Isolated on a remote river. Hunted by weaponized animals. Will anyone make it out alive?
It had been a rough five years for Memphis Police Officer Jake Jessup. Blaming himself for the death of two partners, a divorce, and almost losing his job, the three-day canoe and kayak trip in the Ozarks sounded like the perfect way to reconnect with family and friends, and to put old demons to rest. What he found instead was a new set of demons, only these were real… and deadly.
A float turns tragic for a group of boaters when a secret military project escapes into the Ozark Mountains of West Arkansas. But the people behind the project may turn out to be an even bigger threat than those with four-legs.
They’re going to wish it was just a banjo player in the woods.
A kayaking trip in Arkansas goes awry when weaponized man-eating baboons are let loose. A lot like a SyFy movie, only a little gorier. Hits the horror spot.
….. Or artificial nails, perhaps, for that matter!? What an — AWESOME— read! Let me offer up some descriptive terms, a few emotions I felt, in list form to give you a quick overall sense of what Night Terror is about: surprising, super charged pace, creative & unique, addictive, comes alive for all your senses, little spooky at times in best way, dark humor, realistic relationships, I laughed, I shed a tear once (or maybe twice), I cheered, suspenseful, felt like a movie (should be), & much, much more! All around great writing - & editing. I am THRILLED I happened upon this series - & have now become introduced to author Russ Tilton! Total delightful fluke. (Or …. destiny … ?? ;) lol Seriously - Tilton’s characterization as well as his characters themselves. The man has skills for miles! Not only do we get to truly know the cast within this story, their histories, how they are connected to one another, their fears, hopes, dreams, etc - but we also get the bonus of Tilton’s emotional language writing ability. Which is above & beyond. Just reflecting on this particular topic now, I can recall many times throughout the story when characters had certain expressions on their faces. Or used varied body language, either to communicate with others, or it was just their own thoughts “showing through.” Digging deep in considering this, it is such an obvious highlight & plus within the story - what makes it so exceptional is Tilton’s way of “showing us & not telling us” when it pertains to nonverbal language. That, right there my fellow readers, takes a master wordsmith to effectively pull off. I mean, you try it. Tell me- without “telling me”- that your aunt is looking pretty annoyed right now while she’s sitting at the table reading a newspaper. Not that simple, right?? Now, do it time & again. Scene after scene. With all different types of emotions, thoughts, — AND different, individually distinct characters. Even non-human characters use body language & nonverbal communication. Likely more! Tilton’s world building is also marvelous. Vivid, rich, complex, multidimensional, as well as involving all the senses. (Ties right into emotional language.) I could see, feel, hear, smell , taste, & emotionally experience one of the character’s kayak rides, for example. Crashing fairly violently through a tree which had been knocked across a swollen, raging river. The jolt of adrenaline upon seeing the unexpected obstruction, the tiny branches slicing my face, the sound of the rough bark ripping my windbreaker over the much louder than the norm river, the scent of freshly torn green leaves…. more! This book - I tell you - it really grabs ahold of you during the 1st few pages, then like (welcome ;) quicksand immerses you, & before you have a chance to even consciously notice, you’re off & running with the characters, totally invested. And you better hold on because it’s a wild, super fast ride! Oh! The baboons you are asking?? Yassss, those guys. They are sorta (extremely, central, no story at all without ‘em, VIP!!) pertinent to tale of Night Terror. But, you know - spoilers. And no one likes a spoiler. ;) I WILL say, however - that everything I mentioned above pertains to our baboon “friends” as well. I felt like I could see every individual hair on their furry little (errr… bloody..) muzzles! Crisp. Like the best, most modern camera money can buy, the photos which would be produced … That same idea, that crystal clear imagery, is also created through Russ Tilton’s writing. Thus, everything the baboons do - we get to “see” as if we’re living it ourselves. Or, at the very least, watching it on a big screen. In either case, I know for a fact- I’ll never look at sweet harmless baboons the same way again. Nope. And I cannot wait to go on to Book 2 in the series! To find out which lovely critter Russ Tilton is going to forever tarnish for me next!! ….. FABULOUS READ!! 5 STARS! :)
This book is absolutely riveting, nonstop action of the gory kind. When the US government loses 4 highly pissed off and highly contagious baboons in the woods of Arkansas, the night of terror rolls from drug dealers to innocent kayakers, as people are picked off one by one. The story line is well thought out, the characters believable. However. If you aren't into gory details, this is not the tale for you. I am still contemplating reading number 2. Think I need a break.....
Super! Right up my street this was- shady government experiments, a bunch of innocents caught up whilst out in the wild, plenty of collateral damage, yes! The story is well written and fleshed out, takes a good 50% of the tale for things to start heating up, even though it's already on the way before then. I liked the characters, main and side, even the bad guys. To me, how the baboons escaped and everything that unfolded afterwards was actually quite believable too. Short chapters which make the book easy to breeze through (as well as the engaging storyline).
