Machines of The Little People

Machines of The Little People: The Eve Project Book #1 (SF/Mystery)

By Tegan Maus

ASIN #BOOJU2VOGS

Tirgearr Publishing

Price $3,99

166 Pages

Rating 5-Stars

Benjamin Harris is a 57-year-old handyman living in Riverside, California. When his sister, Kate Kaswick dies of cancer, her husband Roger disappears before her funeral, and is missing for several years. When Ben finds Roger back at home, he has a new wife, Jessica, but Roger acts strange, and talks about the Katoys, a mysterious race of little people. When Jessica is found murdered, Roger disappears again, and Ben discovers government agents are involved someway.

Benjamin also has something wrong with his body that shorts out electrical machines, so they must be insulated against his presence. The Katoys are something that Roger invented, but are a weapon of mass destruction in themselves.

The SF angle was pretty neat, but the mystery is what drives the story. The characters come alive, and the writing is fast-paced and exciting, keeping the reader turning the pages.

Tom Johnson

Author of Pangaea: Eden’s Planet

Ben Harris’s sister died of cervical cancer more than three years ago… his best friend and her husband, Roger Keswick, disappeared the day before the funeral. For the next six months everyone from the local police to the Department of Defense searched for him but to no avail…  it was as if he had simply fallen off the face of the planet only to reappear at work as if nothing were out of the ordinary at all.

Then by the purest of coincidences Ben finds himself pulled back into Roger’s life only to discover he has remarried… to Jessica…  a woman that looks, sounds and acts just like his dead sister.  To complicate things, Roger is insistent his home, his car, his life is infested with tiny elf like creatures he calls the Katoy. He claims they run massive machines under his house and watch his every move… every move that is until Jessica is found bludgeoned to death in his living room and Roger is nowhere to found…   again.

Excerpt

"When Roger and I first met, he was unbelievably attentive and charming. He did little magic tricks, sleight of hand, to make me laugh.  He spoke of wondrous things so far over my head it took my breath away. It was like he spoke another language. He told me about his inventions and designs for machines the likes of which have never been seen before. We talked about the future, two futures really; one sounded like heaven and the other seemed unimaginable. I thought he was teasing me, flirting with me with his brilliance." Jessica said softly. "Now, I'm afraid I only resemble someone he once loved."

I understood how she felt. Her words touched me far deeper than I cared to admit. This went on far longer than I expected. It was the push I needed to see for myself what was in the tree and who Roger was talking to.

"I'll go," I said softly.

"No. Just watch a moment," Jessica said. She crossed the room, shutting off the lights before returning to the sink. We waited for our eyes to adjust. Roger walked around the tree, first in one direction and then in the other as Tilley continued to sit up and beg.

The light he carried flashed into the window and then in and out of the upper branches of the tree.

Slowly, silently, Jessica leaned forward and slid open the window.

It took a moment for Roger to come around to our side of the tree so we could hear him.

"Yes, I agree. He's here now." He spoke hoarsely at the tree, trying not to be too loud. "No. I won't. He's not ready. He wouldn't understand."

"Who's he talking about?" Audry whispered.

"More importantly, who's he talking to?" I added.

"Shush, just watch," Jessica whispered 

Roger wandered around the tree once more before returning to the same spot.

We waited.

From somewhere in the yard, or maybe the house, a low dull drone began. Barely audible, it seemed to vibrate the floor before I actually heard it, like a washing machine on spin in another room. The tone deepened until it seemed to be coming from the center of my chest.

Outside Roger threw his arms wide and yelled, "Hit me, Bob."

Suddenly, a thin beam of bright blue light appeared, a laser for lack of a better description, from somewhere in the upper part of the tree. He arched his back, standing on his toes as if lifted by the light. It struck him dead center in his chest, holding him there for a moment or two.

"Oh, Momma," he cried with excitement and the light vanished. He crumpled to the ground on his hands and knees…  laughing like a madman.

"That's the fourth time. I've asked, but he won't tell me," Jessica said flatly and crossed the room to turn the light back on. "You ask him, Ben."