Rampike

by European P. Douglas

Trapped amidst the unforgiving embrace of an isolated mountain town, escape seems like an impossible dream.When Maul Thorndean, the enigmatic local hermit, vanishes without a trace, Sheriff Joe Moorefield is thrust into a nightmarish investigation. Inside Maul's cabin, an eerie sight awaits—the surrounding trees stand like ghostly specters, their once vibrant forms now brittle and twisted, ominously leaning towards the cabin. Blood stains the floor, hinting at a sinister fate, but no sign of Maul remains.

Mercy, a town accustomed to trouble stirred by Maul's presence, now finds itself ensnared in a horror beyond imagination. The strange trees, with their wraith-like limbs, begin their haunting spread, reaching out to engulf the entire town in an unspeakable darkness. As the residents start disappearing one by one, Sheriff Joe's worst fears are realized—the trees are just the beginning.

In a harrowing race against time, survival becomes a luxury only granted to the fortunate. The chilling grip of Rampike, a small-town thriller, tightens with each turn of the page. For fans of Supernatural and The X-Files, European P. Douglas weaves a spine-chilling tale of mystery and terror that will leave you gasping for breath. Don't wait—plunge into the heart of darkness and grab your copy of Rampike today!

Genres: Horror, Supernatural

290 pages, Kindle Edition

Published June 26, 2018

About the author

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Reviews

[Mick Dubois · Rating 4 out of 5]

Maul, a hermit living in the hills above the small village Mercy isn’t popular with the villagers. Only Sally, the owner of the local tavern barters with him. One day he notices strange white markings on the trees as if they’re scarred by lightning or fire. The disease spreads fast and he wonders if someone deliberately poisoned his land. One night, the tendrils of the affected trees start to move and they catch him. When the sheriff notices that Maul hasn’t come to town for a while, he starts to look for him and also notices the strange whiteness of the trees.

This is a classic, straight forward horror story in the tradition of Lovecraft and Poe, written very visually and full of suspense. There’s no reason given as to why the vegetation suddenly turns on the humans of this particular village. There’s no mention of the period in which the story takes place but it was a time when hotels would still ask for a marriage licence of young couples. A perfect Halloween read.

[Bandit · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not a medieval weapon or an especially militant sort of seafood, turns out rampike is a thing that occurs in trees when they have been hit by lighting or assaulted in some other way. So this book is about trees, dangerous murderous trees. And I’m all for homicidal plants, ever since the triffids, but these trees are on a rampage for no known reason. Maybe they are mad about all the crappy books their brethren had had to die for over the years. Who knows. They just start turning white and strange and then violently attacking the locals of a very small, tiny really, town. And the locals must fight to survive. Very simple straight forward story, but well written and plenty entertaining. Memorably named European Douglas is one of those lesser known authors who actually can write, I’ve enjoyed his Dolocher historical mysteries and figured I’d check out more of his work taking advantage of KU. And, while this, his venture into the supernatural realm, was fun, it wasn’t quite on the same level as his fact based mystery thrillers. Mainly because we never got to know why the trees went evil. (Why not throw in some Native American myth or, I dunno, ancient aliens or something) It would have been nice for the story to offer some dimensionality instead of doing the straight up survival story. But there you have it. The survivors number a few, but are likeable, valiant, brave and ready to sacrifice for the greater good in a very heroic manner. There’s plenty of action and violence, but it’s far from over the top. In fact, the author is fairly restrained with genre prerequisite gore and guts, considering what a pissed off bunch of trees can do. There is a singular quality to Douglas’ writing that make it seem timeless and I’m not sure if it’s because I started reading him with the books set in the past, but it just seemed like this story didn’t have a specific era to it, only glimpses of technology gave any clue as to dating it. Pretty refreshing, actually, in the day and age when some books not only heavily feature modern technology, but actually wouldn’t exist plot wise without it. So anyway, this was fun. Don’t know why the author isn’t read more. It’s almost sad, there are so few reviews on GR. Seems like Douglas himself seeds the pot as it were with a rating and then waits and waits. Well, the wait is over, my eloquent two cents have arrived, so that now you’ll know what you’re getting into. Killer trees. That’s what you’re getting into. Arboreal fights and frights. Ordinary turned murderously extraordinary. Goes by so quickly too, just under 240 minutes for 286 pages, an easy one sitting read. Recommended.

[Linda · Rating 4 out of 5]

Plain and simple, this is a story about murderous trees. In the small town of Mercy, Maul noticed white substance starting to cover the trees near his home. Maul lived like a hermit in the woods and was only friendly with the bar keeper Sally. Rampike is the what they use to describe the white look to trees after a fire or lightning strike. In this story, the Rampike spreads quickly through the forest and becomes deadly for humans.

It is an interesting concept of nature vs man. I wish the story could have given some reason why the trees were getting covered with Rampike. But, it was still a good story with several people in the town trying to fight the trees and survive. What would you do if you tried to leave town and the trees made sure you couldn't?

