"Scott Nicholson is a terrific writer. Like Stephen King, he has an eye and ear for the rhythms of rural America, and like King he knows how to summon serious scares. My advice? Buy everything he writes. This guy's the real deal."-- Bentley Little, author of The Association

"In a literary and a geographic sense, Scott Nicholson explores the dark legends of the southern end of the Appalachian mountain chain, a nightmare country that ends in Stephen King's yard. A wonderful storyteller, he is at the top of his game in The Red Church."-- Sharyn McCrumb, author of The Ballad novels

"In the Carolina mountain town of Whispering Pines there are locals, there are flatlanders, and then there's something else altogether. As the blood runs and the bodies pile up, readers will sense echoes of Stephen King's classic Castle Rock tales in The Red Church, but there's a tasty strain of Lovecraft here, too. Scott Nicholson knows the territory. Follow him at your own risk." -- Stewart O'Nan, author of The Circus Fire and A Prayer For The Dying

"Scott Nicholson writes with a mixture of H.P. Lovecraft, Manly Wade Wellman, and Clive Barker, stirred with a liberal dose of his own originality, to tell an effective and atmospheric tale." --Kevin J. Anderson, co-author of Dune: House Corrino

Back to Bibliography

I have some signed copies of the hardcover book club edition of "The Red Church" for $12.50, includes U.S. shipping. These are used but in great shape.

Read a chapter
Reviews
Essay "The Devil You Say?"
Here's The Church, Here's the People...
Press Kit

2002 Stoker Award finalist

THE RED CHURCH: Synopsis

For 13-year-old Ronnie Day, life is full of problems: Mom and Dad have separated, his brother Tim is a constant pest, Melanie Ward either loves him or hates him, and Jesus Christ won't stay in his heart. Plus he has to walk past the red church every day, where the Bell Monster hides with its wings and claws and livers for eyes. But the biggest problem is that Archer McFall is the new preacher at the church, and Mom wants Ronnie to attend midnight services with her.

Sheriff Frank Littlefield hates the red church for a different reason. His little brother died in a freak accident at the church twenty years ago, and now Frank is starting to see his brother's ghost. And the ghost keeps demanding, "Free me." Now people are dying in Whispering Pines, and the murders coincide with McFall's return.

The Days, the Littlefields, and the McFalls are descendants of the original families that settled the rural Appalachian community. Those old families share a secret of betrayal and guilt, and McFall wants his congregation to prove its faith. Because he believes he is the Second Son of God, and that the cleansing of sin must be done in blood.

"Sacrifice is the currency of God," McFall preaches, and unless Frank and Ronnie stop him, everybody pays.

So you want to know how a book is born?

Read Scott's column series "Virgin In The Church" that tracks the book from keyboard to bookshelf in the year leading up to the publication of The Red Church