Jasper Peacock

By Paula Cappa

"Paula Cappa is a master of the metaphysical mystery genre...an extraordinary and original storyteller of the first rank." Midwest Book Review.

Jasper Peacock is an accused murderer. Ben Samm is a struggling art journalist who doesn’t believe in ghosts, haunted dimensions, or supernatural powers in art—until he meets the famous painter Jasper Peacock. Ben is desperate to get a revealing interview about this genius’s award-winning portrait Rabbles, a horrific devilish-pointed figure—the reported living muse who inspires the artist.

Rabbles resides inside Peacock’s isolated Hampshire estate in the country where Ben conducts the interview. When the meeting goes awry, Peacock coerces Ben into his attic studio. Here the supernatural dimensions of Jasper Peacock’s artistic creations not only threaten to seize Ben’s mind, body, and soul, but reveal Rabble’s dark menacing powers.

This is not your ordinary painting on a canvass; this is a mystery of light and shadow that needs cracking. Does Ben have the courage to resist the force of the almighty Rabbles?

Welcome art lovers, to the Art of Darkness.

“Jasper Peacock” was originally published by Coffin Bell Literary Magazine, 2019.

From the multi-award winning author Paula Cappa comes a short story of existential dark powers. Fans of The Twilight Zone will enjoy this tale flavored with Rod Serling’s Night Gallery themes. You might even hear Serling’s voice-over on the last page. "You're traveling through another dimension—a dimension not only of sight and sound but of mind."

Paula Cappa is the recipient of the Chanticleer Book Award and the American Book Fest Best Books Award Finalist for her novel Greylock. She also earned the prestigious Eric Hoffer Book Award, the Silver Medal at Global Book Awards, the Bronze Medal from Readers' Favorite International Awards in Supernatural Suspense, and is a Gothic Readers Book Club Award Winner in Outstanding Fiction.

Reviews:

“Is Horror ever Magical? Don’t the two neutralize each other’s possibilities? And yet... “The invisible becoming visible and then invisible.” Paula Cappa writes with a supernatural cadence, not just an inexplicable rhythm: she writes in a way that makes the unseen real (and logical)... in a way that the merely physical world could never approach. And her paranormal mysteries do induce—relentless—horror."
—Rob Dunbar, author of The Pines and The Streets.

“This marvelously dark, immersive tale draws you in with icy fingers until you’re enveloped in horror by the end. You’ll never look at art the same way again.”
—Teri Polen, sci-fi, horror, and fantasy author of Subject A36, The Gemini Connection, and Sarah.

“Like so many of her stories, author and multiple award winner Paula Cappa has mightily captured an understanding of the world between reality and the paranormal. Jasper Peacock, is a tale of the supernatural and mysterious underpinnings. It is also astounding in its imagery. The evil antagonist in this stellar tale is clearly visible through Ms. Cappa's words. His unbearable behavior is evident from the start, but is he or is he not the murderer of his wife, Cassandra? Paula Cappa is at the top of her craft with this tale. She captured the supernatural and exposes the world of the unexplored. Jasper Peacock is an exhilarating read.”
—Linda Spear, mystery author of corporate thriller The Ice Man Checks Out, and I Know You By Heart. Also, When It Hurts Inside a Pain Management Doctor’s Office, by Sabrina Shue M.D. and Linda Spear, soon to be released in February 2022.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Paula Cappa
• Release date: Jan 1, 2022
• ISBN: 9781005080082

Paula Cappa

Paula Cappa is the recipient of the Gold Medal at Global Book Awards, the Chanticleer Book Award, and American Book Fest's Best Books Award Finalist for her novel Greylock. She also earned the prestigious Eric Hoffer Book Award, The Silver Medal at Global Book Awards, The Readers' Favorite International Bronze Medal for Supernatural Suspense, and is a Gothic Readers Book Club Award Winner in Outstanding Fiction. She is the author of Greylock, The Dazzling Darkness, and Night Sea Journey—print editions published by Crispin Books, Milwaukee WI. Night Sea Journey was featured as an on-air reading at Riverwest Radio, Fearless Reader Radio in Wisconsin. Cappa's short fiction has appeared in ParABnormal Magazine, Coffin Bell Literary Journal, Unfading Daydream, Dark Gothic Resurrected Magazine, Whistling Shade Literary Journal, SmokeLong Quarterly, Sirens Call Ezine, Every Day Fiction, Fiction365, Twilight Times Ezine, and in anthologies Journals of Horror: Found Fiction, Mystery Time, and Human Writes Literary Journal. She is a freelance copy editor and writes a short story blog, Reading Fiction, at paulacappa.wordpress.com. Paula Cappa is Co-Chair of the Pound Ridge Authors Society in Pound Ridge, NY.

Book preview

JASPER PEACOCK

by

Paula Cappa

Smashwords Edition

Published on Smashwords by:

Paula Cappa

Jasper Peacock

Copyright 2018 by Paula Cappa

Jasper Peacock was originally published by Coffin Bell Literary Magazine, 2019.

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means—electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise—without prior written permission of the publisher, author, and copyright owners.

This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, locations, and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

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CONTENTS

"Jasper Peacock"

About the Author

Award-Winning Novels

Short Stories

JASPER PEACOCK

Jasper Peacock greeted me at the front door of his Hampshire County estate, gripping a holstered black pistol on his hip. I veered back, my pulse surging. Although I was aware of Jasper’s bizarre, artistic fame, the last thing I expected was an armed painter for this