Into the Ashes

Re-releasing 30 January 2025

A Taine McKenna Adventure

Sequel to award-winning Into the Mist

ISBN 978-1-0670332-1-7 print; 978-1-0670332-2-4 epub

In New Zealand's Tongariro National Park, ancestral Māori mountain warriors, the legendary Kāhui Tupua, awaken, unleashing their unfathomable rage on army sergeant Taine McKenna.

As the ground splits and chaos erupts, McKenna undertakes a desperate evacuation mission, that is until he encounters a busload of equally desperate prison escapees. It’s going to take everything McKenna has to get the civilians out alive. Yet the true horror lies deeper still in this heart-stopping tale where the land itself is the enemy and every step could be his last.

“A gripping take on the disaster fiction genre.” —Aurealis

“A kick-ass thriller with twists you will never see coming!” —Jonathan Maberry, New York Times best-selling author of Deep Silence and V-WARS

Click here for Into the Mist!

Click here for Into the Sounds!

Reviews

“INTO THE ASHES is a kick-ass thriller with twists you will never see coming! Lee Murray serves up a nail-biter of a weird-science action adventure. Brava!”

— Jonathan Maberry, New York Times best-selling author of DEEP SILENCE and V-WARS

“Part disaster novel, part supernatural adventure – a suspenseful, action-packed thriller that’s entertaining as hell! ”

— Tim Waggoner, author of TEETH OF THE SEA and BLOOD ISLAND

“INTO THE ASHES hits the ground running and does not let up. A unique background, interesting characters, a dollop of horror, and a relentless, thriller pace.” — Charles R Rutledge, co-author of the Griffin and Price series.

“Murray’s INTO THE ASHES reads like a gauntlet - an action-packed adventure where death strikes from every side. A thrilling read!” — Ashley Knight, co-author of HERALD

“INTO THE ASHES begins and concludes in mysticism but blends that mysticism seamlessly with the exacting realities of a turbulent landscape, a rapidly ticking clock, and an incarnate evil. Murray has taken on herself an enormous task in balancing so many threads. In lesser hands, the story might emerge as disjointed, fragmented. But Into the Ashes succeeds on every level it attempts. It is a powerful culmination to a trio of ambitious stories. It creates strong, empathetic characters who do in fact seem capable of tackling a super-volcano on its own term and possibly, just possibly, winning. It employs a landscape at once strange and familiar, an Everywhere that is nevertheless firmly rooted in New Zealand’s history, language, and culture. And the story it tells—one of human suffering and the inexorable will to survive—is individual to Murray’s talents and universal in its conclusions, realistic and mystical.” — World Horror Master, Michael Collings

Cinematic and evocative, Into the Mist is a tension-packed expedition into primordial terror.
Murray’s writing had me feeling the damp of the forest, seeing the mist curling through the fern fronds, and sensing the danger lurking there. Ancient myths, military men and scientists placed in remote, primordial locations – it had all the right ingredients for me, and it didn’t disappoint for a moment. Lee Murray is an author to watch.”

— Greig Beck, best-selling author of the Arcadian series

"A gripping take on the disaster fiction genre." — Aurealis #132, 3030