Kent Holloway

The Toad King has awakened! Cassie’s grandfather used to tell her and her brother Tommy stories of the Toad King—an ancient slumbering evil that lurks in woods of an abandoned estate on the outskirts of Meikle Bay. So when an infestation of toads descends upon their town, Cassie wonders whether the plague of toads is a harbinger of greater evil to come. Fueled by curiosity about the legend, Cassie and her brother, along with Tommy’s best friend Ben, sneak into the dark forbidden woods, but what awaits them is an evil beyond their worst nightmares.

The sleepy beach town of Summer Haven is waking up to a new nightmare--reality TV! Lance Avery, host of 'Mysterious Expedition'--a popular adventure documentary show--is in town to investigate a sunken shipwreck rumored to be the flagship of the infamous pirate Baron Tombstone, allegedly the last known possessor of a mystical artifact known as the Hand of Cain. Summer Haven Police Chief Becca Cole knows all about the Hand of Cain. For the last year, she's been investigating mysterious deaths tied to the artifact, with a little help from the unlikeliest of partners--the Grim Reaper...Death himself, incarnate in the flesh of one Silas Mot, who has temporarily relocated to Summer Haven to discover why people are dying before their time. When an inexplicable tragedy strikes the TV production, rumors abound that the death can only be attributed to "supernatural causes", but Becca is determined to find an all-too human killer. Meanwhile, Silas is facing a different sort of crisis. With each bizarre death, he's losing his powers, inexplicably transforming into a mere mortal. If Becca and Silas can't solve this latest mystery, it will mean the end of his job as harvester of souls, to say nothing of his very existence.

A Holy Land...A Holy War...An Unholy Terror In the final years of the first Kingdom of Jerusalem, in a vault, hidden deep beneath the Temple Mount, Baron Gregory De L'Ombre has made an astonishing discovery. Imprisoned within the vault are twelve monstrous abominations, created by one of King Solomon's wives as a final act of revenge. The secrets of the vault will ensure Gregory's absolute power and forever enslave the Outremer--the Holy Land. No man dares stand against him. But the Djinn is no mere man. A creature of smoke and shadow... a living legend... only the Djinn grasps the full scope of the baron's plans. Only he can save the Holy Land from a fate more terrible than anyone imagines.

Anton Jax—Ajax Clean, to those who know—is a professional cleaner. As in cleaner for the mob. Bloodstains on your shirt? No problem. Fingerprints and DNA evidence all over the crime scene, enough to put you away forever? For the right price, Clean will make it all go away. But now someone wants to make Ajax Clean go away.His instincts told him the job was too good to be true. He should have trusted them. Two dead bodies, trace evidence pointing to him everywhere, and those sirens he hears in the distance? Yeah, coming for him. On the run, Clean will have to take help where he can get it; from a half-crazed voodoo hitman, a retired homicide detective, and the beautiful young medical examiner Clean is desperately trying to protect. All he has to do now is survive long enough to clear his name, get some payback, and maybe, if he's lucky, make a clean exit.

If you think monsters are scary, you don't know Jack! Wisecracking cryptozoologist Dr. Obadiah "Jack" Jackson has hunted plenty of dangerous creatures over the years. But he finds a lot more than he bargained for when he travels to Malaysia to save a beautiful missionary and her village from being ravaged by ghoulish, blood-feeding monsters straight from local legend...creatures known as the jenglot...creatures that are very dangerous, elusive, and intelligent. But that's the least of Jack's troubles. It seems that the blood-crazed cryptids aren't the only ones bent on using Jack as their favorite chew toy. Other denizens of the Malaysian jungles have their sights set on him as well including a local witchdoctor threatened by the missionary's message of hope and a mysterious guerrilla leader who appears to have a dark and secret agenda. Jack and his team must keep their wits about them to escape the jenglot and discover the answers to the deep mysteries surrounding their existence.

A FANTASY-ADVENTURE FROM THE AUTHOR OF THE DARK HOLLOWS MYSTERY SERIES! It is the end of the Age of Rome, and the beginning of a story that will last forever. The story of a hero named Krin, whose flight from Roman Legionnaires takes him to a strange and wondrous land deep in the the wilds of Germania. The story of the mysterious valley called Thana Pel, where the Magi of old stand watch at the chasm that separates the world we know from the world we only dream of…The land of Wyndter, the realm of the Fae. The story of the quest to find the Crown of Nandur—the last remains of a majestic and ancient creature, as old as the world itself—a talisman that can bind the worlds together, and awaken an army of long dead dragons, buried deep in the heart of Thana Pel. To save our world from the evil schemes of renegade magus Sair’n Kryl, Krin, accompanied by a rag-tag band of unlikely heroes, must recover the Crown of Nandur before the gates of Wyndter open, and the world of mankind is subjugated by the dark faery empire of the Winterking.

