The Bone Parade

Ashley Stassler is not your average artist. He has been wildly praised for a series of bronze sculptures that group families together, depicting them in moments of excruciating physical and emotional pain — but the art world has no clue as to how he creates such authentic, gruesome, seemingly tortured human representations. He assigns each family a number, and now he's up to number nine. What's in store for family #9? Cruelty and savagery that you can't even imagine . . . The Bone Parade introduces a villain who is as methodical, calculating, and detached as any found in the best fiction. It's gripping. It's chilling. You might be too afraid to read on, but you'll never be able to tear your eyes away. THE BONE PARADE introduces Ashley Stassler—not your average artist. While wildly praising him for his sculptures that depict families with gruesome, tortured expressions, the art world cannot even guess at how he came to create the series: “They moved here from Pennslyvania. Harrisburg to be precise. Public records are extraordinarily revealing. I always use them. I simply don’t want a family that’s moved from one side of town to the other, or from two streets over. Better they’ve made a big move, far from those who know them or might miss them in an hour, an evening, or on the day that follows. Give me a day and I'm gone for good. And so are they. Never...to...return.”Methodical, calculating, and detached during his usual kidnappings and murders (by which he literally bronzes his victims at the moment of their utmost despair), he lets himself go with family #9, developing a liking to the unorthodox and outspoken teenage daughter, who seems to be taunting him with her every move. With each day that he lets them survive, waiting for the perfect moment to come to pass for his next creation, family #9 will make him question how much he is in control of his own creation.