Summer Bloody Summer

Published on 3/7/25

"What if he survived somehow? I mean, is that so crazy?"

Athena and her high school friends thought they were in for the perfect summer opportunity—a week in the Tennessee wilderness, cleaning out a house for their favorite teacher, Mr. Harris, in exchange for a life-changing payout: their entire college tuition paid in full.

The catch? The house belonged to Mr. Harris’s father, Harold -- a man whose name had been splashed across national news.A man who kidnapped three teens and kept them in cages, with only two surviving to tell the tale.

And Harold? According to police, Harold was dead.

But the moment Athena and her friends arrive, something feels off. Shadows move in the trees. The power flickers. The smell of rot lingers in the air. The group tries to brush off their unease, cracking open beers, lighting a bonfire, and turning the eerie, abandoned house into the backdrop for one last reckless night before adulthood.

But what they don't know is that their summer dream's about to turn into a waking nightmare. They are being hunted by someone lurking in the woods -- someone coming to claim them one by one and drag them into the darkness.

Trapped in the wilderness with no escape and no way to call for help, Athena and her friends must fight if they want to survive.

A relentless slasher drenched in tension, dread, and brutal horror, SUMMER BLOODY SUMMER is for fans of classic ‘80s slashers, psychological terror, and stories where no one is safe.

Check out the e-Book edition here and the trade paperback coming soon!

Authentic newspaper headline the day after Nolan Cassidy and William "Billy" Asman escaped the property of executive-turned-hermit Harold Harris, where they had been imprisoned for several months. Harold was presumed dead, and his son, Michael Harris, hired six of his former students to clean up the property. The events of that day which befell the "Sam Houston Six," as they came to be called, were to lead to the discovery of one of the most horrifying crimes in the history of Tennessee.

What Readers Are Saying About SUMMER BLOODY SUMMER:

Alex has a knack for combining psychological terror with the brutality of 'in your face' horror…reminded me of the classic 80s slashers, the ones I grew up with and loved, while at the same time still bringing in that freshness and terror to the table.

 A bloodbath of supernatural proportions.

I found myself constantly losing the breath I didn't know I was holding. This story is intense, eerie, non-stop and wonderfully brutal. Hartwell has taken the typical slasher trope and added his own twist to it.