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Hard Rain
Welcome to the ghostpocalypse.
Stuart Angelino is a former gang enforcer on his way through empty western Kansas, fresh out of prison and ready to get his life back on track. He stops at an isolated convenience store for gas and a break. While he’s there, a strange, expanding storm blows in with purple-black clouds and green lightning. He and several others are trapped inside by this storm that doesn’t slacken.
A nightgown-clad woman wanders into the parking lot. One of the men in the store goes out into the rain to help her, and she viciously murders him before running off into the storm. Soon others appear, vengeful ghosts from many different times and places. Something has opened a rift between the spirit world and ours, and ghosts are returning in waves.
When it’s clear no one outside the storm has entered it, the group realizes they are the world’s best bet to stop what one of them calls the ghostpocalypse. But they will have to battle the weather, mobs of crazed spirits, as well as ghosts with specific grudges against those in the store. And more dangers await, because the rift is letting more than just ghosts into our reality.
Stuart Angelino is a former gang enforcer on his way through empty western Kansas, fresh out of prison and ready to get his life back on track. He stops at an isolated convenience store for gas and a break. While he’s there, a strange, expanding storm blows in with purple-black clouds and green lightning. He and several others are trapped inside by this storm that doesn’t slacken.
A nightgown-clad woman wanders into the parking lot. One of the men in the store goes out into the rain to help her, and she viciously murders him before running off into the storm. Soon others appear, vengeful ghosts from many different times and places. Something has opened a rift between the spirit world and ours, and ghosts are returning in waves.
When it’s clear no one outside the storm has entered it, the group realizes they are the world’s best bet to stop what one of them calls the ghostpocalypse. But they will have to battle the weather, mobs of crazed spirits, as well as ghosts with specific grudges against those in the store. And more dangers await, because the rift is letting more than just ghosts into our reality.
328 pages, Kindle Edition
Published June 10, 2024
12 people are currently reading
13 people want to read
About the author
Russell James
50 books219 followersRussell R. James was raised on Long Island, New York and spent too much time watching Chiller, Kolchak: The Night Stalker, and Dark Shadows, despite his parents’ warnings. Bookshelves full of Stephen King and Edgar Allan Poe didn’t make things better. He graduated from Cornell University and the University of Central Florida.
After a tour flying helicopters with the U.S. Army, he now spins twisted tales best read in daylight.
His wife reads what he writes, rolls her eyes, and says “There is something seriously wrong with you.”
He has published the novels DARK INSPIRATION, SACRIFICE, BLACK MAGIC and DARK VENGEANCE, the compilations OUT OF TIME and TALES FROM BEYOND, as well as numerous short stories. He founded the Minnows Literary Group.
He and his wife share their home in sunny Florida with two cats.
Drop by the website to kill some time with some short stories.
After a tour flying helicopters with the U.S. Army, he now spins twisted tales best read in daylight.
His wife reads what he writes, rolls her eyes, and says “There is something seriously wrong with you.”
He has published the novels DARK INSPIRATION, SACRIFICE, BLACK MAGIC and DARK VENGEANCE, the compilations OUT OF TIME and TALES FROM BEYOND, as well as numerous short stories. He founded the Minnows Literary Group.
He and his wife share their home in sunny Florida with two cats.
Drop by the website to kill some time with some short stories.
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Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
July 21, 2025
I haven't read much in the thriller/horror genre but this was amazing. It kept me captivated the entire time and wondering what was going to happen next. I will never get over Dennis dying and Wally losing his best friend. I can't wait to find Russell James at another con and buy another one of his books
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
August 31, 2025
Another knock-out hit from Russell James. I love watching his characters grow throughout his plot. I love how you can go for cheering for a ghost with a vengeful purpose to mourning for a beloved character and back again. This was a fast-paced can't put down supernatural thriller with notes of government conspiracy and I loved it!
November 17, 2024
Hard Rain was another fun filled ride from the mind of Russell James. Great characters and more than a few twists had me guessing until the end.
July 15, 2024
I love this kind of ghostly, weather-elated horror. The Mist, The Fog, Ramsey Campbell's The Overnight - and now Hard Rain.
Russell James writes great stories - always pacey, tense, combining the supernatural with relatable characters, most of whom suffer a terrible fate. Hard Rain starts with crazy weather. With global warming, we're used to that by now, aren't we? Actually, even we would find green lightning and greasy rain unsettling and as for what happens then...
The ghostpocalypse is unleashed. But why are the dead returning - and with such murderous intent and capability? Someone has let the evil genie out of the bottle and it is up to a small group, trapped inside a rundown service station, to make sure it is put back. But when the ghosts are pouring through in droves, and some have personal scores to settle with members of the group, the task is never going to be a straightforward one. If indeed it is going to succeed at all.
Hard Rain is great, edge-of-the-seat reading and shows why Russell James can always be relied upon to deliver an original take on a familiar, yet irresistible, theme.
Russell James writes great stories - always pacey, tense, combining the supernatural with relatable characters, most of whom suffer a terrible fate. Hard Rain starts with crazy weather. With global warming, we're used to that by now, aren't we? Actually, even we would find green lightning and greasy rain unsettling and as for what happens then...
The ghostpocalypse is unleashed. But why are the dead returning - and with such murderous intent and capability? Someone has let the evil genie out of the bottle and it is up to a small group, trapped inside a rundown service station, to make sure it is put back. But when the ghosts are pouring through in droves, and some have personal scores to settle with members of the group, the task is never going to be a straightforward one. If indeed it is going to succeed at all.
Hard Rain is great, edge-of-the-seat reading and shows why Russell James can always be relied upon to deliver an original take on a familiar, yet irresistible, theme.
July 9, 2024
4.5 rounded up.
This hit my isolation- sudden strange storm- battle for your life horror needs. I could feel myself sitting in the cafe, watching the freaky weather out the window, I think that is what drew me in the most. I also loved the characters and was rooting for a few particular ones to survive, it was very engrossing. I loved it. I do think that it kind of zoomed a bit at the end, I would have liked a couple more chapeters in there to tell what happened in the immediate aftermath, ( the reason I took 1/2 star off), but I was happy with the ending.
This hit my isolation- sudden strange storm- battle for your life horror needs. I could feel myself sitting in the cafe, watching the freaky weather out the window, I think that is what drew me in the most. I also loved the characters and was rooting for a few particular ones to survive, it was very engrossing. I loved it. I do think that it kind of zoomed a bit at the end, I would have liked a couple more chapeters in there to tell what happened in the immediate aftermath, ( the reason I took 1/2 star off), but I was happy with the ending.
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March 20, 2025DNF 50%
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews