The Devil’s Looking Glass by Mark Chadbourn

Please note The Devil’s Looking Glass is the third novel in the Swords of Albion series. This review may contain some minor spoilers for those who have not read books one and two. Don’t say I didn’t give you an opportunity to turn away now before it is too late….. Still here? Good show. 1593: The dreaded alchemist, black magician and spy Dr John Dee is missing… Terror sweeps through the court of Queen Eliza...

Worth Their Weight in Blood by Carole Jahme
Carole Jahme , Horror , Mira Publishing / June 1, 2012

Set in a small town in 1990, Scarlet Fox is a twenty something, disillusioned, unemployed single mother. A troubled boy arrives and attempts to befriend her. The burnt remains of a family are found at a circle of Neolithic standing stones. Scarlet becomes haunted and obsessed by their memory.  Scarlet gets a night job at the new blood diseases laboratory and is pleased to study the lab’s chimpanzee. She becomes intimately involved wi...

Rome The Eagle of the Twelfth: Excerpt and Author Commentary
Bantam Press , Historical , M.C. Scott / May 30, 2012

Last week I reviewed Rome The Eagle of the Twelfth by M.C. Scott, it was rather fantastic. Afterward  I was pleasantly surprised when Bantam Press got in touch and offered an excerpt from the novel that I could share with readers of the site. As an added bonus, there is also some additional insight direct from the author herself. Please enjoy!    **** The heights were hemmed about by winter trees, blowing ragged in the coming bre...

Rome The Eagle of The Twelfth by M.C. Scott
Bantam Press , Historical , M.C. Scott / May 25, 2012

They are known as the Legion of The Damned… Throughout the Roman Army, the XIIth Legion is notorious for its ill fortune. It faces the harshest of postings, the toughest of campaigns, the most vicious of opponents. For one young man, Demalion of Macedon, joining will be a baptism of fire. And yet, amid the violence and savagery of his life as a legionary, he realises he has discovered a vocation – as a soldier and a leader of me...

Doomsday by Graham Brown
Ebury Press , Graham Brown , Thriller / May 24, 2012

Please note that Doomsday is a sequel to The Mayan Conspiracy and due to that this review may contain minor spoilers. Don’t say I didn’t warn you. A deadly countdown has begun… Deep in the heart of the Amazon, an ancient Mayan stone is generating massive waves of energy while counting down to the apocalyptic date of December 21st 2012. Using a cryptic map and a prophecy that points to the end of the world, maverick age...

The Respectable Face of Tyranny by Gary Fry
Horror , Spectral Press / May 22, 2012

What monsters used to achieve with claws, they now manage with pens…   Three years ago, Josh lost a lot of money on the unforgiving stock market. Now he’s divorced and living with his teenage daughter in a seaside caravan. Sally wants a tattoo; Josh just needs work.  For solace, he explores Saltwick Bay, a secluded stretch of beach whose cliff-side rock runs back to the ruthless Jurassic periods. There’s also a rotting boat the...

Hunted by Emlyn Rees
Corsair , Emlyn Rees , Thriller / May 15, 2012

The biggest manhunt in history begins Danny Shanklin wakes up slumped across at a table in an unfamiliar hotel room in London. He’s wearing a black balaclava, a red tracksuit and a brand new pair of Nikes. There’s a faceless dead man on the floor and Danny’s got a high-powered rifle strapped to his hands. He hears sirens and stumbles to the window to see a burning limousine and bodies all over the street. The police ar...

Pirate versus Ninja featuring Zombies by James Marshall

In a world where ZOMBIES control banks and governments, only one young man sees the way things are and emerges from the CHAOS and destruction: GUY BOY MAN. While he tries to end human suffering worldwide and in his high school, Guy Boy Man meets a cute PINK-HAIRED girl named BABY DOLL15 who has a UNICORN that follows her everywhere. An EPIC ROMANCE begins, but forces BEYOND THEIR CONTROL are intent on keeping the young couple apart. One...

Time’s Arrow: Black Swan by Jonathan Green
Abaddon Books , Jonathan Green , Sci-Fi / May 7, 2012

Ulysses Quicksilver: agent of the throne, dandy and hero. Heart-broken, battered, mutilated and shot, he’s been driven backwards and forwards in time, and his latest adventure is taking him across Steampunk Paris… Time’s Arrow: Black Swan continues to offer readers a unique opportunity – to decide the course of this latest Pax Britannia adventure will take in the next part! In the tradition of Charles Dickens him...

Ready Player One by Ernest Cline
Arrow Books , Ernest Cline , Sci-Fi / May 5, 2012

It’s the year 2044, and the real world has become an ugly place. We’re out of oil. We’ve wrecked the climate. Famine, poverty and disease are widespread. Like most of humanity, Wade Watts escapes this depressing reality by spending his waking hours jacked into OASIS, a sprawling virtual utopia where you can be anything you want to be, where you can live and play and fall in love on an of ten thousand planets. And like ...

Blackbirds by Chuck Wendig
Angry Robot , Chuck Wendig , Fantasy / May 1, 2012

Miriam Black knows when you will die. She’s foreseen hundreds of car crashes, heart attacks, strokes, and suicides. But when Miriam hitches a ride with Louis Darling and shakes his hand, she sees that in thirty days Louis will be murdered while he calls her name. Louis will die because he met her, and she will be the next victim. No matter what she does she can’t save Louis. But if she wants to stay alive, she’ll have to try. I ha...

The Tiptoe Boys by James Follett
James Follett , Mandarin , Thriller / April 27, 2012

A walking time-bomb ticks away in London… Captain Peter Skellen has resigned from the SAS and is looking for a new master. To Frankie Leigh, the rich and beautiful socialite and leader of the People’s Lobby, Skellen’s intimate knowledge of SAS counter-terrorist undercover operations makes him an irresistible recruit. The People’s Lobby are planning the biggest act of terrorism ever mounted in the capital. To the ...