For 3000 years, love has been an art in the Orient. And so has Death  Here is the origin of Nicholas Linnear, half English, Half Oriental, who is about to enter a terrifying world of merciless assassins bound by the blackest codes of honour and skilled in the deadliest martial arts. Caught between East and West, a past he can’t escape and a destiny he can’t avoid, he is trapped in a web of old lust and present passions that will converge on a terrifying moment of revelation and revenge… Early this year I made the decision that I would try to re-visit some older books that I’ve enjoyed in the past. I was keen to see how well a novel stands the test of time. I think probably the toughest genre to avoid aging badly is thrillers. That’s why for this review I decided to re-read a novel that I remember being a favourite, The Ninja by Eric Lustbader. Nicholas Linnear is a complex character, the product of two completely different cultures but not really belonging to either.  There is a quiet stillness and an introspective quality to him that I like. Every action or comment that he makes seems measured…

On Roanoke Island, the legend of the 114 people who mysteriously vanished from the Lost Colony hundreds of years ago is just an outdoor drama for the tourists, a story people tell. But when the island faces the sudden disappearance of 114 people now, an unlikely pair of 17-year-olds may be the only hope of bringing them back. Miranda, a misfit girl from the island’s most infamous family, and Phillips, an exiled teen criminal who hears the voices of the dead, must dodge everyone from federal agents to long-dead alchemists as they work to uncover the secrets of the new Lost Colony. The one thing they can’t dodge is each other. Bond’s writing perfectly captures the uncertainty in Miranda’s character. Due to the Blackwood family curse, she has been ostracised by many of the townsfolk, young and old alike. They all consider her bad luck and not worthy of their time. Rather than give in to this, Miranda has developed a determined streak that keeps her driven to uncover the truth. The other main character is Philips Rawlings. He has spent a long time away from Roanoke trying to escape powers that he doesn’t fully understand. His return to the island…

Fear the might of… The Cowl!  Tony Prosdocimi lives in the bustling metropolis of San Ventura – a city utterly gripped by fear, a city under siege by the hooded supervillain, The Cowl. When Tony develops super-powers and acts to take down The Cowl, however, he finds that the local superhero team, the Seven Wonders, aren’t anything like as grateful as he assumed they would be… I am, and always will be, a comic book geek at heart. Before I developed a passion for reading novels I grew up with 2000AD, Marvel and DC. I still try to read comics whenever I can but now a lot of my time is taken up by books and reviewing. The idea of reading something that captures the best elements of the comic book medium and translates them successfully certainly intrigues. San Ventura is glorious amalgam of every other comic book city that you’ve ever read. With liberal doses of Gotham, Metropolis and Star City, it serves as the perfect backdrop for all the action. From a comic book fan’s standpoint, there can’t be anything better than huge epic battles where heroes and villains duke it out, trashing buildings and destroying scenery in…

Please note Mockingbird is a direct sequel to Blackbirds and due to that fact it’s entirely possible this review may contain minor spoilers. Consider yourself warned, people. Miriam Black has a terrible talent. The first time she touches someone, she will see the moment of their death. Still in her early twenties, she’s foreseen hundreds of car crashes, heart attacks, strokes, suicides, and slow deaths by cancer. It is all she can do to keep her talent – her curse – in check.  But when Miriam touches a woman while standing in line at the supermarket, she foresees that the woman will be violently killed – right here, right now. Earlier this year I read and reviewed Blackbirds by Chuck Wendig and if I’m being honest I have to admit that it did blow my tiny little mind just a bit. Like a David Lynch directed version of The Littlest Hobo (if the Hobo was a young women with supernatural powers rather than a dog) I really enjoyed this dark, nightmarish tale. When I heard there was another novel featuring the same character, I was keen to give it a whirl. Once again I found myself amazed at how quickly I was hooked….

