The Last Night at the Crowley

By Annie Reed

People say haunted houses contain the longings and nightmares of the dead who couldn’t leave their lives behind.

But what about places where the living left parts of their souls behind? Where singers and musicians willingly played their hearts out, night after night, just for the love of music?

What haunts places like The Crowley?

Mazie’s about to find out.

"One of the best writers I've come across in years." --Kristine Kathryn Rusch, author of The Retrieval Artist series

“You can’t go wrong with Annie Reed. Her deftly-crafted tales—with characters as memorable as the stories themselves—far surpass most of what’s out there. She deserves a wide audience.” –Michael J. Totten, author of Resurrection

• Language: English
• Publisher: Thunder Valley Press
• Release date: Jul 15, 2017
• ISBN: 9781370146055

Annie Reed

Award-winning author and editor Kristine Kathryn Rusch calls Annie Reed “one of the best writers I’ve come across in years.”Annie’s won recognition for her stellar writing across multiple genres. Her story “The Color of Guilt” originally published in Fiction River: Hidden in Crime, was selected as one of The Best Crime and Mystery Stories 2016. Her story “One Sun, No Waiting” was one of the first science fiction stories honored with a literary fellowship award by the Nevada Arts Foundation, and her novel PRETTY LITTLE HORSES was among the finalists in the Best First Private Eye Novel sponsored by St. Martin’s Press and the Private Eye Writers of America.A frequent contributor to the Fiction River anthologies and Pulphouse Fiction Magazine, Annie’s recent work includes the superhero origin novel FASTER, the near-future science fiction short novel IN DREAMS, and UNBROKEN FAMILIAR, a gritty urban fantasy mystery short novel. Annie’s also one of the founding members of the innovative Uncollected Anthology, a quarterly series of themed urban fantasy stories written by some of the best writers working today.Annie’s mystery novels include the Abby Maxon private investigator novels PRETTY LITTLE HORSES and PAPER BULLETS, the Jill Jordan mystery A DEATH IN CUMBERLAND, and the suspense novel SHADOW LIFE, written under the name Kris Sparks, as well as numerous other projects she can’t wait to get to. For more information about Annie, including news about upcoming bundles and publications, go to www.annie-reed.com.

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The Last Night at the Crowley

Copyright © 2017 by Annie Reed

Published by Thunder Valley Press

Cover and Layout copyright © 2017 Thunder Valley Press

Cover art copyright © Sergey Nivens/Bigstock.com

This book is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. All rights reserved. This is a work of fiction. All characters and events portrayed in this book are fictional, and any resemblance to real people or incidents is purely coincidental. This book, or parts thereof, may not be reproduced in any form without permission.

People say haunted houses contain the longings and nightmares of the dead who couldn’t leave their lives behind.

But what about places where the living left parts of their souls behind? Where singers and musicians willingly played their hearts out, night after night, just for the love of music?

What haunts places like The Crowley?

Mazie’s about to find out.

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The Uncollected Anthology

About the Author

Copyright Information

1

Mazie shuffled through the broken bricks at the entrance to the old Crowley theater, scuffing up clouds of damp red dust and gray mortar with her tennis shoes.

The dust threatened to make her sneeze. Or it could have been the mold and mildew.

The Crowley had been abandoned decades ago. These days the grand old wooden doors at the entrance hung askew on broken hinges. The misty cold that had rolled in through the broken doors for all those years had wreaked havoc with the place, leaving the theater with only ghostly afterimages of its former glory.

Most people didn’t care that the Crowley had been scheduled for demolition, but Mazie wasn’t most people.

She’d learned to love music here. She wasn’t quite ready for the Crowley to just be gone.

The theater had certainly looked grand in its prime. The rich, thick carpeting in the lobby, wildly patterned in deep burgundy