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Hex – Thomas Olde Heuvelt

Whoever is born here, is doomed to stay until death. Whoever comes to stay, never leaves.

Welcome to Black Spring, the seemingly picturesque Hudson Valley town haunted by the Black Rock Witch, a seventeenth-century woman whose eyes and mouth are sewn shut. Blind and silenced, she walks the streets and enters homes at will. She stands next to children’s beds for nights on end. So accustomed to her have the townsfolk become that they often forget she’s there. Or what a threat she poses. Because if the stitches are ever cut open, the story goes, the whole town will die.

The curse must not be allowed to spread. The elders of Black Spring have used high-tech surveillance to quarantine the town. Frustrated with being kept in lockdown, the town’s teenagers decide to break the strict regulations and go viral with the haunting. But, in so doing, they send the town spiraling into a dark nightmare.

My “thanks” (is that the correct word???) to the Hodderscape team for my review copy…and sleepless nights.

Okay…HEX.

The book about The Witch.

The Creepy As Hell Witch that has haunted Black Spring for over 300 years.

Yeah – it’s a proper chiller. Eyes darting around the room, noises in the night, “what’s that behind me?” kind of creepy. It is everything you want from a horror story.

For generations the inhabitants of Black Spring have lived with The Witch. She moves around the town – appearing in their homes, drifting slowly down the main street or even lurking in the woods around the town. She is a terrifying sight to behold, her eyes and mouth are sewn shut (yet she tries to whisper so DON’T listen to her), her arms are chained by her side to restrict her movement and she must NEVER be touched.

But the townspeople are used to her and live their lives around her – The Witch is hidden in plain sight. With high tech surveillance equipment tracking her movements, a dedicated HEX team to enforce the town’s laws around keeping The Witch a secret. There is also a handy Army Base just down the road. It turns out that for the people of Black Spring living around The Witch is a necessary evil as once you have lived in Black Spring there is no getting away – residents are cursed to remain in the town, leaving brings consequences. Nasty consequences.

Keeping such a big secret will place a strain on everyone in town – particularly in this modern era where communication with the outside world is so easy. Black Spring is about to face it’s biggest challenge for many a year – someone wants to share the secret. Someone wants to defy the rules of the town and expose The Witch to the world. Someone is about to make a very big mistake.

It is a long time since I read a book which unsettled me as much as HEX. It is often terrifying as the author builds tension brilliantly. You cannot help be frustrated with the characters who are acting in such irresponsible ways that you know something ‘bad’ will happen.

Reading this book is highly recommended.

Reading it in a brightly lit room, surrounded by puppies or kittens while sitting with your back to the wall – also works!

HEX is published by Hodder and Stoughton and is currently available in hardback and digital formats. You can order a copy by clicking HERE.

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April 5

A Time of Torment – John Connolly – The Travelling Man and beyond…Creating the Villains.

This is Day three of a week-long celebration of the world of Charlie Parker which has been brought to us by John Connolly. On 7th April 2016 the 14th Charlie Parker novel will be published by Hodder: A Time of Torment.

Readers are invited to take a journey with Liz of Liz Loves Books. On Monday Liz featured the Mythology of Charlie Parker.

Yesterday Christine of Northern Crime found Liz considering the Anti Heroes (Louis and Angel).

Today I am delighted to share the third leg of the journey as Liz discusses The Travelling Man and beyond…

Creating the Villains

The Charlie Parker series has one particularly strong hook to it – the villains. The villains are incredibly well drawn, scary as all hell every single time with the occasional tendency to make you love them.

Going all the way back to the start you had The Travelling Man. A killer beyond imagination (except obviously that of the author I am not sure I would like to spend TOO much time inside his head) he took from Charlie that which made him who he was – his family – and turned him into what he would become. He still echoes through the narrative today, a known yet unknowable quantity that haunts the narrative occasionally, a glance back into a darkness that only grew darker over time.

You would not think that there could be worse waiting round the corner but each new novel brings new challenges to bear – and for the reader new nightmares to experience. The Killing Kind brought us Mr Pud and his spiders – whenever I reread this novel my skin does literally crawl, a true and real reason why these stories are so incredibly brilliant – you cannot help but be held in every horrific moment. When it comes to the crime element a good bad guy is everything – the well here is deep and you are forever looking into the abyss.

Black Angel which brought a beautiful historical flavour and finally threw us off a cliffs edge when it came to the mythology, also brought Brightman, an extreme yet highly intriguing figure and yes again scary as all hell! This novel had the added advantage of solidifying the relationship between Louis, Angel and Charlie – this was a very personal journey for all three of them and the villainous content for it had to be bang on and boy it absolutely was.

