The Old Man's Request: Book One of the Utgarda Trilogy

by Joab Stieglitz

Overview

An Innocent Favor for a Dying Old Friend…

Fifty years ago, a group of college friends dabbled in the occult and released a malign presence on the world. Now, on his deathbed, the last of the students, now a trustee of Reister University enlists the aid of three newcomers to banish the thing they summoned.

Russian anthropologist Anna Rykov, doctor Harry Lamb, and Father Sean O’Malley are all indebted the ailing trustee for their positions. Together, they pursue the knowledge and resources needed to perform the ritual.

Hampered by the old man’s greedy son, the wizened director of the university library, and a private investigator with a troubled past, can they perform the ritual and banish the entity?

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781733204712
Publisher:	Rantings of a Wandering Mind
Publication date:	06/19/2019
Series:	Utgarda , #1
Pages:	148
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 0.32(d)

About the Author

Joab Stieglitz is an avid tabletop RPG player and game master of horror, espionage, fantasy, and science fiction genres, which he plays 3-4 times a week. Joab is a Senior Business Analyst for a software company. He has also worked as a software trainer, a network engineer, a project manager, and a technical writer over his 30 year career. He lives in Alexandria, Virginia.

You can follow Joab on Twitter @JoabStieglitz and on his blog: joabstieglitz.com

Editorial Reviews

“The Old Man’s Request: Book One of the Utgarda Trilogy hits the ground running and rarely relents throughout its 133-pages of pulp supernatural adventure. H. P. Lovecraft fans will enjoy this. D&D fans will dig it. Fans of novels that gallop through a maze of surprises and intriguing turns will be thoroughly satisfied. Joab Stieglitz pulls you in with the promise of a great story well told and then delivers and delivers and delivers.”

• Christopher Ryan, Author of City of Woe (Mallory and Gunner Series Book 1)

“Joab Stieglitz offers up a really well crafted thriller filled with enough suspense and action to adroitly move his plot along. Anna, Dr. Lamb and Father O’Malley aren’t superheroes, but rather good people caught up in an affair far beyond anything any of them had ever experienced before. It will take all their courge and mutual trust in one another to summon the demon and defeat it. If that is even possible? “The Old Man’s Request,” is a sure fire page turned. Need I say more?”

• Ron Fortier, Author and Publisher, Airship 27 Productions

“I’ve read four books in the Utgarda series, and I adored them all. So much that is resonant of H. P. Lovecraft and other Weird Fiction of the 1920’s and 1930’s, of that hopeful yet subconsciously disillusioned era between “the War to end all Wars” and the next, possibly even worse, World War, colours this series. For a lover of History and of Weird Fiction, this is a total delight. The characters are well-delineated, the plot is simultaneously exciting and adventurous. Mr. Stieglitz talentedly paints his monsters and monstrous otherworldly settings. I highly recommend this series, whether or not one is already familiar with the Lovecraft Mythos and classic Weird Fiction of the early 20th century.”

• Mallory A. Haws: The Haunted Reading Room Reviews

“If you want a long, dreary introductory section with tedious background detail, this is NOT the book for you! By page 6, you are in the thick of the action and the background detail is presented as necessary to advance the plot. This makes the book an enjoyable, suspenseful, and quick read. The characters are well-drawn with three-dimensional personalities, clear motivations, and well-constructed back stories. The plot is clever and much more intricate than I expected for short book. I look forward to the next books in the series! Highly recommended!”

• David Chamberlain

From the Publisher