by Alan Orloff
Winn gestured with his hand for the board. Rick held onto it, but Winn’s gestures became more animated. Finally, he gave the board back.
It took Winn a moment to scratch out his message. “We’re even. And where’s my waitress? I need a drink.” Next to the note, Winn had drawn a smiley face.
Acknowledgments
It takes a whole lot of people to get a book on the (virtual) shelves. My sincere gratitude goes to:
Dan Phythyon and Ayesha Court. Megan Plyler and Dorothy Patton. Mark Skehan and Doug Bell. John Stevenson, Jill Balboni, Kim Stevenson, and Samantha Stevenson.
Steve Orr and Mike White.
Don & Mike, Howard, and the Greaseman.
Melanie Hooyenga and Natasha Fondren.
The P.J. Parrish sisters (Kris Montee and Kelly Nichols), Reed Farrel Coleman, Elaine Raco Chase, and Ann McLaughlin.
Donna Andrews, Ellen Crosby, John Gilstrap, and Art Taylor.
Noreen Wald.
Kathy Green.
My extended family.
My children and my wife.
Thanks!
About THE TASTE
Zak Allen is also the author of THE TASTE, a horror/thriller available exclusively in digital form. Here’s a summary:
After his mother dies, Jake Wheeler returns to his birthplace of Dark Springs, West Virginia, seeking solace among his kin. But his family’s unique comfort food includes some ingredients Jake's not sure he can stomach.
They eat dead people.
Discovering that skeleton in the pantry and adjusting to a new diet turn out to be the least of Jake’s worries. Storm clouds have gathered over Dark Springs, threatening the family’s peaceful existence. Ax-wielding clan patriarch Dallas Pike and his band of renegade followers have decided upon a violent plan to increase the dwindling food supply. Why wait for your next meal to die naturally if you can hunt it down instead?
With the survival of the entire clan at stake, Jake wages war against madman Pike.
He also battles an even more terrifying opponent.
Himself.
After all, Jake has THE TASTE.
THE TASTE is a full-length (82K words, approx. 325 pages) original horror novel in the tradition of Stephen King and Dean Koontz.
Zak Allen is the darker pseudonym of Alan Orloff, author of the Agatha Award finalist DIAMONDS FOR THE DEAD (2010) and the Last Laff Mystery series (KILLER ROUTINE (2011), DEADLY CAMPAIGN (2012)), from Midnight Ink.
Before Alan stepped off the corporate merry-go-round, he had an eclectic (some might say disjointed) career. As an engineer, he worked on nuclear submarines, supervised assembly workers in factories, facilitated technology transfer from the Star Wars program, and learned to stack washing machines three high in a warehouse with a forklift. He even started his own recycling and waste reduction newsletter business. Now he writes fiction.
For more information, visit www.alanorloff.com
Table of Contents
CHAPTER 1
CHAPTER 2
CHAPTER 3
CHAPTER 4
CHAPTER 5
CHAPTER 6
CHAPTER 7
CHAPTER 8
CHAPTER 9
CHAPTER 10
CHAPTER 11
CHAPTER 12
CHAPTER 13
CHAPTER 14
CHAPTER 15
CHAPTER 16
CHAPTER 17
CHAPTER 18
CHAPTER 19
CHAPTER 20
CHAPTER 21
CHAPTER 22
CHAPTER 23
CHAPTER 24
CHAPTER 25
CHAPTER 26
CHAPTER 27
CHAPTER 28
CHAPTER 29
CHAPTER 30
CHAPTER 31
CHAPTER 32
CHAPTER 33
CHAPTER 34
CHAPTER 35
CHAPTER 36
CHAPTER 37
CHAPTER 38
CHAPTER 39
CHAPTER 40
CHAPTER 41
CHAPTER 42
CHAPTER 43
CHAPTER 44
CHAPTER 45
CHAPTER 46
CHAPTER 47
CHAPTER 48
CHAPTER 49
CHAPTER 50
CHAPTER 51
CHAPTER 52
CHAPTER 53
CHAPTER 54
CHAPTER 55
CHAPTER 56
