50 minAudiobook4 minSummaryRead it, hear it, the 15-minute summary, and print and large print at costPaperback · 6 × 9 in · 32 pagesHardcover · 6 × 9 in · 32 pagesAbout this book
What if the secret to endless life means taking it from someone else?
In Harold Ward’s The Life-Eater, a medical genius discovers a way to prolong life indefinitely, but the process harvests life from others. His pursuit turns toward madness, secrecy and a terrible ambition. The promise of escaping death becomes a question of what he is willing to destroy.
Around this horror lies a swamp of mud, dark water and things half seen. Dark sorcery brings a hidden threat, and one man faces a danger beyond his experience. This short pulp tale brings science and gothic superstition together, keeping the fear moving through strong images and rising tension.
What you’ll discover
- A swamp steeped in dread Enter a landscape where mud and dark water make the half-seen feel dangerously close.
- Life at a terrible cost Follow a medical genius whose discovery turns the hope of survival into something monstrous.
- Sorcery beyond understanding Feel the unease of a hidden threat that lies beyond one man's familiar world.
- One man against the unknown Stay beside a lone figure as he confronts danger he does not understand.
- Fear that keeps moving Discover the sharp images and rising tension that give this short pulp tale its force.
Who will love it
Readers who enjoy old magazine horror, occult detectives, haunted swamps and monsters that follow strict rules will find a lively evening here, with a hero who laughs at danger and toasts it with rum.
What’s inside
The key ideas, in the 15-minute summary
- A village hollowed out by night
- Lamontaine names the enemy
- The thing and its master appear
- Iron, hypnosis and a waiting trap
Who’s who
- Doctor Hugo LamontaineA red-bearded, rum-drinking physician and occultist who studies black magic and fights the horror gripping La Foubelle.
- Noel PelletierThe frail village schoolmaster, called the dominie, who loves Evelyn and offers himself as bait to save her.
- Evelyn l'BrestA young woman and former pupil of Pelletier, struck down by the sickness and the reason he risks everything.
- Pierre Le FrontThe small, nervous village constable, who crosses himself often yet follows the doctor's orders and keeps watch.
- Aaron KronkA gaunt sorcerer and hypnotist with sunken eyes, who has a hidden reason for bringing death to the village.
- Jules DelatourThe village drunkard who says he saw the black, smoky horror hovering over his dying mother, and is not believed.
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- Audiobook
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- Paperback
- 6 × 9 in, 32 pages: 5,95 USD when you start free, 11,95 USD on its own.
- Hardcover
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- Large print paperback
- 8.5 × 11 in. Printing soon: leave your email under Paperback or Hardcover above.
- Large print hardcover
- 8.5 × 11 in. Printing soon: leave your email under Paperback or Hardcover above.
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Read and hear The Life-Eater in 25 languages and switch at any time. Or read two side by side, paragraph by paragraph: the way to learn a language with a book you love.
The Life-Eater
by Harold Ward
In a swamp village, a rum-drinking doctor hunts a shapeless thing that kills its victims overnight.
Medium levelUnder 2 hours to read25 languages
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From the 15-minute summary · Key idea 1
A village hollowed out by night
La Foubelle sits at the edge of the swamp, and death has been visiting it again and again. The little graveyard under the cypress trees is filling, and hardly a house has escaped grief. At nightfall the streets empty and families bolt their doors.
The villagers call the sickness the illness without illness. It comes only in darkness and strikes young and old alike. Each victim dies in agony and is left shrunken, the skin puckered into a thousand wrinkles. Jules Delatour, the village drunkard, claims he saw a black, smoky shape with a beastlike face hovering over his dying mother. Nobody believes him, because he had been drinking.
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What is The Life-Eater about?
It is a pulp horror story about a swamp village, La Foubelle, where a formless creature kills by night. Doctor Lamontaine uses occult lore and a risky plan to stop it and find who controls it.
Who is Aaron Kronk?
Kronk is a gaunt sorcerer and hypnotist with sunken eyes. Lamontaine has already clashed with him over a fortune, and the doctor believes Kronk is the medium behind the horror in the village.
Why does iron matter in The Life-Eater?
In Lamontaine's lore, elementals fear the touch of iron. He relies on a gun, iron strips and a small iron pentagon as his defenses, so the metal drives much of the action.
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