Outcast is a direct sequel to Inscape. If you haven’t read the first book in this series, then what follows will contain minor spoilers. Consider yourself duly warned! TRUTH. LIES. IT CAN BE HARD TO TELL THEM APART. When a bomb goes off at InTech HQ, everything changes for Tanta’s corporation. Order becomes disorder. Safety becomes danger. Calm becomes chaos. Tanta is tasked with getting to the bottom of the attack before violence and unrest overtake the city. But even though the evidence points towards rival corporation Thoughtfront, Tanta can’t shake the feeling that she’s missing something. There’s a dark secret at the heart of the case, one that will reveal more about her own corporation than Tanta would like. And the closer Tanta gets to the mystery, the more she comes to realise something terrible: Sometimes facing the truth can be the hardest thing of all. Back in January 2021, I had the opportunity to read the rather wonderful science fiction thriller Inscape by Louise Carey. It was great, you should all read it. This week, the sequel, Outcast, is released. Guess what? It’s also great and you should all definitely read it as well. The action picks up…

Good morning, Berlin. It’s 7.35 AM. And you’re listening to your biggest nightmare. This morning a dangerous psychopath is playing an old game with new rules. He’s taken six people hostage at Berlin’s leading radio station. Every hour, a telephone will ring somewhere in Berlin. Maybe it will be in your house. Or your office. And if you can’t play the game, a hostage will die. Renowned police psychologist Ira Samin is rushed to the scene, where she is forced to negotiate live on air. With the nation listening, the kidnapper makes his sole demand: find his fiancee and bring her to the station. But she is dead. Burnt to a crisp in a devastating car accident eight months ago. Facing an impossible demand and a police commander who seems hell-bent on keeping secrets, Ira must race against the clock to resolve one of the hardest negotiations of her career. All the while, somewhere in Berlin… a telephone is ringing. From the outside, there is something mesmeric about a hostage situation. It feels almost voyeuristic. We’re repelled but transfixed in the same breath. Classic movies like The Taking of Pelham 123, Dog Day Afternoon and Inside Man capture that rabbit…

Please note The Blood Isles is a direct sequel to The Wolf Mile. If you haven’t read book one in the Pantheon series then what follows may contain some minor spoilers. New Season. New Rules. Same deadly game… The Pantheon Games are the biggest underground event in the world, followed by millions online. New recruits must leave behind their twenty-first century lives and vie for dominance in a gruelling battle to the death armed only with ancient weapons – and their wits. Last season’s new recruits Tyler and Lana have lived to fight another day, but now they face a series of even more lethal clashes before the Grand Battle that will end the Season. It’s survival of the fittest, in the most brutal fashion imaginable. Lana must face the demons of her past, and Tyler has the mother of all targets on his back. To my never-ending shame, I was late to the party when it came to the first novel in the Pantheon series. Though it has been around for a while, I only read The Wolf Mile by C F Barrington back in August this year. No such tardiness when it comes to the sequel, however. I…

Bankrolled by the world’s wealthy elite and followed by thousands online, two teams of warriors vie for dominance … and the streets of Edinburgh run with blood. Into this secret struggle steps Tyler Maitland, seeking his lost sister, and Lana Cameron, grieving her dead child. When they are accosted by figures in black hoodies and each handed a silver amulet, they recognize the Triple Horn of Odin – the talisman of the Valhalla Horde. They are being recruited into the great game known as The Pantheon. And one day they will change everything. Now they must risk their lives and join the ranks of seven ancient warrior teams which inhabit this illicit world. Their journey will be more wondrous and horrifying than anything they could have dreamed, taking each of them to the depths of their souls … and testing them to breaking point as they search for loved ones and for the meaning in their lives. Let the Season begin. I was intrigued by The Wolf Mile by C F Barrington as soon as I read the book blurb. Viking berserkers and Greek Hoplite clans facing off against one another on modern city streets. To the winner goes all…