I cannot mention all, there are layers upon layers, the main villain of every piece inevitably draws other evil towards him (or her) and whilst I want to give a flavour to give all away would be unthinkable. But there is one more I simply must pay homage to – that would be The Collector.

The Collector is absolutely my favourite character outside of our main core group – for reasons that may not make sense to anyone but me, he has a place in my heart, so many levels you cannot get an actual handle on him but there he is. The relationship that develops between him and Charlie is yin and yang, up and down – the power he yields within the narrative is atmospheric and fascinating. In the latest stories the upper hand held is changing – and to finish this off I’d like to say out of all the darkest, scariest and most fearful characters imaginable it is possible that in fact Charlie and his daughter will end up being the most terrifying of all.

We shall see. This series is unpredictable, it is enticing and will endure – where it is going I cannot say. All I can say is I’m in it to the bitter, beautiful end.

Article written by Liz of Liz Loves Books

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February 15

Morning Star (Red Rising Trilogy 3) – Pierce Brown

Darrow is a Helldiver, one of a thousand men and women who live in the vast caves beneath the surface of Mars, generations of people who spend their lives toiling to mine the precious elements that will allow the planet to be terraformed. Just knowing that, one day, people will be able to walk the surface of the planet is enough to justify their sacrifice. The Earth is dying, and Darrow and his people are the only hope humanity has left.

Until the day Darrow learns that it is all a lie. That Mars has been habitable – and inhabited – for generations, by a class of people calling themselves the Golds. A class of people who look down at Darrow and his fellows as slave labour, to be exploited and worked to death without a second thought.

Until the day Darrow, with the help of a mysterious group of rebels, disguises himself as a Gold and infiltrates their society.

My thanks to the Hodderscape team for my (treasured) review copy.

It started with Red Rising. It continued with Golden Son and now FINALLY Morning Star has arrived and Pierce Brown’s epic trilogy is complete. Epic. Not a word to be used lightly but wholly justified in the case of the Red Rising trilogy – these three books are outstanding examples of storytelling.

Picking up the story after the traumatic Golden Son cliff-hanger Morning Star reunites us with Darrow (The Reaper) and his seemingly failed mission to bring down the elite Golds. Confused? Well it is book 3 of a trilogy – you really MUST read the books in order to appreciate the scale of the story which Pierce Brown has woven.

It was a long 12 month wait for Morning Star but it was absolutely worth it in the end. I cannot tell you WHY, nor can I reveal who is still standing at the end of the book or even if Darrow and his allies manage even a partial success in their mission. What I CAN tell you is that Morning Star is the finale that you hoped it would be.

Tears, cheers and trauma. Twists, shocks and tragedy…Pierce Brown nails them all and keeps you flicking the pages long into the night. It is the story you never want to end AND the story you simply must finish!

Morning Star is waiting for you – if you have not yet met Darrow you can order a copy of Red Rising HERE and start the journey. If you have finished Golden Son then you owe it to yourself to find out what happens next – get your copy of Morning Star right this bloodydamn minute – things will never be quite the same again.

Morning Star is published by Hodder & Stoughton and is available in Hardback and Digital Format.

You can order a copy here: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Morning-Star-Red-Rising-Trilogy/dp/1444759051/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1455576722&sr=8-1&keywords=morning+star

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January 21

Golden Son – Pierce Brown

‘I’m still playing games. This is just the deadliest yet.‘

Darrow is a rebel forged by tragedy. For years he and his fellow Reds worked the mines, toiling to make the surface of Mars inhabitable. They were, they believed, mankind’s last hope. Until Darrow discovered that it was all a lie, and that the Red were nothing more than unwitting slaves to an elitist ruling class, the Golds, who had been living on Mars in luxury for generations.

In RED RISING, Darrow infiltrated Gold society, to fight in secret for a better future for his people. Now fully embedded amongst the Gold ruling class, Darrow continues his dangerous work to bring them down from within. It’s a journey that will take him further than he’s ever been before – but is Darrow truly willing to pay the price that rebellion demands?

Hic sunt leones.

Thanks to Hodder and Bookbridgr for my review copy

Last year I reviewed Red Rising – the first in Pierce Brown’s Red Rising Trilogy. It was a stand out book for me, one of the best I had read for quite a few years and it made me crave more fantasy novels (a genre I have kept away from in recent years). More specifically, however, Red Rising made me crave a novel called Golden Son –the sequel to Red Rising.

On the plus side, I was quite late to the party for Red Rising so the wait for Golden Son was not too long to bear, the wait for the third novel may seem eternal though. The reason for my impatience is that Golden Son is majestic and finishes with such a climax that there was almost a howl of frustration as I read the last page. Few authors have ever managed to evoke such a sense of anticipation from me.