When your average loser, Scott Tyler, meets the beautiful and mysterious Aubrey Jones, he learns he’s not sow average after all. He’s a “Shifter” – he has the power to undo any decision he’s ever made.  At first, he things the power to Shift is pretty cool. But as his world starts to unravel around him, he realises that each time he uses his power, it results in terrible, unforeseen consequences. In a world where anything can change with a single thought, Scott has to decide exactly where he stands. Everyone has done it haven’t they? You’ve made a decision and then immediately regretted it. You’ve said or done the wrong thing, and been forced to live with an outcome that you didn’t need or want. Just imagine if you could undo your mistake. Make everything better without anyone realising your error. Wouldn’t that be the best thing in the world? I mean, what could possibly go wrong? Scott is just a typical teen, not terribly good at anything and unsure what to do with his life. A moment of madness, a reckless dare involving an old electricity pylon, leads to a decision that changes his entire future. Suddenly Scott is exposed to a section of society that he never knew existed,…

The world is about to end – would you investigate a murder?  An asteroid is about to collide with the Earth in six months time, and wipe us all out. Would you give up your life and go of to fulfill your ambition, take solace in drunken pleasure, live in fear, or solidly carry on doing what you do? Detective Hank Palace faces this stark question, and as others walk away from their jobs he carries on. A murder has been committed, and it is his job to solve it – problem is, none of his colleges believe it is a murder, and neither does the coroner – just Hank’s instinct, and in a city that has a dozen or more suicides a week even that might be wrong. What’s the point in solving murders if we are all going to die anyway? As Hank investigates further, undercurrents begin to surface –who was the victim obsessed with the asteroid? Did he know something about it that the rest of us don’t? Is there a conspiracy afoot? In a world where politicians have run of to the Bahamas for one last sun-drenched beach holiday, where the US Army runs internment camps…

Fifteen years ago a young girl was brutally attacked as she picked flowers in a meadow near her parents’ Swedish country home. The crime went unreported; the victim silenced. Cut to the present. It is a bleak February morning in Stockholm, when Alex Recht’s federal investigation unit is assigned to two new cases.  A man has been killed in a hit and run. He has no identification on him, he is not reported missing nor wanted by the police. Investigative Analyst Fredrika Bergman has the task of finding out who he is. At the same time, a priest and his wife are found dead in their apartment. All evidence suggests that the priest shot his wife and the committed suicide. But is that all there is to it? Two different cases, seemingly unrelated. But it is not long before the investigations begin to converge and the police are following a trail that leads all the way back to the ’90s, to a crime that was hushed-up, but whose consequences will reach further and deeper than anyone ever expected. The cover of Silenced has a sticker on it that boldly proclaims “For fans of The Killing”. I’ve seen the television series…

Hot on the heels of the Angry Robot cover release this afternoon, we now have a little something from the good people at Fox Spirit. (I know, I know. I don’t do any news for ages and then two articles come along at once. I’m like a bus).  Fox Spirit books are pleased to announce that Joan De La Haye’s psychological horror ‘Shadows’ is now available from amazon (to follow at other outlets soon). ‘Shadows’ was Joan’s first published novel and we are delighted to re release it. Sarah is forced to the edge of sanity by the ghosts of her family’s past. Suffering from violent and bloody hallucinations, she seeks the help of psychologist and friend, Michael Brink. After being sent to an institution in a catatonic state covered in blood from stabbing her unfaithful boyfriend, Sarah is forced to confront the truth about her father’s death and the demon, Jack, who caused her fathers suicide and is now the reason for her horrific hallucinations. Unlike her father, Sarah refuses to kill herself. She bargains for her life and succeeds. In Sarah’s struggle to regain her life and her sanity, she discovers more things to the world than she…

A seven-year-old girl puts a nail-gun to her grandmother’s neck and fires. An isolated incident, say the experts. The experts are wrong. Across the world, children are killing their families. Is violence contagious?  As chilling murders by children grip the country, anthropologist Hesketh Lock has his own mystery to solve: a bizarre scandal in the Taiwan timber industry. Hesketh has never been good at relationships: Asperger’s Syndrome has seen to that. But he does have a talent for spotting behavioural patterns, and an outsider’s fascination with group dynamics. Nothing obvious connects Hesketh’s Southeast Asian case with the atrocities back home. Or with the increasingly odd behaviour of his beloved step-son, Freddy. But when Hesketh’s Taiwan contact dies shockingly and more acts of sabotage and child violence sweep the globe, he is forced to acknowledge possibilities that defy the rational principles on which he has staked his life, his career and, most devastatingly of all, his role as a father.  Part psychological thriller, part dystopian nightmare, The Uninvited is a powerful and viscerally unsettling portrait of apocalypse in embryo. I have to begin with a confession. I started reading this book last month, but had to take a break from it….

