A Gathering of Vultures
Finalist at the 2013 National Indie Excellence Book Awards.
MURDER, MUTILATION, CARRION... IN PARADISE?
"There shall the vultures also be gathered, every one with her mate." – ISAIAH 34:15
Professional ballroom dancers Terri and Rick Hamilton aspire to be world champions. Unfortunately, Terri's recurring back and health problems place that goal well out of reach.
They travel to Terri's birthplace, Florianópolis, on the scenic island of Santa Catarina off the coast of Brazil to vacation and visit their best friends and mentors.
Along the picturesque beaches, dead penguins and eviscerated bodies wash up on the shores of paradise, and Antarctic blasts play counterpoint to the tropical storms that rock the island. The scenic wonder is home not only to urubús, a unique sub-species of the black vulture, but also to a clique of mysterious women who offer Terri perfect health and the promise of fame – at a terrible price.
Rick fears Terri is being drawn into a cult and that his own life may be in danger. Will it be too late when he discovers something even more terrifying lives beneath the tranquil, tropical veneer of the island?
Idyllic one moment and nightmarish the next, you never know what you'll encounter in the city of Florianópolis – murder, mutilations, carrion, or the lure of eternal youth.
"Discovering a truly different sort of horror novel is a rare pleasure... and cause for much rejoicing. Donald Michael Platt's A Gathering of Vultures provides a glimpse of singular evil. Even the exotic Brazilian locale and the backstory – involving competitive ballroom dancing – may be unique within the genre. This is the darkest of dark fantasies. Through fevered imaginings of the first rank, coupled to macabre yet erudite prose, Platt crafts an unusual and involving nightmare." – Robert Dunbar, author of THE PINES and THE SHORE
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Donald Michael Platt
Donald Michael Platt received his B.A. in History from the University of California at Berkeley. After two years in the Army, he went to graduate school at San Jose State where one of his short stories was published in the college’s literary magazine, The Reed, and won the following awards in the annual Senator Phelan Literary Contest: 1st & 2nd in Plays; 1st & 2nd in Essays; 1st & 3rd in Free Verse.
After teaching English and Creative Writing at Los Gatos Union High School, he moved to southern California and began his professional writing career. He sold to the TV series, Mr. Novak, ghosted Your Hair and Your Diet for health food guru, Dan Dale Alexander, and wrote for and with diverse producers, among them Harry Joe Brown, Sig Schlager, Albert J. Cohen, and Al Ruddy as well as Paul Stader Sr., dean of Hollywood stuntmen and stunt/2nd unit director. Also, options were taken on his unpublished WWII fighter ace novel and several treatments.
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