The year is 1969. Yancy Lazarus—bluesman, gambler, future world-class mage and fix-it man—is just a dumb, unlucky kid serving with the 3rd Battalion 3rd Marines in Vietnam.
With just a few weeks left to go until Yancy gets shipped back to the States, he’s just trying to keep his head down and avoid a body bag—no mean feat in Nam. But when his squad is tasked with conducting a routine patrol deep in enemy territory, everything goes to nine kinds of hell, and he quickly sees his chances at survival slipping away.
When the radio operators start to pick up some funky, dirty ol’ blues all the way out in the backcountry, it’s a nice change of pace. At least until the men in Yancy’s squad start losing their minds, turning on each other with murderous intent as the music works its deadly power within them. Convinced it’s some kind of new psychological warfare initiative, the squad leader forces the men to push deeper and deeper into the Vietnamese jungle, obsessed with locating the music’s source. What they find, however, isn’t some new technology, but an ancient spirit awoken by the terrible war. Even worse, the music is changing Yancy too, awakening something buried inside of him. Only one thing is certain, nothing is ever going to be the same.
See how it all began …

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PRAISE FOR SIREN SONG:
Hunter's writing is as low-down, gritty, and insidious as the blues Yancy Lazarus loves. Just like the mysterious music drifting through the jungle toward Yancy's squad, Siren Song will get under your skin and sink its hooks into your mind.

—eden Hudson, Author of Halo Bound (the Redneck Apocalypse series)

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Hey everyone, this is James Hunter. This story isn't a full length novel--its a novella length work (25K words), and is part of my Yancy Lazarus series. Its already free on Amazon, so I thought I'd post chapters here for the good folks of Royal Road. If you don't want to wait for updates or would prefer to read it on Kindle, you can pick it up for free here: https://www.royalroad.com/amazon/B01066TLC0