As Golden Son is the second in a trilogy it is necessary to have read Red Rising. Darrow, Mustang and their allies are back. However, so too are Darrow’s enemies – and there are many of them. The alliances which were established in Red Rising are tested time and again in Golden Son. The stakes have been raised and Darrow cannot be sure who to trust as he battles for his position in the ranks of the Golds and battles for his life as others plot against him.

Having reached an elevated position at the end of Red Rising we rejoin Darrow just as his status is facing its greatest challenge. The privileges he has enjoyed are to be taken away from him when he falls victim to a very public failure. His secret mission (set by the anarchist group Sons of Ares) may become unachievable if he cannot find a way to restore his position, however, Darrow is to find that it is not easy rebuilding a reputation when you fall so far from grace.

If I tried to outline some of the highlights from Golden Son I would be here for days. If I tried to explain some of the plot I would run the risk of revealing spoilers. What I am comfortable revealing is that Golden Son is bigger, louder and more staggering than Red Rising and I absolutely loved it.

Pierce Brown has created a phenomenal story. It is action packed, political, shocking and engaging. A must read masterpiece!

It may only be January but I think I have already read one of my favourite books of the year.

So it was 5/5 for Red Rising and now 5/5 for Golden Son – Pierce Brown is now scoring a perfect 10. Bring on the finale!

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November 7

Dreda Say Mitchell – Heroes To Die For

Heroes To Die For

What makes a great character or hero in a thriller? It goes without saying that if we knew the answer to that question we wouldn’t be writing or reading blogs – we’d be lying by our swimming pool with a banana daiquiri, feeling sorry for all those poor people out there. Of course, all those who write or read thrillers have their own ideas and we’ve got plenty of examples over the years to help answer the question. From Sam Spade and onto Jack Reacher, and on the big screen Sigourney Weaver’s Ripley character in ‘Alien’, heroes are all very different. But is it possible to find a common thread?

For those of us who write thrillers, this is more than a theoretical question, we have to get it right. You can develop the most ingenious plot based on the most original premise but if your characters don’t do it for the reader, it’s going back on the shelf. And there isn’t an easy answer to it; nothing’s more frustrating for a writer than seeing another author breaking all the supposed rules and then coming up trumps anyway (although that in itself should be a pointer). But if we can’t actually spot the ball, we can at least identify the ballpark.

One common feature is that we have to be on our hero’s side and they have to be basically sympathetic even, or especially, when they’re up to no good. It won’t work if we go into the final showdown and the reader’s thinking, “I hope the villain kills the hero, he’s got it coming…” In my new novel ‘Vendetta’, our hero Mac, breaks all the police officer’s rules and I hope the reader understand why. I want the reader whispering, “Yes, I get it; I’d do the same in his position…” Some thrillers take the reader by the arm and make them complicit in the murder and mayhem. There are of course gentle and self effacing investigators in the genre but I tend not to gravitate towards them as a reader.

And heroes can’t simply be heroic; they need their human and vulnerable side if readers are going to buy into them. Yes, of course, we want them to be able to flatten a half dozen bad guys waiting to attack them in a dark alley. But at the same time if they’ve got the perfect family, their pension all sorted out and no vices of any kind, it’s hard to get into them. Many readers are now getting a little fed up with the alcoholic cop ‘on the edge’ but there’s a very good reason why they became so popular in the first place. And there’s a very good reason why our characters tend to suffer a long, dark night of the soul. We want real people not cardboard cut-outs. In ‘Vendetta’, Mac has got his problems but hey who hasn’t? We want exaggerated versions of real life but we want real life in there too.

What goes for heroes is also true of villains. There are still a few evil masterminds who are planning to destroy the planet – in 24 hours of course – but they’re rare now. The charming serial killer, the morally ambiguous criminal, the murderer who did it for understandable reasons, tend to be the rule these days. Indeed the convergence of heroes and villains has become one of the features of 21^st century thriller writing.

But ultimately, what’s the test of the real deal when it comes to thriller characters? Well, if you’re sitting next to someone on the bus and they’re reading your book and they look up in horror because they’ve missed their stop, then you’ve got it right. And all the theorising about characters in the world isn’t going to change that.

VENDETTA by Dreda Say Mitchell is out now in paperback and eBook, published by Hodder, £6.99. For more information visit www.dredasaymitchell.com and follow Dreda on twitter @DredaMitchell

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November 7

Vendetta – Dreda Say Mitchell

Two murders. Two different crime scenes. One killer?

Mac wakes in a smashed-up hotel room with no recollection of what has happened. With his lover’s corpse in the bathroom and the evidence suggesting that he killed her, Mac is on a mission to uncover the truth and find the real killer.

