Books by C. P. Bearden
The Soil is Calling
A Southern Gothic Novel
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There’s something in the swamp outside Harlsboro, Georgia.
Becca sensed it as soon as she crossed back over the county line: a heaviness in the air—and not just the humidity. She tells herself it’s nothing and that she’ll only be there long enough to help her mother get back on her feet after a venomous snakebite. Then Becca can go back to her life up north and forget about her small, podunk hometown. But the longer she stays in Harlsboro, the more she feels herself start to unravel. Visions of her daughter, who’s been missing for five years, haunt her by day, and an incessant scratching sound keeps her up at night.
As Becca digs for answers, she only finds more questions. Like why does her mother keep trying to run away into the swamp? Who is behind the recent string of grisly murders, and why does the sheriff refuse to investigate them? What does her cousin mean when he says the land is cursed?
Whatever’s plaguing the town, it already has Becca’s family in its clutches. Now it wants her too.
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Praise for The Soil is Calling
"THE SOIL IS CALLING will break you. It’s about healing, about coming home, it’s about the strange, supernatural things that hide in the dark — especially in small southern towns."
-Erika T. Wurth, author of WHITE HORSE and THE HAUNTING of ROOM 904
"Grim and haunting, The Soil Calling is a moving portrayal of rural Americana tightly wrapped in psychological horror that only comes from surviving grief. A must read for horror fans!"
-Abigail F. Taylor, author of Maryneal 1962
"Bearden leads us into the mists of the uncanny, then strikes at the heart with cold-blooded, venomous precision. A tightly coiled masterpiece."
-Inigo Mort, author of The Artist