & Eric Shaw Quinn. 

For more on Christopher and his work, visit his website or find him on Facebook and Twitter.

Christopher is also on tour promoting his new book. The following book signings are with his mother, Anne, who is promoting her own new book, THE WOLVES OF MIDWINTER, which published Oct. 15.

* DALLAS – Oct. 29^th, Barnes and Noble (7700 W. Northwest Highway), 7 p.m.
* LOS ANGELES – Nov. 2^nd, Barnes and Noble (189 The Grove Drive), 2 p.m.
* SAN FRANCISCO – Nov. 5^th, Books Inc. (Opera Plaza, 601 Van Ness), 7 p.m.
* TEMPE – Nov. 14^th, Changing Hands (6428 S. McClintock Drive, Tempe, AZ), 6 p.m.

Thanks so much for stopping by today. I hope I’ve grabbed your interest in this enthralling new book that will make the hairs on the back of your neck stand up. Just in case I haven’t, I leave you with this entertaining book trailer to entice you a bit more. Happy reading!!