The Hungry Earth

By: Nicholas Kaufmann

Narrated by: Linda Jones

Length: 7 hrs and 4 mins

Publisher's summary

Sakima, New York, a sleepy, idyllic city nestled in the Hudson Valley, a place where everyone knows each other, families look after the highly prized community garden, and the crime rate is so low that Dr. Laura Powell, the police department’s medical examiner, spends most of her time tending to her own private medical practice.

That changes drastically the day a local high school student is found dead, an apparent suicide. Called in to perform the autopsy, Laura uncovers a strange growth inside the body, composed of a mysterious substance she can’t identify. Enlisting the aid of her scientist ex-boyfriend, Booker Coates, Laura launches an investigation that leads to a horrifying discovery.

Something deadly has taken root in Sakima, an organism whose toxic influence spreads like a disease through the population, dangerously altering minds and dominating wills, a ruthless intelligence that demands obedience. As more and more townspeople fall under its control, forming violent mobs to seek out those who remain uninfected, Laura and Booker must find a way to stop it before they become its next victims. But how can they stop something they don’t understand?

With The Hungry Earth, Nicholas Kaufmann, co-author of the bestselling horror novel 100 Fathoms Below with Steven L. Kent, launches a chilling new series of science thrillers featuring Medical Examiner Laura Powell.

©2021 Nicholas Kaufmann (P)2021 David N. Wilson

This one unnerved me

I do not get scared often by books I read. Horror books I just find interesting. Ghost books if the story is good I find interesting. Books that delve into virus or pericytes or some fungus infecting me and being easily passed on from person to person, scares me. Even if the issue presented in this book is fictitious, it made me very uncomfortable. I felt the fear of the characters almost as if it was happening to me. I always feared that one day some disease or event level extinction occurring will end my life if it happens during my life time. The pandemic that we are working through now has been emotionally devastating. So, a book like this really gets to me. The descriptions of how people looked and their reaction to the fungus was very well written. I would definitely read additions books written by this author.

horror story... not so much

First off, I did enjoy the story. That said.. Holy tropes batman. By the end I had a mental list of every horror trope used and was ticking them off mentally wondering when a new one would pop up. You'd think between a mycologist and a doctor one of them would have some common sense but no. Idk, maybe horror movies aren't a thing in this universe but I mean come on, hard to believe some of the questions being asked by supposedly educated people. That aside, if you enjoy horror tropes, this has it in spades. As for the narration, not bad, didn't harm my enjoyment of the story any. My favorite character? Probably the land developer guy, he'd clearly seen a horror movie or two in his day. The story was pretty solid otherwise and the premise was super creepy, and if it were me I would have noped right out of town before doing anything else!

Kay Scarpetta Meets Zombie Apocalypse

The worst book I've ever downloaded from Audible. Don't waste your money. As if the absurd plot weren't enough, it's poorly written. The blurb doesn't begin to clue you in. Just. Don't. Do. It.