[European Douglas · Rating 5 out of 5]

I wrote this, totally biased opinion!!!

[Clint Walker Jr · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great story! Wish they made movies like this!

[A. Hall · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved this book! It's like a horror movie put to paper. It had the same feel of a good creature feature/isolated town thriller and the same fast pace as well. The characters are given a lot of attention and depth and that's really what sold me on this. There are aspects of the story that are unique, that I've never seen before, but generally speaking, it's a very stereotypical premise with a lot of derivative horror movie tropes in it.

However, it's all about the characters and this author handles them beautifully. In this isolated mountain town, we meet about 8 people. Yet every single one of them was brought to life in the narrative. They feel like people we all know and you empathize with their decisions, even when they're being stubborn or being "horror movie stupid." The benefit of the novel is, we get to see inside their heads and it doesn't seem so stupid when they make choices based on limited information and personality flaws.

I by far loved all the time we got to know Maul, the grizzled old mountain man who is our protagonist in the beginning. The author really took his time letting us get to know this hard edged old guy and I enjoyed his perspective and take on things. I think we all have a grizzled old mountain man inside us. It was a great way to open this book, introducing him to us, because when stuff starts going down, it comes as such a shock. Just like all the best horror stories, catching you off guard right in the middle of your mundane everyday.

An entertaining afternoon read, richly woven narrative, and characters worthy of investment. (This is the same as my Amazon review)

[James Klabunde · Rating 5 out of 5]

White Dead Trees

Raul is a hermit who is hated by everyone except one woman who runs an inn in a very small village. A blight starts to infect any thing of wood and turns them white and extremely dry. The white becomes alive and blocks all exits out of the village and if you try to escape ends in a painful death. Seen through the eyes of various residents of the village as they come together to fight the Rampike. The book is fast moving and I enjoyed it very much. I recommend this book.

[Dena Ellis · Rating 5 out of 5]

Pretty good

About a man who many down the mountain hate, goes into town once a week or so to trade game meat. Ends up becoming a wood creature through the snow and terrorizing the town people

[Terry and dog · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'm not going to beat around the bush, I liked this story. It had that small town feel with characters, both sweet and sour, that were very vivid. I would have loved to know where the white stuff came from and what it wanted. Other than that, it was fun, fast paced and exactly what you want in a creepy horror. Knock on wood that I never see white stuff in my local forest.

[David Taylor · Rating 5 out of 5]

Rampike is filed with suspense, misdirection and a cast of characters who come in two flavors, easy to like and easy to hate. I started listening with full intent to stop after my morning walk and save this book for my week’s morning walks. Well I have to admit that plan vanished after I listened to the first hour, I had to finish the story and see how this story resolved. If you lie stories that contain paranormal element as well as being thrillers with a cast of characters that are believable then give Rampike the opportunity to get its hooks into your psyche.Tom Taverna's narration is excellent!

[Angel Ballard · Rating 5 out of 5]

Filling in the blanks
After reading Gossamer Falls I had so many questions about the town of Mercy. What happened to it? Where did all the people go? Rampike, like Gossamer Falls, is such a riveting story that I had a hard time putting it down so I could get to sleep or get on with my day. All my questions were answered. And wow! What a great story teller! This is what nightmares are made of! The narrator was great on the audiobook too. I completely love this author's ability to tell a great story!

[Deb Randolph · Rating 4 out of 5]

Scary and different

Who knew that trees could be so evil? I enjoyed this story because it was a different kind of monster and it was always keeping my imagination going. I loved the characters and their determination. The only problem I had with it was a few grammatical errors.

[Claudia · Rating 4 out of 5]

Oh, I liked this one! A classical horror story, carried by the characters and with a lot of thrilling moments.

It's fast-paced and a bit gore-y but not too much, with a bunch of people fighting for their lives and your classical hero.

I loved it :D And Tom Taverna's narration was very good.

[Nancy L. Irick · Rating 5 out of 5]

Awesome book!

This was a great book. I highly recommend you get a copy for your self. This one will keep your attention from beginning to end. You will never look at trees the same ever again.

[fred jones · Rating 5 out of 5]

If you read Gossimer Falls and wanted the know what happened in Mercy, here it is. The trees did it. The story starts slowly building the tension until the last third when it explodes into action. A strong storyline with excellent characters. I liked that the Author doesn't give the reader a cause. It happens, try and survive it. Narration is excellent. I received a complimentary copy of the audio from StoryOrigin and am leaving a honest voluntary review.

[Andy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Surrounded by forest, the inhabitants of a small town notice something is happening to the trees. They're turning white and brittle and people are going missing. The townsfolk know it's time to leave, but will the trees let them go? Another enjoyable tale from an author I've only recently discovered and who joins my "going to read more from" list.