DEATH TAKES A (WORKING) HOLIDAY! Becca Cole is a big fish in a small pond. The former big-city homicide detective is now the Chief of Police in Summer Haven, a sleepy Florida beach town where nothing ever happens. But all that changes when she is summoned to the scene of a grisly murder. A naked young woman lies dead on the beach, a knife sticking out of her back, and the supposed killer stands over the body. It looks like an open-and-shut case, but not all is as it seems. The victim, who was tangled up in Santeria and drug-trafficking, didn’t die from a stab wound. In fact, an autopsy can’t determine what killed her. The chief suspect turns out to be Silas Mot, an enigma in his own right. In fact, as Becca digs deeper into Silas’s identity, she discovers the startling truth. He’s the Grim Reaper. The personification of Death. The guy who decides who dies and when. It seems he’s in town in order to determine why unsanctioned deaths have been occurring in and around Summer Haven, and he can’t leave until he’s cracked the case. Becca and Silas will have to team up to discover who killed the young woman if they are to put a stop to the unscheduled departures, but for Silas, confined to a body of flesh and blood for the first time in his existence, the distractions of the world of the living may be the Death of him!

Death stalks the fog-shrouded streets of London. A mysterious killer is hunting down vampire familiars, driving stakes through their hearts, and cutting off their heads for good measure. Nestled in his padded, bug-infested cell at Seward’s Sanatorium for the Criminally Insane, R.M. Renfield, familiar prime to Count Dracula, imagines he is safe from the scourge… Until he awakens standing over the body of his cell mate with the murder weapon in hand.Accused of the crime and unable to prove his innocence, he escapes the asylum and resumes the life he knew before Dracula. Before madness. The life of Inspector Renfield of Scotland Yard. Venturing into the seedy underbelly of the city, he hunts for the murderer amid a myriad of suspects. Is it the beautiful folklorist researching the legend of vampires? Her brutish and enigmatic chauffeur and bodyguard? A reporter obsessed with Dracula’s reign of terror seven years earlier? Or the cult of vampire hunters who revere the inexplicably missing Abraham Van Helsing?As the body count of familiars serving London’s vampires continues to climb, Renfield, with the reluctant assistance of his brutal master Dracula and the villainous intellect of Mr. Hyde, must put aside the safety net of madness and reclaim his former glory as a brilliant detective to track down the killer before more innocent souls are lost.International bestselling author J. Kent Holloway spins a web of mystery that’s one part The Hound of the Baskervilles, one part Dracula, and a whole lot of The League of Extraordinary Gentleman, which will propel you on a spine-tingling journey into a world you only think you know.

Dead men tell no tales, but they sure make some excellent teachers. Have you ever had someone give you the platitude that death is just a 'natural part of life'? Christians know better. Truth is, death was never intended to be part of the human experience. Sin brought death into the world. It is a result of our disobedience to God and His ideal plan for humanity.  Death is not natural. It's not pretty. It's never dignified. It's part of a curse. And no one knows that truth better than a forensic death investigator, who looks Death in the eyes on a near daily basis.  This book is a fascinating collection of real life and unusual death investigations as it can only be told by someone who's experienced it every day for the last twenty-five years. Though  the subject matter might sound macabre, the message inside is one of great hope for living a more abundant life and developing a closer relationship with the One who had defeated Death. The Creator of Life. 

One-Eyed Jack has returned… FBI crime analyst Kili Brennan has come to Boone Creek, in the Appalachian foothills of Kentucky, looking for her missing brother…looking for answers. Instead, she finds a world of suspicion and superstition. Locals say her brother, and a string of others, may have been killed by One-Eyed Jack—the fabled giant guardian that protects the fantastic archaeological monument he was researching. As Kili's search intensifies, the danger escalates, and the only person that can help her is a man whose mysterious past might be just as frightening, and infinitely more dangerous, than the dark secrets she is determined to uncover. A man named Ezekiel Crane.

1936 - Over the Atlantic Ocean A zeppelin. An art thief. A murder on a trans-Atlantic flight. When art acquisitions facilitator Tobias Cooper is hired by the Smithsonian Institute to re-acquire the lost Burial Mask of Hammurabi from a private collector, it's all in a day's work. Until the mask is stolen on a trans-Atlantic Zeppelin flight from Zurich to New York City. His employers believe the theft to be the work of famed art thief known as the Gray Ghost. Tobias isn't so sure. But when a body is discovered in the crew's restroom, the flight's security chief is convinced it's the Ghost's accomplice. Therefore, find the killer and find the thief at the same time. Tobias, who has been trained by the world's greatest detective, as well as the greatest criminal, is called upon to reluctantly solve the crime. But danger is everywhere. No one is who they appear. With a cast of suspects that include Nazi spies, evil conspirators, and wealthy socialites with horrible secrets to protect, Tobias must be at the top of his game to solve the crimes while keeping from getting caught in the cross hairs. PLEASE NOTE: This is the first in a series of SHORT STORIES. It is not a full length novel. Total word count is a little over 8,500 words.

