The eighth shuttle to emerge from starship Candlemark’s Reckless imprint is Martha Hood’s The Valley and the Hill, a bookend to The Miasma is Not for Us to Say: like its older sibling, Valley is a fusion of Stephen King and Elmore Leonard with yet another pitch-perfect take on small-town intrigues—but whereas Miasma’s were brought to a head by a semi-sentient cloud of evil-smelling fog, those of Valley are exacerbated by enhanced sensory perceptions, which prove a decidedly mixed bag.

Today I’m thrilled to share the cover for Valley, which accurately distills its content, as seen from the synopsis below. The image comes from Unsplash; the background from the talented Alan C. Caum whose covers, maps and interior illustrations grace many Candlemark works (click on the cover icon to embiggen).

Valleytown bestows powerful gifts of perception upon its denizens. When Sergeant Dory Douce, a Feeler, investigates a disturbing incident in the town’s Hill neighborhood, she comes up against Toni Stonecamp, another Feeler who has turned her gift into a weapon. As Toni’s Touching tears Valleytown apart, Dory and her colleague Sara must find a way to counter remorseless evil, without destroying themselves or those they love.

Martha A. Hood lives with her husband and two old cockatiels in Southern California. Her fiction has appeared in a number of publications, including Interzone, Pulphouse: The Hardback Magazine, The Sockdolager, and Tales of the Unanticipated. She blogs, sporadically, at Speculativemartha.wordpress.com. During the last couple years, she has renewed her fickle interest in gardening and improved her pie-baking skills. Her novella “The Miasma is Not for Us to Say” appeared in 2020 from Candlemark & Gleam.

We expect to share Valley at the beginning of June, and it will be available for pre-order from Amazon within the next few days. Mark your calendars for the shoals of small-town politics and keep watch for unusual sensations!