Definitely give this a shot if this is your kind of horror sub-genre.
A well written creature feature...this is why I scour Kindle unlimited.
If you have kindle unlimited, you probably know it's full of a lot of poorly paced, poorly written books. But hopefully you also know there are diamonds among thr dirt. This book is one of those diamonds. The writing is great, the concept is exciting, and its just a good choice if you like monster or nature gone awry tales, along with government shadow operation tales. Definitely check this out. I'm excited to see where the series goes from here.
Good book, i like the story. A cop with a history of lost partners and a highly secret weapon. In need of money, he (the janitor) manage to theft 3 very valuable and dangerous animals not knowing their deadly capabilities.
The characters are ok, Jess up, needs a little more work. A friends and family outing in the river without knowing that danger is nearby. The story grab my attention and like it a lot, maybe a few tweaks and will be a 5 star.
Night Terror brings you a believable tale of government funded genetic meddling with monkeys from Hell - the largest species of baboons on the planet. Trained to kill and given the weapons to do it, they are intended to be tasked against terrorists. But when they fall into the care of a local drug dealer, it becomes a case of tourists on the menu.
Night Terror is fast paced and good fun. If you're looking for an up to date creature feature with a twist, you won't be disappointed.
When you read a novel like this,fiction is carved out of fact. I don't really remember reading a novel or watching a movie where I was cringing so much, and reflecting as to how this could be actually happening. Russ tilton, drew me into his portrayal so deep that before I realized it I had read over forty percent of the novel in one sitting. If I hadn't feel asleep....
The gov't has created a new weapon for terrorists called Operation Night Terror.
They train baboons to see humans as their only source of food & water, but that's not all, they also inject the baboons with this flesh eating bacteria where if you so much as touch the baboon you're already infected.
The military will drop the baboons in the desert at night (hence Night Terror) and attack the enemy, the enemy is also known for hiding in caves,the baboons will go into the caves and kill the terrorists in there.
Now, let's say one of the terrorists shoot a baboon, well in all likelyhood they would pick up the baboon over their head and praise Allah, well now they are infected......their family will gather around and hug them and then they are infected, see his it goes?
So, the baboons are being held in a medical facility which is funded by the gov't. Some info leaks out about the baboons to the press by an insider and the gov't wants it shut down.
The medical facility is told to burn the baboons to destroy any evidence. The person who is supposed to do this doesn't have the stomach and she asks one of janitors (who has the hots for her to do it and bats her eyes at him so to speak).
He of course says he'll do it, but this janitor is also a meth addict and owes his dealer $$. Well the janitor finds out that these baboons are worth $3500 a piece.
He doesn't burn them and instead makes a deal with his dealer to give him the baboons and he has a buyer interested (he doesn't) and the dealer can take that money and wipe his debt.
Well what could go wrong right?
Well A LOT, That's all I will say about the plot.
I really enjoyed this book. It was fast paced and when scientifical jargon was thrown about the author made it so you understood what was going on (like Michael Crichton would do).
This was a great creature feature with characters that I actually cared about. Highly recommended, and I found out that this is the 1st in a 6 book series......LET'S GO!!!
This was a good read – a refreshing change from the usual.
The story opens with members at a terrorist camp in the caves being chased by a pack of baboons and killed. The scene then shifts to the US. Jessup, a Memphis Police Department detective, is trying to get on with life after his divorce. His wife Paula is now married to Donald, a chiropractor. He treasures the time he gets to spend with his son Davie. There is a military project in the vicinity codenamed ‘Night Terror’ on new ways to fight terrorists abroad, and baboons are part of the experiment. There is a news report alluding to such a project in vague terms in the media, and the program team is worried. A senator is also involved and reaches the conclusion that it is best to shut the program, though there is initial success. The winding down process goes awry.
This is a fast paced story and while it has a lot of violence & death, the descriptions are not too graphic. There are many characters involved and I liked how the characters of Jessup, Davie and April Flowers (who makes a late appearance) shape up. The later part is a survival thriller and has a Jurassic Park like feel to it.
I do plan to read the following books in the series, though based on blurb they have a feel of more of the same. But let me not prejudge – I look forward to reading book 2 shortly.
This wss a really great book ! It makes me angry to think that the government could do something like this. Of course they are trying to make super soldiers now. Hopefully,, it is through better training, without any enhancement other than that. The author did s superb job writing this book!! A real thriller and very well thought out. Fast paced, and with lots of family love included. A perfect balance of horror and family values and ethics. This author just keeps getting better with each book. I love how the series ended. I. wish I had been able to read the books in the proper order. However, this is okay. I can enjoy seeing how it all played out and what lead up to the ending. Maybe this is what the author had in mind.
