Milestone: The Collected Stories

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By Kealan Patrick Burke

Publisher Description

From the Bram Stoker Award-Winning author of THE TURTLE BOY, KIN, and JACK & JILL.

Somewhere out west there is a town called Milestone. You will not find it on any map. If you're lucky, you won't find it at all.

Once a thriving mining community, the few souls who still dwell there know nothing of hope and everything of damnation. Because Milestone may appear near-death, a ghost town in the making, but it is very much alive.

There are the stories of invisible barriers that open and close the borders on a whim, sometimes fatally, the whispers of a man in a top hat who comes cycling up out of the darkness of the abandoned mine to change the fate of the town, the buried music box that summons him, the people with unnatural powers, the old man who counts stacks of pennies and prays they never fall...and the fires that burn brightly with the sounds of screams.

Milestone is very much alive, and those unlucky souls trapped within its borders have little choice but to learn the true nature of their prison, or become its latest victim.

And even as they fight against the inevitable, the borders continue to expand.

Milestone is growing.

Included here are the novellas “The Witch”, “Saturday Night at Eddie’s”, “Thirty Miles South of Dry County” and “The Palaver”.

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10 Reviews

4.5

Sisteray

Created over 1 year ago

Missy

Created over 2 years ago

““…Milestone wants you here, all it needs to do is find the cracks, the vulnerabilities that each and every one of us has in the very core of our bein…” This is Kealan Patrick Burke’s collected novellas set in the grim town of Milestone. A place that you will be lucky not to find. The fate of those who dwell here is tied to the whims of this place and there is no escape unless it’s done with you. I first read Currency of Souls which is based in Milestone a wee while back and I knew I had to read this collection of novellas for more about this strange place. Featured are “The Witch”, “Saturday Night at Eddie’s”, “Thirty Miles South of Dry County” and “The Palaver”. “The Witch” was quite the opening to this collection as it was raw portrayal of a relationship thats strained which escalates into harrowing events. There is a specific scene which is cemented in my brain that felt so creepy and it lingered right through to the end. “Saturday Night at Eddie’s” was intense from the get go. It is the novella from which the novel “Currency of Souls” was written and a reminder of who is in control of this damned town. “Thirty Miles South of Dry County” was the story of three friends and how they are forced to enter Milestone for answers to strange things occurring at their usual haunt outside of Milestone. There are many revelations in this story and one which had my heart breaking for one of the characters. “The Palaver” was creepy! It’s about a visit which is paid to a barber who is keeping his shop up and running even though he rarely gets customers anymore. He does however get one visitor that tells him a story which sticks with the barber and it all comes down to what he decides to do with it. Overall i enjoyed all of these stories, the writing had me on many occasions disturbed and still wanting more. As always I enjoy the intimate look at horror which influences people to do the most unimaginable things. A great collection which every horror reader will enjoy!”

Sam Deremer

Created over 3 years ago

“*3.5”

Steven Gomzi

Created over 3 years ago

Sadie Hartmann “Mother Horror”

Created over 3 years ago

“Right after I read Kealan Patrick Burke's Blanky, I knew I'd need some more. So if you haven't read that one, I highly recommend that novella as well. I won a giveaway Burke hosted on his Instagram (yes, follow him) for a signed poster of his book cover for Milestone. Well, a book worm can't have a signed poster of a book she doesn't own so I bought the book and threw KIN in my cart for good measure. Milestone is a collection of 4 short stories (I think I'm learning the difference between a novella and a short story? Size matters?) all taking place in Kealan's fictional town, Milestone. You do NOT want to visit and you certainly don't want to live there. This place is like on the same evil plane as Derry, Maine or Castle Rock. My favorite story in the collection are the bookends, the first: The Witch and the last, The Palaver. The second story, Saturday Night at Eddie's is also very good-Burke shows off his talent for characterization in this one, the main character/narrator giving me some noir, Jim Hopper (Stranger Things) vibes. Loved it. I loved them all, actually! Not a weak story in the lot. And a 4 story collection is really awesome, think Different Seasons. So now I've read a novella, a bunch of shorties and now I'm moving on to a novel. This author is proving to be a new fangirl favorite! A dangerous instabuy--have to own them all. It's my recommendation that fans of horror and dark fiction will love Burke's storytelling as much as I do. Get yourself some. *fan-fact* you can read my interview with author Kealan Patrick Burke right here: http://sadiehartmann.blogspot.com/2017/11/author-interview-kealan-patrick-burke.html”

About Kealan Patrick Burke

Born and raised in a small harbor town in the south of Ireland, Kealan Patrick Burke knew from a very early age that he was going to be a horror writer. The combination of an ancient locale, a horror-loving mother, and a family full of storytellers, made it inevitable that he would end up telling stories for a living. Since those formative years, he has written five novels, over a hundred short stories, six collections, and edited four acclaimed anthologies. In 2004, he was honored with the Bram Stoker Award for his novella The Turtle Boy.

Kealan has worked as a waiter, a drama teacher, a mapmaker, a security guard, an assembly-line worker at Apple Computers, a salesman (for a day), a bartender, landscape gardener, vocalist in a grunge band, curriculum content editor, fiction editor at Gothic.net, and, most recently, a fraud investigator.

When not writing, Kealan designs book covers through his company Elderlemon Design.

A movie based on his short story "Peekers" is currently in development as a major motion picture.