Bear Pond Books welcomes author Jackson Ellis to promote his book, “Black Days.”

About the Book:

Black Days tells the story of Daniel Fassett, a Vermont man who crashes his vehicle into the Mad River on Christmas Eve, 1992. After nearly drowning, Daniel falls into a four-month-long coma shortly before his retirement date and loses a significant portion of his pension. Depressed and financially strapped, he enlists the aid of a local semi-retired physician, Dr. William Butcher, to help him hibernate through the winter in a homemade casket housed in a backyard maple sugarhouse.

Despite Daniel’s attempts to maintain secrecy, word of the procedure eventually gets out—and that is when trouble begins.

From across the country, folks eager to escape their woes reach out to Daniel and Dr. Butcher in hopes of becoming the next to pass a season in oblivion. Large sums of money are offered for the privilege—but death, deception, and moral and ethical dilemmas that have no clear solutions wreak havoc on Daniel’s life.

“I believe Black Days will appeal to fans of domestic suspense and fans of offbeat, gothic, literary thrillers with dark humor and a relatable protagonist. Specifically, readers of fellow Vermonters Shirley Jackson and Castle Freeman, Jr., or fans of Hubert Selby, Jr., may especially enjoy Black Days. It is a terse, engaging book, and as such may be well-liked by those who appreciate Stephen King’s shorter works such as Elevation, Rita Hayworth and the Shawshank Redemption, or Secret Window, Secret Garden.”

About the Author:

Jackson Ellis’s short fiction has appeared in a variety of journals, and for nearly two decades he co-published Verbicide Magazine, which he founded as a print periodical in 1999. His debut, Lords of St. Thomas, received the 2017 Howard Frank Mosher First Novel Prize.