Glancing Blow

by Ian Thompson

Overview

Late at night, a man is driving home through a hellish storm on a dark, secluded forest road. He's a vocalist and has just recorded his first ever album. It seems as if his life is finally about to turn around for the better...

Until a creature lunges out in front of his car and he strikes it a glancing blow... Braking hard, the driver ventures into the rain to try to help the wounded beast. Yet the creature is no deer or other normal animal, it is a grotesque monstrosity. Pain sends the beast into a murderous rage...

A nerve-shredding drama of pursuit, violence and suffering begins as the accident victim seeks revenge. The driver is unarmed and alone, rain-sodden and terrified. Can he survive this wrathful monster?

'Glancing Blow' is the first in the series of Short Horror Tales - quick reads written to captivate readers with thrills, chills and unexpected twists... So why not take a passenger seat in a car headed towards nightmarish terror?

Reviews from this author's horror releases:

"...thoroughly spooky, enticing and well written from start to finish."
"...great... I could feel the fear..."
(Glancing Blow - Short Horror Tales #1)
"Great short story..."
(Ignition Source - Short Horror Tales #4)
"...well-written, descriptive and enthralling page-turner, that's not for the faint-hearted... The twists and turns kept me on the edge of my seat..."
(God Of War)
"...extremely well written and very dark. The author did a great job of creating a palpable sense of doom that surrounds the main character from the beginning, and then creating more tension and horror as the story went on..."
(Into The Hole)

Review from 'Home Grown Horror Reviews':

Glancing Blow introduces us to a vocalist who's just made his big-ish break. After recording his first ever album, he's making the 300 mile drive back home. It's late at night, and the rain is coming down hard. Suddenly, something darts in front of his car, and he clips it with his bumper. Going back to check on the poor animal, he inadvertently throws himself into a frantic and brutal struggle for survival.

Thompson shows true mastery of the short horror story. There is enough buildup to ensure that we actually care about the character and the situation, but the action begins quickly and lasts the duration of the story. The story is told in first person past tense, leading you to believe that our hero survives the ordeal. The narration can come across as a bit clinical at times, especially in certain descriptions. The overall vibe that the prose gives off is that the character is recounting his story for the record, after the fact. The panic and desperation felt in the moment sometimes bleeds through that detached tone, adding to the emotion of certain moments.

Thompson has crafted a wildly imaginative antagonist unlike anything I've read before. The character's descriptions are very clear, leaving not much to the imagination. This could be construed as a good thing or a bad thing, depending on your own opinion. I think that the clear description adds to the idea that perhaps the main character is recording his story for law enforcement after the fact.

Ian Thompson delivers exactly what he has promised- a quick, captivating read full of horror and thrills. The tense action and suspense of Glancing Blow make it incredibly hard to put down. Chances are, you'll run through this one in a single sitting. Thompson starts his Short Horror Tales series strongly, and I'm looking forward to continuing with the next story.

(for full review refer: hghorror.wordpress.com/category/authors/thompson-ian/)

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781722950903
Publisher:	CreateSpace Publishing
Publication date:	10/21/2015
Series:	Short Horror Tales , #1
Pages:	42
Product dimensions:	5.25(w) x 8.00(h) x 0.09(d)

About the Author

Ian Thompson is a British writer who has always loved good tales - whether in the form of novels and short stories, TV shows, movies, comics or video games. Being drawn into the realms of someone's imagination has always appealed to him and has driven him to create realms of his own. He writes fast-paced adventures with strong and unusual characters, vibrant worlds, gritty action and unexpected twists.

in February 2015, his debut novel PARADISE EXHUMED was released. The murderous whodunit thriller, set in modern-day Britain, sees a pair of investigative reporters hunting a brutal and seemingly unstoppable killer.

ERA OF DARKNESS - VOLUMES I & II form his war-torn fantasy saga, in which a divided world faces extinction at the hands of demonic invaders. Amid mammoth battles and awful carnage, an array of diverse characters attempt to defeat their overwhelming enemies. A spin-off series of Era Of Darkness novellas began with SURVIVAL I: SLAUGHTER AT GHASTAR.

GOD OF WAR is a dark, gory horror thriller - told partly in Ancient Britain during the Roman Occupation and partly during modern-day. A monstrosity created two thousand years ago is re-discovered deep underground today by a group of trapped cavers, with terrifying consequences.

Ian's Short Horror Tales Series was developed to offer readers quick reads that are rich in thrills, chills and nightmarish twists. GLANCING BLOW, HOOKER, CHAINED, IGNITION SOURCE, HOUSE OF MY DREAMS and BUG HUNT were the first six in over a dozen tales so far.

In April 2017, Ian released the fantasy novel HECTOR REBORN - VOLUME I: DEATH & LIFE. This featured the hero Hector, slain in the Trojan War, who finds himself reborn on a strange and fantastic world. Far from being an idyllic afterlife, Hector's new home proves to be a land of hideous terror, treachery and lethal adventure. The saga concluded in the second volume, RETRIBUTION.

His next project was an apocalyptic zombie story with a unique twist. In THE EARTH BLEEDS saga, the world literally begins to bleed a mysterious substance onto its surface - killing billions and turning the dead into ravenous, mutated monsters. The short tale ZOMBIE HORDE was the first in the ongoing series.

Ian is currently writing his second murder-mystery thriller THE MURDER WEAPON ON THE HILL, whilst continuing to release further Short Tales.

Visit Ian Thompson's website for more information.

https://ianthompson1701.wix.com/authorsite