The Brotherhood of the Wheel
A Novel
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4.6 • 16 Ratings
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- $12.99
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- $12.99
Publisher Description
R.S. Belcher, the acclaimed author of The Six-Gun Tarot and The Shotgun Arcana launches a gritty new urban fantasy series about the mysterious society of truckers known only as, The Brotherhood of The Wheel.
In 1119 A.D., a group of nine crusaders became known as the Poor Fellow-Soldiers of Christ and of the Temple of Solomon--a militant monastic order charged with protecting pilgrims and caravans traveling on the roads to and from the Holy Land. In time, the Knights Templar would grow in power and, ultimately, be laid low. But a small offshoot of the Templars endure and have returned to the order's original mission: to defend the roads of the world and guard those who travel on them.
Theirs is a secret line of knights: truckers, bikers, taxi hacks, state troopers, bus drivers, RV gypsies--any of the folks who live and work on the asphalt arteries of America. They call themselves the Brotherhood of the Wheel.
Jimmy Aussapile is one such knight. He's driving a big rig down South when a promise to a ghostly hitchhiker sets him on a quest to find out the terrible truth behind a string of children gone missing all across the country. The road leads him to Lovina Hewitt, a skeptical Louisiana State Police investigator working the same case and, eventually, to a forgotten town that's not on any map--and to the secret behind the eerie Black-Eyed Kids said to prowl the highways.
At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Urban legends and ancient folklore come together in Belcher's unusual series opener featuring long-haul trucker Jimmie Aussapile (first introduced as a character in Nightwise). Jimmie is a member of the Brethren, one of the three groups that form the Brotherhood of the Wheel, tasked with keeping the open road safe from predators supernatural and mundane. When a group of teens go missing, Jimmie teams up with his new squire, a biker named Heck Sinclair, and Lovina Marcou, a Louisiana State Police officer, to investigate. Jimmie and co. battle a number of nemeses, while following a trail that culminates in a place called Four Houses, where an antlered killer dubbed the Pagan prepares to usher in an unimaginable evil. Jimmie is an affable everyman who only wants to help people and provide for his family. With characters impossible not to root for, this fun, nonstop tale (set throughout the eastern half of the U.S.) has genuinely creepy moments, rendered vividly by Belcher's fertile imagination. Only a few instances of oddly placed humor and dialogue mar an otherwise entertaining horror/urban fantasy mash-up.
