Thrift Store Puzzles - by John Boden (Paperback)

Book Synopsis

Ken Allenwood is a man being devoured, from the inside out, one memory at a time. A once famed horror writer who now spends his days in an elder care facility waiting for the breath that will be his last and hoping he'll retain at least some memories from his long and unusual life. Ken is over 130 years old...or is he? Has the unraveling fabric of his mind tangled with the threads of his fictive endeavors?

Elijah is a boy who adores all things spooky, a boy who spends the bulk of his time alone, his single mother juggling jobs to keep a roof overhead and food in their bellies. Eli occupies his days, hanging out at the home across the street with his uncle/pal, Tierny, one of Mr. Allenwood's many carers as well as Allenwood himself. Afternoons filled with cheesy scary movies and the old man's recollective stories (while he is still able to tell them).

Then a change comes to the little town on Cordry. The killings are vicious and devoid of pattern, almost. When Elijah tells Ken about them, the old man grows fearful and decides to use his unreliable windows of focus to help his friends figure out what is going on and who or what is behind the murders.

A monster has come to roost in their midst. A creature that craves blood and possibly much more, inheritance of a sort, acknowledgment. A monster from the very dark recesses of Allenwood's mind, a horror very old and very bitter. The things we create have a tenacity, a stubborn strength and a very vicious bite. And no debt glares harder than one owed the heart.

Review Quotes

"...so poignantly heartbreaking that it made me ache."

--Candace Nola, author of Demons In My Bloodstream

"Thrift Store Puzzles finds John Boden at his brilliant bloody best."

--Josh Rountree, author of The Unkillable Frank Lightning

"Thrift Store Puzzles includes some of the best of Boden's writing, both the brutal and beautiful, as monster meets metaphor in a tale that will haunt you."

--Kelli Owen, author of The Headless Boy, Teeth and White Picket Prisons

"Thrift Store Puzzles will make your heart ache and your stomach turn in equal measure."

--Michael Wehunt, author of The October Film Haunt and Greener Pastures

"A study in grief and need, in desire and inertia, in the power and prison of love, Snarl is a symphony of melancholia. Try to get through this one with your heart intact, I dare you."

--Alan Baxter, author of Devouring Dark, Sallow End and The Gulp

"Boden's stories are ballads full of dream and anguish; horrific folk tales that celebrate the lost and the defeated."

--Christopher Slatsky, author of The Immeasurable Corpse Of Nature and Palladium At Night

"Caught somewhere between the framework of unlikely friendships, a darkness lingers, brandishing through the mouthpiece of poetic prose. Boden builds momentum through character work, allowing each relationship to flourish in seeds of metaphor. Elijah and Ken, like an extension of a single throat, spoke to aspects of Boden's ideology, palpable and raw in their expressiveness."

--Royal Poff, author of Sleeping Among Wolves

"Equal parts Elmore Leonard and Allen Ginsberg, SNARL is a gorgeous Appalachian noir, sorrow and violence and pain given wings by Boden's succulent prose. You don't want to miss this one."

--Patrick Freivald, Author of In The Garden Of Rusting Gods and Jade Sky

"Fantastic rural noir with a dash of dark fantasy and a tear-inducing end only Boden could create."

--Chad Lutzke, author of How The Skin Sheds, The Neon Owl, and Of Foster Homes & Flies

"John Boden writes a world full of colorful and vibrant characters. His voice is special, unique and marvelous. Snarl is a story full of emotions--sadness and longing, fear and love, converging into a powerful conclusion. Every page of this story had me eager to read the next."

--Mark Matthews, author of The Hobgoblin of Little Minds, Body Of Christ and Milk-Blood

"John Boden's Snarl is a combination of knockout-punch prose, touching storytelling and a strong dose of what-the-hell. It's the author at his best."

--Sam W. Anderson, author of The Sentimental Assassin, The Nines and Slightly Off Center

"Snarl broke me into tiny pieces. Boden's voice is strong, sincere and utterly unique. This is a love letter to all the great country songs of your life, lyrical and heartaching. I was literally speechless when I finished."

--Robert Ford, author of Burner, Inner Demons and Blood Rose

"Snarl by novella author John Boden is one of those unique, quick and riveting reads that will linger in the mind and memory of the reader long after the book has been finished "

-- "Midwest Book Review"

"The characters in John Boden's Snarl speak with a dark poetry which comes naturally to rural people accustomed to chronic ailments, gossip, and disaster. It manages that trick of being both moving and beautifully horrific."

--Steve Rasnic Tem, author of The Night Doctor And Other Tales, Deadfall Hotel and Thana Trauma

"The story is inventive, sad, profound, and meaningful."

-- "The Nerd Cantina"

"Your next favorite horror author, John Boden, not only understands, he sensitively breaches the subject while yet carving on your most paranoid nerve endings with a gonzo Dark Half/Basket Case shriekfest in Thrift Store Puzzles."

--Ray Van Horn, Jr., author of Behind the Shadows, Coming of Rage and Revolution Calling

"Your next favorite horror author, John Boden, not only understands, he sensitively breaches the subject while yet carving on your most paranoid nerve endings with a gonzo Dark Half/Basket Case shriekfest in Thrift Store Puzzles." --Ray Van Horn, Jr., author of Behind the Shadows, Coming of Rage and Revolution Calling

"...so poignantly heartbreaking that it made me ache." --Candace Nola, author of Demons In My Bloodstream

"Caught somewhere between the framework of unlikely friendships, a darkness lingers, brandishing through the mouthpiece of poetic prose. Boden builds momentum through character work, allowing each relationship to flourish in seeds of metaphor. Elijah and Ken, like an extension of a single throat, spoke to aspects of Boden's ideology, palpable and raw in their expressiveness." --Royal Poff, author of Sleeping Among Wolves

"Thrift Store Puzzles includes some of the best of Boden's writing, both the brutal and beautiful, as monster meets metaphor in a tale that will haunt you." --Kelli Owen, author of The Headless Boy, Teeth and White Picket Prisons

"Thrift Store Puzzles will make your heart ache and your stomach turn in equal measure." --Michael Wehunt, author of The October Film Haunt and Greener Pastures

"Boden's stories are ballads full of dream and anguish; horrific folk tales that celebrate the lost and the defeated." --Christopher Slatsky, author of The Immeasurable Corpse Of Nature and Palladium At Night

"Thrift Store Puzzles finds John Boden at his brilliant bloody best." --Josh Rountree, author of The Unkillable Frank Lightning

About the Author

John Boden was mostly raised in the mountains of Pennsylvania, in the small town of Orbisonia. He is a bakery manager by trade and finds a regular sleep schedule overrated. He currently resides with his beautiful wife and two sons, in a house sweetly haunted by the ghost of a beautician named, Darlene. He likes collecting lots of things and won't usually shut up about it. He believes Elvis is the King, Bigfoot is real and Midian is where the monsters live. His writing is fairly well received and has been called unique of style.