At the end of the twenty-first century—in a transformed America—the families of convicted felons are tested for a set of genetic markers. Boys who test positive become compulsory wards of the state—removed from their homes and raised on Goodhouse campuses, where they learn to reform their darkest thoughts and impulses. Goodhouse is a feral place—part prison, part boarding school—and now a radical religious group, the Holy Rede...
Spoiler Alert! Macaque Attack is the third book in the Macaque trilogy so there is a bloomin’ good chance if you haven’t read books one and two, this review may contain the odd spoiler here and there. Don’t say I didn’t warn ya! Ack-Ack’s back – and this time he’s brought an army! He’s saved the world twice. Now, in the thrilling conclusion to the award-winning Macaque Trilogy, the dangerous but charismatic Ack-Ack Macaq...
Welcome to The Eloquent Page review of 2014. It's been another barnstormer, genre fiction wise, in the last twelve months. I’ve managed seventy eight books and for the first time ever the site has had over two hundred thousand page views which equates to over fifty thousand unique visitors. That boggles my tiny mind. But never mind all this statistical mayhem. Let's cut to the chase. It's time for my awards for the year. Random as eve...
Decades after an alien virus changed the course of history, the surviving population of Manhattan still struggles to understand the new world left in its wake. Natural humans share the rough city with those given extraordinary—and sometimes terrifying—traits. While most manage to coexist in an uneasy peace, not everyone is willing to adapt. Down in the seedy underbelly of Jokertown, residents are going missing. The authorities are u...
Your Servants and Your People is a direct sequel to Your Brother's Blood. With that in mind it is entirely possible that this review may contain some minor spoilers if you haven't read book one in the series. Warning done, onwards... Seven years after Thomas returned as a Walkin’, the McDermott family are looking for a new life and Thomas has set his heart on starting a farmstead near the remote outpost of Fort Wilson. But the teachin...
Two disfigured siblings are torn from their beds at night by The Government and transported into an isolated stronghold, hidden in the deepest and most hostile parts of Siberia. Friendships will be formed and loyalties tested as the siblings struggle to locate one another, but tragedy lurks within the stronghold and blood relation does not always mean family. Last year I read Moribund Tales by Erik Hofstatter, and there were a couple of...
Alex Locke is a reformed ex-con forced into London's criminal underworld for one more job. He agrees to steal a priceless artefact - a human heart carved from the blackest obsidian - but when the burglary goes horribly wrong, Alex is plunged into the nightmarish world of the Wolves of London, unearthly assassins who will stop at nothing to reclaim the heart. As he races to unlock the secrets of the mysterious object, Alex must learn to ...
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...
In a break from tradition what follows is not a standard review but rather an open letter to Professor Elemental on the occasion of the publication of his Letters Between Gentlemen. But first a little background... Professor Elemental: Misunderstood and benevolent genius, evil killer; or slightly deluded idiot? Private investigator Algernon Spoon really isn’t sure, but as the bodies mount up, it looks like someone is bent on slaughter...
"I don't normally talk about work." A call handler for an insurance company that offers out of this world cover, a broker of Faustian pacts, the best man at a doomed stag night, a PR consultant who's way out of his depth, and a ninja: everyone has a job to do. Eight stories, eight people, eight jobs: some find their work takes them just beyond reality; for others, "beyond reality" is just another day at the office. A lot of us never qui...
Please note Vowed is a direct sequel to Banished so it is entirely possible that this review may contain something akin to spoilers if you haven’t already read book one. Actually if you haven’t read Banished why are you here? Go read it and then come back and we’ll talk. A Blackhart can see the supernatural behind everyday crimes. But some crimes hide even greater evils . . . Kit Blackhart must investigate why children are disappe...
Legend holds that when Britain is in its darkest hour, King Arthur will return to save the country, if not the world. That legend is dead wrong. When a Grove of Druids sacrifices the lives of a group of innocents, including the fiancée of a member of SEAL Team 666, the ancient king is brought back from the dead and sets his sights on subjugating humanity and cleansing his land of all who are not true Britons. Because of political sensi...
When an Austrian nobleman offers a substantial donation to the University of Oxford, Charles Maddox is called on to investigate the generous benefactor. It is a decidedly mundane task for the increasingly renowned criminal investigator, but Maddox welcomes the chance to trade London’s teeming streets for the comforts of a castle in the Viennese countryside. Comfort, however, is in short supply once Maddox steps onto foreign soil—and...