I have worked with Baboons and have found them to be mostly nice animals to work with. Chimps are another thing altogether. I hated to see Baboons as the bad guys. This story is not too far out of the realm of possibilities. I didn't have any issues with the editing of this book. The spelling and word choice worked throughout without issues. The scenes were well thought out and complete. My only complaint is that the float club members were just names with no real tie to the story. I felt that the action didn't have much context. But these are minor complaints. I will read more from this author.
Was this a first novel for this author? Story was a bit long and drag on a bit especially the river journey. The ending is clear as to what will happen with no surprises. The story was over simplified and over explained. For example: what the CDC is and why they exist. The Genetic mutation premise and setting are interesting so I will try the next book in the series. If the writing and story doesn't improve I won't continue the series.
I’d just finished reading 3 book of nearly exact same genres except those animals were newly “found” prehistoric monsters. I loved the other books by the other journalist that I immediately jumped at the chance to read this one which was my downfall. I found this book to be wishy washy and one that I just couldn’t get into because it just didn’t flow. I I ended up after only reading 27%.
Wow this book really causes one to think about the lengths that America might go to in the fight against terrorism. The scary thing is the cover ups that the US is capable of and even though this is fictional, it could very well happen and we would never find out! A definite thought provoking book!
A book that will seam unreal but a great book to read.
You will think that this not real but it could be because of science and way it works. You can only hope this government can keeps head and not go stupid, because this would be real bad. The author did a great job with the book you can't stop reading , but at times it scares the he'll out of you.
This book started out interesting and quickly became thrilling and terrifying in its all-too-plausible aspects of science and government gone wrong. Weaponized animals are not so far-fetched, unfortunately.
The characters were well developed, and I can't wait to read the next in the series and hope I see some of them again.
I have read the first five in this series one after the other. I couldn't stop. I went to other books afterward, but they seemed so mundane compared to this series. I have to stop myself from buying any more for a little while because I won't get anything else read!!! I can't recommend these enough. Be prepared to be (happily) hooked!!!
Back in the 80’s, I think, I saw a TV movie about piranhas released into an American river while a bunch of people and kids were on a raft trip. This book has the same plot, but with much more gore and a higher body count. The amount of death and dismemberment is ridiculous and unnecessary. The writing is OK, but I can’t see enough substance to make a series.
I am a sucker for 'B' Sci Fi or monster movies, and I was hoping this book would be like that. While I did enjoy the secret government animal modification aspect, the story tried to take itself too seriously and failed. The last 1/3 of the book was so slow that I almost stopped. It was just sort of mehhh overall.
Wow! This was an action-packed thriller, complete with plenty of blood, guts and gore. I love kayaking and have never read a story that followed a group on a kayaking trip - I found that to be especially interesting. It will definitely make me look twice anytime I approach a wooded area from a river.
The story took a long time for me to set off (at around 50%). In the first half, there are long sections setting up the main character, which I do not need in such lengths in a b-story (my preference). I give 4 stars for the second half, where the action takes off, as well as the fact this is a setup for the following books. If they continue this story, i'll definitely check them out.
This novel is definitely a thriller! Unfortunately, things of this nature do happen in real life. What happens when the unthinkable happens? What does a person do? Read this fast paced novel by Russ Tilton and find out what happens to Jake Jessup and others in rural northern Arkansas on a river vacation.
If you have heart trouble, you better keep the nitro glycerin handy. This page turning book is scary and exciting. If you like James Rollins or the Preston & Child books, you will love this very well told story about a Memphis Police Officer.
Quite an interesting story that kept me hooked until the very end. It'd make an awesome movie. It may be fiction but it's plausible that it could actually happen. I really recommend trying this one.
Would make a great movie or TV series. Cannot wait to read the next book # 2. Woww. I believe that something like this could and will happen, especially with “AI”, involved.
This is well written and very well researched. Since I'm ex military I can see a lot of things in this story. Very good. Thank you for writing. I ll see you in part 2 of this series.
Exciting story Russ Tilton. Could, literally, not put it down. Excellent characters and development. Being a divorced father, I felt every emotion that Jessup felt. Will be looking forward to more of your work.
First read by this author and I enjoyed it. Downloading second book now. A little slower paced that what I am used to reading but still enjoyed it greatly. Pleasant change of pace. Russ has a very good talent and I am enjoying it. Try it you will like it.
bruh. I never want to meet a baboon ever. like EVER ever. also catch me literally sprinting to my car in the dark. (if you like horror and can stomach literary gore I do recommend. ya girl was STRESSED)