Meet me, Jarra. Earth Girl. It’s the year 2788, and the universe is divided into two different kinds of people: the Norms, who can portal between different planets, and people like me, the one in a thousand who are born with an immune system which doesn’t allow us to leave planet Earth. Norms come back to Earth for one reason: to study human history. But only if the don’t have to interact with us ‘Neanderthals’ along the way. Well, I’ve got a plan to change all that. Call me whatever you like, I’m every bit as good as they are. And I’m going to prove it to them. Just imagine you live in an age where humanity has finally reached the stars and we are able to travel to distant planets in the blink of an eye. The whole universe is out there waiting to be explored, but by a simple twist of fate you have to stay behind. Not only that, but all those that are able to travel between worlds look down at you. To them, your kind are to be pitied like some sort of sub-human. Jarra is an excellent student and is given the opportunity to join…

A word of caution – Department 19: The Rising is a direct sequel to Department 19. If you haven’t read the first book in this series, and you really should, there is a distinct possibility that this review may contain minor spoilers. You have been warned! 91 DAYS TILL ZERO HOUR. THAT’S 91 DAYS TO RUN. 91 DAYS TO HIDE. OR 91 DAYS TO PRAY FOR DEPARTMENT 19 TO SAVE YOU… After the terrifying attack on Lindisfarne at the end of the first book, Jamie, Larissa and Kate are recovering at Department 19 headquarters, waiting for news of Dracula’s stolen ashes. They won’t be waiting for long. Vampire forces are gathering. Old enemies are getting too close. And Dracula… is rising. Last year I read Will Hill’s debut novel, Department 19, and I really enjoyed it. It was a lot of fun and a perfect introduction to the action/horror genre for a young adult audience. Vampires, werewolves and a secret organisation that keeps them all in check. I ask you, what’s not to love? The second book is just out on paperback and it picks up the action shortly after the climatic events that ended book one. It’s nice to…

Alice isn’t having the best of days – late for work, missed the bus, and now she’s getting rained on – but it’s about to get worse.   The war between the angels and the Fallen is escalating and innocent civilians are getting caught in the cross-fire. If the balance is to be restored, the angels must act – or risk the Fallen taking control. Forever. That’s where Alice comes in. Hunted by the Fallen and guided by Mallory – a disgraced angel with a drinking problem he doesn’t want to fix – Alice will learn the truth about her own history… and why the angels want to send her to hell.   What do the Fallen want from her? How does Mallory know so much about her past? What is it the angels are hiding – and can she trust either side?  It probably won’t come as much of a surprise when I reveal that I have been looking forward to Blood and Feathers for quite a while; pretty much since I heard about it, to be honest (eagle eyed readers of the site will have spotted it being mentioned on the preview of 2012 post way back in January). There…

Amy Peterson is a von Neumann machine, a self-replicating humanoid robot. For the past five years, she has been grown slowly as part of a mixed organic/synthetic family. She knows very little about her android mother’s past, so when her grandmother arrives and attacks her mother, little Amy wastes no time: she eats her alive. Now she carries her malfunctioning granny as a partition on her memory drive, and she’s learning impossible things about her clade’s history – like the fact that the failsafe that stops all robots from harming humans has failed… Which means that everyone wants a piece of her, some to use her as a weapon, others to destroy her. When we first meet Amy she is a five-year old child living with her human father and android mother. Her accelerated growth has been stunted to mimic that of a human child using a special diet that keeps her in a state of almost constant hunger.  Everything seems idyllic in this perfect little family unit, but within a few short chapters it becomes evident that all is not as rosy as it appears from the outside. The unexpected appearance of Amy’s grandmother acts as a catalyst to events…