IF YOU HAD THE CHANCE TO CHANGE YOUR FUTURE WOULD YOU TAKE IT? Esso is running out of time and into trouble. After he is accidentally caught up in a gang war, he is haunted by a vision of a bullet fired in an alleyway with devastating consequences. A generation later, fifteen-year-old football prodigy Rhia is desperately searching for answers – and a catastrophic moment from the past holds the key to understanding the parents she never got to meet. Whether on the roads of South London or in the mysterious Upper World, Esso and Rhia”s fates must collide. And when they do, a race against the clock will become a race against time itself. . . The Eloquent Page is back after a short self-imposed break, and this week I’ve been taking a look at the time travel science fiction novel The Upper World by Femi Fadugba. Esso is a typical teen. He just wants to spend his days hanging out with friends or daydreaming about a certain girl at school. Unfortunately, the threat of gang violence is always present, and Esso has an uncanny knack for ending up in the wrong place at the wrong time. Rhia is…

When prodigal daughter Heather Evans returns to her family home after her mother’s baffling suicide, she makes an alarming discovery–stacks and stacks of carefully preserved letters from notorious serial killer Michael Reave. The “Red Wolf,” as he was dubbed by the press, has been in prison for over twenty years, serving a life sentence for the gruesome and ritualistic murders of several women across the country, although he has always protested his innocence. The police have had no reason to listen, yet Heather isn’t the only one to have cause to re-examine the murders. The body of a young woman has just been found, dismembered and placed inside a tree, the corpse planted with flowers. Just as the Red Wolf once did. What did Heather’s mother know? Why did she kill herself? And with the monstrous Red Wolf safely locked inside a maximum-security prison, who is stalking young women now? Teaming up with DI Ben Parker, Heather hopes to get some answers for herself and for the newest victims of this depraved murderer. Yet to do that, she must speak to Michael Reave herself, and expose herself to truths she may not be ready to face. Something dark is walking…

Ven was once a holy man, a keeper of ancient archives. It was his duty to interpret archaic texts, sorting useful knowledge from the heretical ideas of the Burning Age—a time of excess and climate disaster. For in Ven’s world, such material must be closely guarded so that the ills that led to that cataclysmic era can never be repeated. But when the revolutionary Brotherhood approaches Ven, pressuring him to translate stolen writings that threaten everything he once held dear, his life will be turned upside down. Torn between friendship and faith, Ven must decide how far he’s willing to go to save this new world—and how much he is willing to lose. The release of a new Claire North novel is always cause for much celebration here at The Eloquent Page. Over the last few years, she has cemented herself as one of my favourite authors. 84K, The Gameshouse and The Pursuit of William Abbey are all exceptional. Recently, I was given the opportunity to read her latest, Notes from the Burning Age. Unsurprisingly I found I was powerless to resist. In a post-apocalyptic vision of Europe, two factions vie to control the direction of our future. A young…

Around the world, twenty-two people have been murdered. The victims fit no profile, the circumstances vary wildly, but one thing links them all: in every case the victim is branded with a number. With police around the globe floundering and unable to identify any pattern, let alone find a killer, CIA Analyst Quinn Mitchell is called in to investigate. Before long, Quinn is on the trail of an ice-hearted assassin with seemingly limitless resources – but she’s prepared for that. What she isn’t prepared for is the person pulling the strings… Time for a bit of global conspiracy thriller-type action. Scorpion by Christian Cantrell is released this week so I decided I would give it a go and see what the heck all the fuss was about. Quinn Mitchell is great at her job. She excels at analysis and following clues. If you want someone to pick apart vast quantities of data to discover the virtual needle in the virtual haystack, then Quinn is the person for the job. What Quinn isn’t is a field agent. As the result of personal trauma, she has spent years hidden away from the world in the safety of an office. Circumstance however forces…

Deep within the Arctic Circle, three scientists from the UK’s Arctic Research Station trudge through a blizzard in search of shelter. They see a cabin ahead. It appears abandoned. No lights. No snowmobile outside. But as they push open the door, the smell hits them. Rank and foetid: there’s something bad inside. Then movement. A man lies slumped, his face disfigured by livid pustules. Blood runs from his nostrils; his chest glistens blackly. The team’s medic, Dr Sheila Mackenzie, pushes forward to examine him when the convulsions start. Blood, bile and mucus spray into the air. The doctor knows it’s too late – she’s been contaminated . . . Within hours, a full-scale operation to contain this contagion is underway. Samples are rushed to the laboratories at Porton Down on high alert. What they discover changes everything. Supported by phone and data intercepts, British Intelligence reaches a terrifying conclusion: that Russia has been developing a new generation of bio-weapons. Dispatched to investigate, MI6 operative Luke Carlton finds himself on a serpentine trail of lies and deception. From a mysterious factory in Lithuania, via arrest and imprisonment, and ultimately back to Britain, he discovers that they’ve been looking in the wrong…