But he’s in a race against time with less than a day to unravel the mystery. Still reeling from a personal tragedy Mac isn’t afraid of pain. Hot on his heels is tenacious Detective Inspector Rio Wray. Double-crossed and in the line of fire, Mac has to swim through a sea of lies to get to the truth.

But only Mac knows he’s been living a double life. Can he be sure he doesn’t have the blood of a dead woman on his hands.

Thank you to Hodder and the Bookbridgr team for my review copy.

Before I start my Vendetta review in full there is something that I need to get off my chest…

VENDETTA IS MAGNIFICENT!

Thank you – I have been holding that in for a couple of weeks.

No point in my being coy about this review, I loved Vendetta! It is a roller-coaster of adventure with undercover cops, Russian gangsters, nasty murders and has many unsavoury characters popping up all over the place. I have wanted to shout about how much I enjoyed reading it but had been holding off so I could time my review to coincide with Dreda Say Mitchell’s Blog Tour visit.

There is a cover quote from Lee Child ‘Breathless from the first word and thrilling to the last.’ Top author nails a review in one line. That is exactly how I found Vendetta. In the opening scenes our hero, Mac, wakes in a hotel room with a gunshot wound to his head and his girlfriend’s mutilated corpse in the bath. Did Mac kill her? He can’t remember but the police are outside and Mac does not want to stick around to answer awkward questions.

What comes next is a frenetic thriller as we follow Mac through the back streets and dark alleys of London while he tries to keep one step ahead of Detective Inspector Rio Wray and tries to catch up with a killer (assuming that killer is not Mac himself).

Short yet punchy chapters, fast paced narrative and an engaging story make Vendetta very readable and extremely enjoyable. I loved Dreda Say Mitchell’s characterisation of Mac and DI Wray, she puts her cast through the wringer and how they contend with their respective trauma and loss defines their actions through the book. Characters pushed to their limits take reckless chances which, in turn, leads to great entertainment for a reader.

I have read some great books this year but Vendetta stands out as one of the best. I tore through it and grudged any time that I had to tear myself away from Mac’s world. Also, I am glad the book was published this week as my review copy (and I) got soaked in an October downpour so it needs replaced. I want Vendetta sitting pretty on by bookshelf as it has earned its place as a ‘keeper’. Unsurprisingly I have awarded Vendetta a five star review.

VENDETTA by Dreda Say Mitchell is out now in paperback and eBook, published by Hodder, £6.99. For more information visit www.dredasaymitchell.com and follow Dreda on twitter @DredaMitchell

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September 29

Cut Out – Fergus McNeill

Cut Out - DI Harland Book 3 — Cut Out – DI Harland Book 3

Nigel never meant for it to happen. At first, he just wanted to be Matt’s friend. But when he discovers he can hear what is going on in the flat below him, his fascination with his new neighbour drifts into obsession.

Rearranging his furniture to recreate the layout of the rooms downstairs. Buying the same clothes, going through his post, his things. Becoming Matt without him ever knowing.

And it would have been all right, if Matt hadn’t brought the girl home.

When things spiral out of control, Detective Inspector Harland has to unravel the disturbing truth. But there’s far more to the case than meets the eye . . .

Thanks to Hodder and Bookbridgr for my review copy.

This is the third book in the series featuring DI Harland. I am afraid I have not read the first two books, however, on the strength of Cut Out I can confidently confirm that I will be picking up the earlier books. I did not feel that having missed books 1 & 2 that it impacted upon my enjoyment of Cut Out, however, Harland’s back story is already established and I suspect I gained something of an insight into what may have occurred in the books I skipped.

So to Cut Out and my first introduction to Fergus McNeill’s work. The story description from the dust jacket was a good start – I liked what I read in the teaser so Cut Out jumped to the top of my TBR pile. Fifty pages in and I turned back to the dust jacket just to make sure that I had picked up the book I had intended to read – the story seemed to hold no similarity to the cover description.

Reassured that I had the correct book I stuck with it and (just 5 minutes later) I was rewarded when the story narrative jumped back in time and started to set up the plotline I had been expecting. As I progressed through the story I felt that the author made good use of jumping around timelines to unfold different elements of the story.

As outlined in the description above, Nigel has an unhealthy obsession with his neighbour (Matt) and starts to become a bit too consumed with how Matt chooses to live his life. Nigel seems to have a lonely existence and when he gets a glimpse of a life he could have things begin to spiral out of control taking him in a direction he may never have imagined.

Initially I felt a degree of empathy with Nigel but as he began to mimic Matt (with shades of SWF) I became more uncomfortable with his fixation. McNeill did a good job of drawing the character further down a path of obsession and you knew that things were not going to end well for someone.

A solid police procedural story, plenty of unpleasant characters, a murder, a missing person, a predator and a stalker – plenty of intrigue to keep me reading.

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