Tenebris by Tim Curran

Jim, Rita and Dinah driving down route 50 “The Loneliest Road in America” when out of nowhere they are attacked by a giant bird! Fatalities happen but our hero Jim with the help of Shiner and Pettis proprietors of “Cryptodesert.com” search out our prehistoric Thunderbird...and the scene is set for a final showdown...”Find out exactly what did happen on Route 50 that night. It became not only a passion but an obsession. One way or another, he was planning on getting answers.”

This is a short novella with a story that is mildly interesting but is able to hold the readers attention with the introduction of some interesting characters. Pettis and Skinner seek out unknown animals..... “At Cryptodesert.com our focus is the Nevada/Utah area, particularly the deserts of the Great Basin and Mojave. We collect regional tales and ephemera concerning things like killer bee swarms, giant beavers, cattle mutilators, the Bear Lake Monster, and, of course, Sasquatch.” Tim Curran provides a lovely description of Skinner “He was tall, jittery, and thin with hair so red it looked like it had rusted. He had bad teeth and a crooked smile, a gangly textbook nerd that even wore Coke-bottle glasses as if to accentuate the fact. He looked like he wanted to explode right out of his skin. He had a Bigfoot T-shirt on that read, Bigfoot Doesn’t Believe in You Either.”

There is one enjoyable scene when Pettis and Skinner insist that Jim meet Reese, a young lady who has had a similar experience with a “thunderbird”....her introduction adds a little colour and fun to a somewhat one dimensional story....”Then a young woman that he’d seen loitering over near the counter made a straight beeline to his table and sat down. Her hair was black as Dracula’s cape set with neon red streaks, black eyeliner laid thick as road tar around her dark eyes. She wore a red plaid skirt, blue nylons with fashionable holes, leather nut-busting boots, and a tight Punisher skull T-shirt with no bra beneath, her breasts jutting like warm, ripe grapefruits and her nipples standing out like pushpins. The lights gleamed off the multiple piercings in her nose, lips and eyebrows.”

It disappoints so much to find yet another kindle edition with grammatical errors when a simple proof reading could have corrected these mistakes:

“It still seemed impossible. Was that was his flirting with Nurse Koreshi was about? should read...It still seemed impossible. Was that what his flirting with Nurse Koreshi was about?

“If it hadn’t have been for Rita’s garden, he and vegetables would have been complete strangers” This sentence would be more grammatically correct if written “If it had not been for Rita’s garden, he and vegetables would have been complete strangers”

“He help up a hand as if used to silencing scepticism...should read “He held up a hand as if used to silencing scepticism”

“If they hadn’t been hanging onto one another, anchored by their combined weight, they would have went right over”...should read “If they hadn’t been hanging onto one another, anchored by their combined weight, they would have gone right over.”

I was given a free copy of Tenebris for an honest review and that is what I have written. The story was an easy read and quite enjoyable, I would have awarded 3 stars if more time, thought and care had been directed towards the kindle presentation.