Jabberwock

Ninie Hammon

Sept 2020 · Nowhere USA Book 1 · Sterling & Stone LLC

About this eBook

The sorceress of psychological suspense is back with the first book in her highly-anticipated new Nowhere, USA series. Ninie Hammon is at her career-best in Jabberwock — a tale that will keep you up all night turning pages.

Nower County was never a hard place to leave. But now, leaving is impossible.

When drunk teenagers add letters to the Welcome to Nower County sign, making it Welcome to NowHerE County, nobody repaints it. Why bother? Everyone knows they live in the middle of nowhere.

Children’s book author Charlie McClintock and her three-year-old daughter, Merrie, return home to settle Charlie’s recently deceased mother’s affairs. It’s the first time since high school that she and childhood friends Sam Sheridan and Malachi Tackett have been reunited. A beat of happiness before Charlie experiences an unexplainable disaster.

A bizarre storm blows through the Appalachian Mountains and literally wipes Nowhere County off the map. The outside world forgets the tiny town ever existed, and no one can leave. Anyone who tries wakes up in the Dollar General Store parking lot with blinding headaches, gushing nosebleeds, and no clue what happened to them.

Locals name the shimmering mirage on the county line that imprisons them the Jabberwock.

Abby Clayton thinks it's Charlie’s pet. Desperate to bring her baby home from the hospital across county lines, Abby is the only person who has dared to “ride the Jabberwock” more than once.

She believes it spoke to her. Brain-damaged, barely able to walk from her injuries, Abby hatches a deranged plot to force Charlie to make the Jabberwock set them free. Will Malachi manage to stop her and save Charlie and Merrie in time?

And can Abby survive one more ride on the Jabberwock?

★★★★★ "I am gob-smacked! I love this book and will probably read it again. The characters are all my friends now, and I can't wait to read the next book. It isn't a quick read, but I was done before I knew it, before I was ready. Thank you again, Ninie, keep them coming!!" -- mj

★★★★★ "Move over, Stephen King! Ninie has outdone herself with this thriller! Stay on the edge of your seat as characters just disappear and then reappear elsewhere. What’s causing this? The government? Aliens? Can help come or will they, too, be swept away to Nowhere?" -- Judy

★★★★★ "Wow, just WOW!! This one had me on the edge of my seat and I can’t wait to see where it goes from here. I have read several of her books and I think this is the best by far but I probably would have said that about the others as I finished them. She is an author not to be missed if you like Stephen King. Do not miss out! Very highly recommended!!" -- Terrie Guin

★★★★★ "Ninie Hammon always delivers a story that has never been told before. Nowhere USA opens with a bang that promises a great series. I loved Jabberwock." -- Reader of the Pack

Jabberwock is the first book of Ninie Hammon's new series, Nowhere USA, a riveting psychological thriller about the residents of a forgotten county that inexplicably sinks through reality to find itself in the middle of Nowhere.

Fans of Justified, Under The Dome, and LOST will love settling down to spend some time in Nowhere USA.

Ratings and reviews

If You've Made It To Nowhere, There's Only Nowhere To Go! Jabberwock is a terrific read. I hope I'll never find myself in a place like Nower County, but I have the second book in the series and am excited to get started on it. That's as close as I want to get! It's a fresh concept, a kind of cross between horror and fantasy. The characters are easy to like (or dislike) because the writing is so good. What happens in Nowhere will keep you on the edge of your seat, flipping pages until the end. Thank you to Ninie Hammon and Sterling and Stone for the free advance reader's copy of Jabberwock. I'm under no obligation to turn in a positive review, but this title deserves nothing less!

This reading was one of those things that make you think hmmm 🤔. Creepy, but still entertaining enough to keep me reading through. Having an open mind to the possibilities of the strange and farfetched helps also. 👍

This is the first book I have read by Ninie Hammon but won't be the last. This story was eerie with this wonderful Twilight Zone vibe to it. Sam, Charlie and Malachi are high school friends who haven't seen each other since graduation. They are reunited when their little town in Nower County (the locals call it Nowhere County) becomes trapped by some sort of "force". Ninie will have you so immersed into the story from page 1 that you won't be able to put it down!

About the author

Ninie Hammon (rhymes with shiny, not skinny) grew up in Muleshoe, Texas, got a BA in English and theatre from Texas Tech University and snagged a job as a newspaper reporter. She didn't know a thing about journalism, but her editor said if she could write he could teach her the rest of it and if she couldn't write the rest of it didn't matter. She hung in there for a 25-year career as a journalist. As soon as she figured out that making up the facts was a whole lot more fun than reporting them, she turned to fiction and never looked back.

Ninie now writes suspense--every flavor except pistachio: psychological suspense, inspirational suspense, suspense thrillers, paranormal suspense, suspense mysteries.

In every book she keeps this promise to her Loyal Reader: "I will tell you a story in a distinctive voice you'll always recognize, about people as ordinary as you are--people who have been slammed by something they didn’t sign on for, and now they must fight for their lives. Then smack in the middle of their everyday worlds, those people encounter the unexplainable--and it's always the game-changer."