IF YOU THINK MONSTERS ARE SCARY...YOU DON'T KNOW JACK! For more than three hundred years, a creature called the Jersey Devil has haunted the Pine Barrens of the Garden State. Once believed to be the offspring of their infernal namesake, the nine-foot tall gargoyle-like creatures are, in reality, a type of cryptid-mysterious animals whose existence has not yet been scientifically proven. Now, someone has kidnapped a Devil cub, and unless the infant cryptid is reunited with its own kind, the Jersey Devils are going to take a great big bite out of the Big Apple. Finding cryptids is Dr. Obadiah "Jack" Jackson's business, so when the Jersey Devils start rampaging in Central Park, Jack is on the job. But what starts out as an ordinary monster hunt-ordinary for Jack at least-soon turns into a nightmare of political intrigue and violence. Hounded by local law enforcement, stalked by cult of crazed Devil worshippers, and terrorized by the increasingly desperate cryptids, Jack must unravel the mystery and find the Devil cub before all Hell breaks loose!

IF YOU THINK MONSTERS ARE SCARY...YOU DON'T KNOW JACK! The Tritons are surfacing...Dr. Obadiah "Jack" Jackson, the smart-mouth cryptozoologist with a penchant for trouble is back. Now the Field Operations Director for ENIGMA (ENtity Identification and Global Management Agency), he and his team find themselves in way over their heads when they travel to the Greek islands to investigate the sudden appearance of strange aquatic creatures the locals are calling mermaids.Hounded by a cult that worships the animals, hunted by hit-men intent on putting an end to his investigation and his life, and keeping the water-bound creatures from having him and his team for lunch, Jack races to unravel the mystery of the Tritons.

A Haunted House... Missing Children... A Dead Man Walking... The Grand Avenue Detectives are on the case. Every small town has its secrets... Places you never go, except on a dare... People who, when you see them coming, you cross the street and go the other way... When a young girl in Burnside, Kentucky goes missing during an afternoon thunderstorm and the 'zombie' of the richest man in town is seen shambling the streets, inventor and 12-year-old sleuth 'Lucky' Lee Aker enlists his friends, Shane Morrow and '8-Bit' Grant to solve the case. Naturally the trail leads them to the town's most haunted place-Southwood Manor. But this mysterious house, its enigmatic occupant, and others in town with sinister purpose do not easily give up their secrets.

Melody is haunted...The piano was a gift, a symbol of enduring love, but from the moment she began playing it, Melody's nights became filled with terrifying visions.Visions of an ancient city in ruins where the streets run red with blood and winged creatures watch lustfully from high above.Visions of murder, betrayal, and madness.She knows that her night terrors are inextricably entangled with the piano and its troubling history, but she must keep playing...searching for that one melody that will quiet the haunting voice that threatens her very sanity.**NOTE: This is a short story. It is roughly 4,000 words in length. It's not a full length novel.

NOTE: This is an ENIGMA Directive short story originally appearing in THE GAME anthology from Seven Realms Publishing. It is a SHORT story, not a full length novel. Three years before the events of Primal Thirst, wisecracking cryptozoologist Dr. Obadiah "Jack" Jackson awakens in the middle of an abandoned carnival on a desert island, completely unaware of how he arrived there. As he begins to investigate his strange surroundings, he is contacted by a man calling himself Freakshow, who explains that Jack must survive the night in the jungle where a pack of vicious cryptids lurk. To add to the ordeal, Freakshow has abducted an innocent mother of three and has hidden her somewhere on island. With only a handful of tools at his disposal, Jack must locate the kidnapped woman and find a way for both of them to survive being hunted through the night. FREAKSHOW is a short story introducing the sensational new villain of the upcoming ENIGMA Directive novel DEVIL'S CHILD (coming this Fall from Seven Realms Publishing).

A song of mourning...and warning.From the depths of Briarsnare Marsh, the Yunwi Tsunsdi--the Little People--sing their dirge when death approaches to claim a soul. Sometimes though, even death can be fooled.The residents of Boone Creek are shocked by the grisly discovery of seven mutilated corpses--their sons and daughters, brothers and sisters--but an even bigger surprise awaits them when the grave gives up its victims.This miraculous resurrection has not gone unnoticed. The Leechers--thirteen men, doomed to walk for all eternity in the shadowland between life and death, bound by a curse to hunt those who would use uncanny power--unleash their judgment on anyone with a connection to those who have returned.Now it's up to Ezekiel Crane, the enigmatic seventh son of a seventh son, to thwart the Leechers' grisly mission and discover who has sent them to wreak vengeance on the sleepy Appalachian hamlet he is sworn to protect.The dirge is being sung. Death is coming to the Dark Hollows...with a vengeance."Holloway skillfully weaves a back-woods tapestry of Sherlock Holmes with TV's Supernatural and Justified into a thrilling Appalachian story of magic and mayhem. The Dirge amps up the action, menace, and mojo, for a spookfest of epic proportions, with a layered mystery and surprises at every turn. Join Ezekiel Crane, and bring your ten-demon bag for another Dark Hollows adventure. This series somehow got even better." -- Kane Gilmour, Bestselling Author of RAGNAROK and THE CRYPT OF DRACULA