The Parasite by British author Ramsey Campbell (
ISFDB,
Wikipedia), a frequent recipient of the British Fantasy and Bram Stoker Awards, is his vintage standalone paranormal fantasy horror thriller which the quoted blurb praise from Stephen King describes as Lovecraftian, starring a seemingly ordinary woman whose psychic powers are sparked after a brush with the occult at a party, which she begins to explore, even as they take on a disturbing turn as they grow, free for a limited time courtesy of publisher Endeavour Press' Venture imprint.
This was originally published in 1980 by Millington under the title
To Wake the Dead, and was later reprinted by Macmillan under its current title. This is one of his BFA wins, for the 1981 August Derleth Fantasy Award for Best Novel.
Currently free @
Amazon (available to Canadians & in the UK and pretty much everywhere else Amazon sells worldwide, since this is being done via their KDP Select exclusive-or-else program)
Description
Rose Tierney and her husband Bill are successful writers, picking apart films and enlightening the masses.
They are invited to New York to talk business and get invited to a party where one of the guests, a quiet Diana, is interested in the occult. Bill has a tarot card reading and dismisses it out of hand, but when it’s Rose’s turn, it sparks something in her.
That night, she has an odd out-of-body experience and is attacked by an unknown force.
Diana, through a premonition, found Rose and helped her back to her apartment to recover. The assault seems to waken her dormant psychic powers, and Diana excitedly encourages Rose to pursue them, to learn how to master them.
Rose quickly begins experiencing premonitions and discovers that her self can leave her body, later discovering all the intricacies of astral projection.
At first frightened by her newfound powers, she soon begins to explore, both her own abilities and the world that they belong to.
She soon discovers that her sinister feeling greenhouse, Hitler and the Nazis, and her quiet hometown all seem to have something in common. As her powers grow, her relationships with those around her grow increasingly turbulent.
Rose Tierney is no longer alone in her own body, and her newfound powers belong not to her, but to that Other.
The evil seed that was planted in Rose twenty years ago is about to flower.