Please note, The Two Lost Mountains is the sixth book in an ongoing series. If you haven’t read what has come before then chances are the review below is going to contain minor spoilers. Don’t say I didn’t warn you.  AN INCREDIBLE VICTORY BUT AT A TERRIBLE PRICE… Against all the odds, Jack West Jr found the Three Secret Cities but at a heartbreaking cost. His beloved daughter Lily, it appeared, was slaughtered by Sphinx in a cruel ancient ritual. TO THE MOUNTAINS AND THE FALL! With his rivals far ahead of him, Jack must now get to one of the five iron mountains-two of which have never been found-and perform a mysterious feat known only as ‘The Fall’. Although what is this object on the moon that is connected to it? A NEW PLAYER ARRIVES Amid all this, Jack will discover that a new player has entered the race, a general so feared by the four legendary kingdoms they had him locked away in their deepest dungeon. Only now this general has escaped and he has a horrifying plan of his own…  Wow! So here we are, the penultimate novel in the Jack West Jr series by Matthew Reilly….

Bike messenger and wannabe troublemaker Olly Soames is the newest recruit to DedSec’s Resistance movement, but when a stranger is shot dead in front of him, he realizes that danger is closer than he thinks… Sarah Lincoln is an aggressive young politician with questionable methods and big ambitions, and when a string of murders unfolds in her borough, it may be the opportunity she has been looking for to make a name for herself… Ex-MMA fighter turned leg-breaker Ro Hayes is in deep with the vicious Clan Kelley, the most brutal organized crime firm in the city’s underworld, and her survival rests on uncovering a dead man’s secrets… And for Danny, Ro’s estranged brother and former soldier, his new career with private military contractor Albion is leading him down a very dark path, toward choices he may never be able to take back… Four lives are drawn into a murderous conspiracy that threatens to destroy Dedsec and plunge the city of London into chaos. Something very bad is going down in London town… I’ll admit it, I’m a casual gamer at best. I pootle around on my PS4* dipping in and out of titles as the mood takes me. It…

Please note, this is a direct sequel to The Girl Who Could Move Sh*t With Her Mind. It is entirely possible that if you have not read book one in The Frost Files series then this review will contain something akin to minor spoilers. Don’t say I didn’t warn ya! Teagan Frost’s life is finally back on track. Her role working for the government as a psychokinetic operative is going well and she might even be on course for convincing her crush to go out with her. But, little does she know, that sh*t is about to hit the fan . . . A young boy with the ability to cause earthquakes has come to Los Angeles – home to the San Andreas, one of the most lethal fault lines in the world. If Teagan can’t stop him, the entire city – and the rest of California – could be wiped off the map. For reference, before we begin, I’m going to refer to this book henceforth as Random Sh*t. I can’t be bothered typing Random Sh*t Flying Through the Air all the time. Don’t get me wrong, it’s a brilliant title for a brilliant book, but it’s wearing me…

“Come inside and play with G.O.D. Bring your friends! It’s fun! But remember the rules. Win and ALL YOUR DREAMS COME TRUE.™ Lose, you die!” With those words, Charlie and his friends enter the G.O.D. Game, a video game run by underground hackers and controlled by a mysterious AI that believes it’s God. Through their phone-screens and high-tech glasses, the teens’ realities blur with a virtual world of creeping vines, smoldering torches, runes, glyphs, gods, and mythical creatures. When they accomplish a mission, the game rewards them with expensive tech, revenge on high-school tormentors, and cash flowing from ATMs. Slaying a hydra and drawing a bloody pentagram as payment to a Greek god seem harmless at first. Fun even. But then the threatening messages start. Worship me. Obey me. Complete a mission, however cruel, or the game reveals their secrets and crushes their dreams. Tasks that seemed harmless at first take on deadly consequences. Mysterious packages show up at their homes. Shadowy figures start following them, appearing around corners, attacking them in parking garages. Who else is playing this game, and how far will they go to win? And what of the game’s first promise: win, win big, lose, you…