Brandon Cornett

Brandon Cornett has been telling stories most of his life. His short fiction has appeared in the Mississippi Review and other journals. He is the author of two other novels, both of which are forthcoming. Purgatory is his first published novel.

Brandon lives in Sonoma County, California with his wife, his daughter, and the world's most demanding cat.

Regarding Purgatory, the author states: "With this story, I wanted to combine my love of horror and survival fiction with a reality TV pop culture tie-in, adding characters that people can care about. Hopefully it worked."

You can learn more about the author and sign up for his monthly newsletter by visiting www.CornettFiction.com.

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Purgatory

Horror/Thriller

The year is 2065, and Purgatory is the hottest show on television. With nearly two billion viewers in 73 countries, the horror-based reality show dwarfs the competition. The show places death-row inmates on a remote island populated by all sorts of horrors—some genetically engineered, some conjured, all of them deadly. Those who succeed spend the remainder of their sentences in Paradise, a minimum-security facility with open visitation and other luxuries. Failure, on the other hand, means death.

Devin Booker sits on death row in the Collinsville Ultramax Prison near Denver, wrongfully convicted of a crime he didn't commit. The worst part is the isolation. He will never again see his wife or daughter in person. So when he gets an opportunity to take on Purgatory, he seizes it. Devin joins a ragtag band of convicts who, like him, long for a better life.

The rules are simple: visit the island and collect three "souvenirs" within three days. But the odds are stacked against them. Most who visit Purgatory die there. If he wants to see his family again, Devin must rely on his military background and a handful of strangers. He must survive Purgatory to reach Paradise.

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