James Boyle 
Ni’il: the Awakening 

When several people are brutally killed in the town of Placerton, on the isolated Oregon coast, most locals think a rogue bear or cougar is roaming the forested hills near town. Police Chief Dan Connor is not so sure. He has witnessed some very strange things lately, such as disembodied voices, muttering a strange foreign language and an old Indian man who seems to be near every crime scene, but disappears before he can be questioned.
Dan’s investigation takes him to the local Sihketunnai Indians and their legend of the Ni’il, magical shamans charged with maintaining the balance between humans and the natural world. According to the elders, one of the Ni’il is responsible for the murders and intends to kill everyone in the community. It is Dan’s job to stop it.
It sounded unbelievable, but was the only explanation that fit the facts.
As a violent Pacific storm crashes ashore, cutting off power and washing out roadscutting the town off from the outside world–Dan finds himself entering a strange world of myth and magic that was not covered in his police training. He must use all his wits and new-found powers to save himself and his community from the Ni’il.

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James has published both poetry and short fiction and is an organizer for the South Coast (Oregon) Writer’s Conference. This is his first novel. A student of Native culture, he used this background to create the ni’il. He lives in Gold Beach, Oregon, with a pacifist black lab named Mikey.