Visions - US Cover, Synopsis Excerpt & Contest

Here’s the US cover for Visions! Canada and the UK will do their own. Below you’ll find the synopsis, a contest to be first on the list for an early-spring ARC, and an excerpt from the book. Yes, the synopsis for book 2 (or any book past #1) contains spoilers for the first, so if you haven’t read Omens, stop here!

 

SYNOPSIS

Omens, the first installment in Kelley Armstrong’s exciting new series, introduced Olivia Taylor-Jones, daughter of notorious serial killers, and Gabriel Walsh, the self-serving, morally ambiguous lawyer who became her unlikely ally. Together, they chased down a devious killer and partially cleared her parents of their horrifying crimes.

Their success, however, is short-lived. While Olivia takes refuge in the old, secluded town of Cainsville, Gabriel’s past mistakes have come to light, creating a rift between the pair just when she needs his help the most.

Olivia finds a dead woman in her car, dressed to look like her, but the body vanishes before anyone else sees it. Olivia’s convinced it’s another omen, a sign of impending danger. But then she learns that a troubled young woman went missing just days ago—the same woman Olivia found dead in her car. Someone has gone to great lengths to kill and leave this young woman as a warning. But why? And what role has her new home played in this disturbing murder?

Olivia’s effort to uncover the truth places her in the crosshairs of old and powerful forces, forces that have their own agenda, and closely guarded secrets they don’t want revealed.

EXCERPT

The cover art reminds me of a scene in the book, a major sequence set in an abandoned psych hospital. So, since it’s Halloween, I’ll grab a slightly creepy scene from that for my excerpt.

Through chunks of missing ceiling I could see rotting rafters. Something moved in the shadows there. A black shape took form on one of the suspended pipes. I lifted my flashlight to see a perched raven watching me.

“Ewch i ffwrdd, bran,” I muttered.

The raven lifted its wings, ruffling its feathers, as if offended. Then it settled back into silent watching. I caught another flash of motion, higher, and looked to see a hole in the roof. Moonlight streamed onto the rafters through it. Then the moon vanished as an owl glided past.

Ravens and owls. It’s no coincidence now. They’re here for a reason.

Watching me.

I rubbed down goose bumps and kept going with one eye on the raven. It didn’t move. I passed through the left doorway at the end of the ward and came out into …

A bath room.

Not a restroom, but an actual room of baths. Four deep tubs, built right into the floor of the narrow room. For hydrotherapy, I presumed. Writing covered the walls. Not the “AJ was here!” style graffiti I’d seen elsewhere, but lines like “a clean body is not a clean mind” and “out, damned spot” and “water cannot wash away the sins of the soul.”

A squeak sounded from the farthest tub. When I walked over, I could see it was filled with water. Bits of paper floated on top.

No, not paper. Petals. Red poppy petals.

My heart thudded. I looked back at the doorway, but there was no sign of the raven or the owls. Just me, alone in this room, seeing poppies. I forced myself forward. Filthy water reached almost to the brim. The petals floated on it.

With the gun in my right hand, I reached out my left and touched the water. As I scooped petals, my fingers brushed something under the surface. I stumbled back, but fingers grabbed my wrist. A shape shot up from the filthy water. The bloated corpse of a dark-haired woman. Her mouth opened, a horrible, twisted, swollen mouth, skin sloughing off, teeth hanging loose.

“Your fault,” she said. “All yours.”

I wrenched away, and my hand came free, her skin still clinging to it, as if I’d yanked the bloated flesh from her bones. I fell back, hitting the floor, a scream clogged in my throat, looking up to see—

I was sitting on the floor, alone in an empty room.

I stuffed my gun in my pocket, and I pulled out something else, without even thinking. The boar’s tusk. I gripped it tight and pushed to my feet and looked into the tub. It was empty. I eased forward and reached down to see if the sides were even wet. As I did, I realized I was still clutching something in my left hand. I opened it and a trio of damp poppy petals fell into the dry tub. I stared at them. Then I picked them up, fingers rubbing the petals, reassuring myself they were real. I put them into my pocket and continued on.

The next room was a lavatory, with a row of toilets along one wall. Only low walls divided them, and if there had ever been doors, I couldn’t see any remnants of them.

I moved carefully through the room, checking each stall as I went. Only when I reached the last did I notice writing on the opposite wall. I turned to look up at it. Three words. Written in foot-high block letters.

I don’t understand.

I swallowed and rubbed my arms. I tried to pull my gaze away, but it kept returning to those words, somehow more haunting than any that came before it.

I don’t understand.

I didn’t understand. Not any of it. Not the ravens, not the owls, not the hallucinations and the poppies, not even what the hell I was doing here, walking through an abandoned psychiatric hospital, clutching a gun and a boar’s tusk. Part of me wanted to just stop and scream, “I don’t understand!” and demand that the universe reply. That it give me answers. It wouldn’t. Those were up to me.

CONTEST

It’s still much too early for ARCs, but I’m going to give away the top spot on the waiting list. I had Omens ARCs in March this year, so expect Visions in March 2014.

For book 2 of a series, I definitely want to make sure the winner has read book 1! So the contest includes a question from Omens.

How to enter: email contest@kelleyarmstrong.com and answer this question: In the excerpt, Liv says something in Welsh to the raven. This comes from Omens. Tell me the line (from above) and where she first hears it in Omens (I don’t expect you to remember specifics, just roughly tell me the circumstances)

My contests are always open to everyone, everywhere. One entry per person.

Contest Deadline: midnight Eastern Monday, November 4. Not sure what that is in your time zone? Check here.