Deadly Destinations & Giveaway: Kat Richardson takes us to Lake Crescent from DOWNPOUR

**Visit Dark Faerie Tales today for her Deadly Destination tour of Seressia Glass’s Atlanta from Kira Solomon& a chance to win SHADOW FALL**

We’re moving up North to Harper Blaine’s Washington for today’s Deadly Destination, more specifically to Lake Crescent from Kat Richardson's DOWNPOUR, the setting of the 6th Greywalker book available from Roc on August 2nd. Harper is a Greywalker which means she can ‘move between our world and the mysterious, cross-over zone where things that go bump in the night exist.’ I’m just starting this series (Julia will be reviewing DOWNPOUR soon), but I already know I want them all.  Thanks to the wonderful people at Penguin/Roc Books, three of you who comment on this post will win a copy of the book that started the Greywalker series: GREYWALKER!  See details below

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Guide to Lake Crescent
by
Kat Richardson

This year, Harper Blaine is spending some of her time outside her normal haunts in Seattle. In DOWNPOUR, Harper has taken a trip to the Olympic Peninsula on a pre-trial investigation for her sometimes-employer Nanette Grover. The Lake Crescent area is a gorgeous mountain setting in the Olympic National Forest just a few miles up Highway 101 from Port Angeles on the north and Forks on the west—and when I say “up” I mean straight up. But Harper’s not there for the scenery—she’s investigating a witness and stumbles upon a fatal accident that happened long ago but the victim still wants justice and the evil mages who caused his death are still around, and still as dangerous as ever.

It’s mid-February when Harper arrives and most of the resorts are still closed for the season, there’s still snow on the ground here and there, and the daytime temperature rarely rises above 50-degrees Fahrenheit in direct sunlight.

Lake Crescent and its nearby companion, Lake Sutherland, are surrounded by rugged natural beauty and a host of strange legends, including an angry mountain god, drowned valleys, walking trees, dead bodies turned into soap that float to the surface of the bottomless lake, and Native American dragons that spit lightning and whose boiling-hot tears created the natural hot springs nearby. The area has been settled since the end of the nineteenth century and many of the same camps and lodges built at the turn of the last century are still in use today.

Harper spends a lot of time around Lake Crescent itself, spending some time with the rangers who man this original ranger station:

She investigates a burned out car that is dredged out of the icy lake at this boat ramp near the ranger station:

It’s such a pretty area, you’d never imagine that a famous murder victim was discovered floating just a mile away would you?

But the resorts are abandoned in February and one can almost imagine the ghosts of visitors sitting in these chairs, waiting for someone to stroll by....

This is the original Singer Tavern which became the famous Lake Crescent lodge—where many summer visitors still come to enjoy the fishing and boating on the lake and hike the trails through the mountains—and where the tragic Hallie Latham worked until the day she was killed.

It looks a little decrepit and creepy in the off-season... and it’s even creepier when Harper finds some horrifying remains on the floor inside.

There are some incredible views, great trails, and historic sites around the lake for people to enjoy all summer long. It’s too bad Harper had to see it at its worst, when evil mages, demons, zombies, and ghosts rampaged through the February cold to gain control of the magic that flows around the lake. If you get to go you may not meet any ghosts, but you might see deer, crescenti trout, and the occasional mountain lion. And if there’s a summer storm, keep your eyes peeled for Lightning Fish battling in the clouds over this haunted lake!

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About Kat Richardson

Kat Richardson is the national bestselling author of the Greywalker paranormal detective novels. Prior to success in the fiction world, Kat worked as a writer and editor in the computer industry and as a course writer for the Gemological Institute of America. She has tried her hand at a bit of almost everything in genre fiction and has dabbled in other text forms and media including: RPGs (Moon Elves); Film (The Glove); and Computer Games (T2X). Before going into writing, Kat pursued a degree in vocal music and she used to read the “Sunday Funnies” for the Evergreen Radio Reading Service in Seattle–part of the Washington Talking Book and Braille Library. A former theater brat, she worked the technical side as well as singing and acting in community and school theater from the age of eight, and put in thirteen years as a renaissance faire actor, dancer, and costumer at RPF in Agoura CA. Kat is a California native with a degree in Magazine Journalism from California State University, Long Beach. She currently lives on a sailboat in Seattle with her husband and the ghosts of ferrets. She rides a motorcycle, shoots target pistol, and has been known to swing dance, sing, and spend insufficient time at the gym. She does not have a TV because she has no room for one–yes, she missed Buffy. And, although she no longer lives there, she is an advocate of California Ferret Legalization. Visit Kat Richardson online: Website|Blog|Facebook|Twitter

Want to read more from Kat Richardson?

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Giveaway provided by Roc

3 copies of GREYWALKER by Kat Richardson

Description:

Harper Blaine was slogging along as a small-time P.I. when a two-bit perp's savage assault left her dead. For two minutes, to be precise.

When Harper comes to in the hospital, she begins to feel a bit ...strange. She sees things that can only be described as weird-shapes emerging from a foggy grey mist, snarling teeth, creatures roaring.

But Harper's not crazy. Her "death" has made her a Greywalker-able to move between our world and the mysterious, cross-over zone where things that go bump in the night exist. And her new gift (or curse) is about to drag her into that world of vampires and ghosts, magic and witches, necromancers and sinister artifacts. Whether she likes it or not.

And don’t forget to pick up a copy of DOWNPOUR, the 6th book in the Greywalker series available on August 2, 2011 from Roc

 

Description:

Harper Blaine is on the mend, but evil never rests-in the latest novel from the national bestselling author of Labyrinth.

After being shot in the back and dying-again- Greywalker Harper Blaine's only respite from the chaos is her work. But while conducting a pre-trial investigation in the Olympic Peninsula, she sees a ghostly car accident whose victim insists that he was murdered and that the nearby community of Sunset Lakes is to blame.

Harper soon learns that the icy waters of the lake hide a terrible power, and a host of hellish beings under the thrall of a sinister cabal that will use the darkest of arts to achieve their fiendish ends..

Read an excerpt

Pre-Order from

Giveaway Guidelines

1. Open to US addresses only

2. Leave a comment for Kat & a way to contact you unless it’s listed in your profile

3. All Deadly Destinations winners will be announced on August 7th

4. See our Giveaway Policy if you have any questions

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Don’t miss any of the tours & giveaways from Deadly Destinations.  Check out all the previous posts from this event!