The Hammer of Dr Valentine by John Llewellyn Probert

Two years ago, a series of horrific murders shocked the city of Bristol. These were killings so in their planning, and so outrageous in their execution, that they made national headlines for weeks. Now the journalists who wrote the stories behind those headlines are beginning to die, in even more gruesome, even more flamboyant, and even more unbelievable than the murders they themselves wrote about at such length in the national dailies all those months ago. Dr Edward Valentine, brilliant surgeon and the maniac responsible for the Nine Deaths, has not been seen since he escaped the police following a final confrontation. Has he returned? Is he now intent on punishing the British tabloid press that he feels has misrepresented him? Has he chosen as the most appropriate method of punishment that most British of institutions, The Hammer Horror film? And how many times will the Hammer of Dr Valentine strike before he can be stopped? Of course, there’s only one way to find out… Back in 2012 I was lucky enough to read The Nine Deaths of Dr Valentine. It was a wonderfully ghoulish, blacker-than-black tale from the deranged mind of John Llewellyn Probert. What could be better than…

Anthology News – The Spectral Book of Horror Stories

Announcing a Brand New Annual Anthology! THE SPECTRAL BOOK OF HORROR STORIES Release date: September 2014 Published by Spectral Press, edited by acclaimed, award-winning novelist Mark Morris (Toady, Stitch, The Immaculate, Fiddleback and the forthcoming Obsidian Heart trilogy) and inspired by the Pan and Fontana books of horror and ghost stories, which were hugely popular in the 1960s and 1970s, The Spectral Book of Horror Stories will be the first volume of a non-themed annual horror anthology, showcasing all-original stories by the very best writers in the genre. Each yearly volume will contain around fifteen to twenty stories, and will be available in paperback and e-book format across all platforms. The cover for each volume will be a new and original work by multi-award-winning artist Vincent Chong. The Spectral Book of Horror Stories will be launched with a mass signing session at the 2014 British Fantasy Convention in York (September 5-7, 2014), though the book can be pre-ordered direct from Spectral Press at http://spectralpress.wordpress.com/2014/06/10/the-spectral-book-of-horror-stories-table-of-contents/ The final Table of Contents for volume one is:   ON THE TOUR – RAMSEY CAMPBELL THE DOG’S HOME – ALISON LITTLEWOOD FUNERAL RITES – HELEN MARSHALL SLAPE – TOM FLETCHER THE NIGHT DOCTOR – STEVE RASNIC TEM DULL FIRE – GARY McMAHON THE BOOK AND THE RING –…

The Nine Deaths of Dr Valentine by John Llewellyn Probert
Horror , John Llewellyn Probert , Spectral Press / September 21, 2012

The police in Bristol have been confronted by a series of the most perplexingly elaborate deaths they’ve ever encountered in all their years of murder enquiries. The only thing which connects them is their seemingly random nature and their sheer outrageousness. As Detective Inspector Longdon and his assistant Sergeant Jenny Newham (with the help of pathologist Dr. Richard Patterson) race against time to find the murderer, they eventually realise that the link which connects the killings is even more bizarre than any of them dared to think… Imagine a British police procedural with a dark, sinister undertone, and a villain who delights in staging devilishly macabre crimes. Like the bastard son of Hammer House of Horror and A Touch of Frost, with just a dash of Tales of the Unexpected thrown in for good measure, The Nine Deaths of Dr. Valentine is the latest from small publisher Spectral Press. Outlandish as it is engrossing, I’ve read it a couple of times now and I reckon it’s a perfect little gem of a story. Who should read this then? Well, personally I think everybody, but if you are a fan of the likes of Hammer and Amicus (especially the films of Vincent Price) then you’ll be particularly…