The Uninvited by Liz Jensen
Bloomsbury , Horror , Liz Jensen , Supernatural / August 20, 2012

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 Read more […]

Department 19: The Rising by Will Hill
Harper Collins , Horror , Will Hill , Young Adult / August 9, 2012

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 Read more […]

Oasis by Joan De La Haye

2013 – The planet has been fried by solar flares turning it into a desert. The surviving population has been affected by solar radiation, turning them into Zombies. Only a handful of people remain unaffected. A family of civilians, guided by a crack army unit who has seen more action than they can handle, must make their way to the safety of a UN base at the South Pole called New Atlantis. But can they make it to this oasis alive or will they only reach it as the undead? I know, I know, I Read more […]

Trifecta: The City of Hell Chronicles edited by Colin F Barnes
Anachron Press , Colin F Barnes , Horror / June 24, 2012

At the tail end of last year I read the first release from new small publisher Anachron Press. City of Hell was a gruesomely gory anthology featuring giant bugs and some nasty, nasty body horror. Anachron has been at it again, and once more it’s time for The Great Maurr to rise. Trifecta features three new stories set in the same world as its predecessor.   No Insects at Sea by James Everington A young isolated man from a remote island community thinks he’s safe from Maurr’s deadly reach, Read more […]

Blackout by Mira Grant
Horror , Mira Grant , Orbit / June 24, 2012

Please note Blackout is the final book of the Newflesh trilogy and there is good chance that there will be potential spoilers in this review if you haven’t read books one and two, don’t say I didn’t warn you. With that said lets unleash the undead one more time…  Rise up while you can. – Georgia Mason The year was 2014. The year we cured cancer. The year we cured the common cold. And the year the dead started to walk. The year of the Rising.
 The year was 2039. The world didn’t end Read more […]

The Eyes of Water by Alison Littlewood

The Mexican cenotés. Flooded caves that fracture the Yucatan Peninsula – places of mystery, the unexplored, and of ancient sacrifice. When Alex meets an old friend while travelling, he doesn’t realise how far the encounter will take him. For Rick is exploring deep beneath the surface of the world, discovering new cave systems, one leading to the next. And when Alex is compelled to follow he has no way of knowing just how deep he will be expected to go, or how dark are the places he will find Read more […]

Apocalypse Cow by Michael Logan
Doubleday , Horror , Michael Logan / June 10, 2012

When scientists with warped imaginations accidentally unleash an experimental bioweapon that transforms Britain’s animals into sneezing, bloodthirsty zombies with a penchant for pre-dinner sex with their victims, three misfits become the unlikely hope for salvation. Abattoir worker Terry Borders’ love life is crippled by the stench of death that clings to his skin from his days spent slaughtering cows; teenage vegan Geldof ‘Scabby’ Peters alternates between scratching furiously at his rash and Read more […]

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 with a colleague. But when events take over Scarlet is horrified Read more […]

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 there, leftover from the violent Second World War.  But Read more […]

Book of Shadows by Alexandra Sokoloff

Homicide detective Adam Garrett is already a rising star in the Boston police department when he and his cynical partner, Carl Landauer, catch a horrifying case that could make their careers: the ritualistic murder of a wealthy college girl that appears to have Satanic elements. The partners make a quick arrest when all the evidence points to another student, a troubled musician in a Goth band who was either dating or stalking the murdered girl. But Garrett’s case is turned upside down when Read more […]

Nocturnal by Scott Sigler
Hodder , Horror , Scott Sigler , Thriller / April 19, 2012

For centuries, their race has lived beneath the earth, emerging only at night, to feed quietly on the dregs of society and slip back into the shadows. But now their time has come – their time to rise up from their hiding places and take back what is theirs. San Francisco homicide detective Bryan Klauser is supposed to be hunting a serial killer. But a serial killer couldn’t be responsible for the seemingly impossible DNA evidence the crime-scene techs keep finding – or for the gory, strangely Read more […]

Day of Demons edited by Colin F. Barnes
Anachron Press , Colin F Barnes , Fantasy , Horror / April 11, 2012

Day of Demons is a collection of powerful stories featuring the conflict of demons and humans over the course of a day. Read how one women’s inner-self awakens to unexpected and frightening consequences, or how a charismatic half-breed thief is forced to strike a deal with a pen-stealing imp. Read about a mother as she struggles to cope with a deadly, satanic bargain, and a sword-wielding anti-hero as he returns out of exile to face his demonic fate. Nine stories, nine demons, nine authors. Read more […]

Redlaw by James Lovegrove
Horror , James Lovegrove , Solaris / March 11, 2012

Policing the Damned  They live among us, abhorred, marginalised, despised. They are vampires, known politely as Sunless. The job of policing their community falls to the men and women of the Sunless Housing and Disclosure Executive SHADE. Captain John Redlaw is London’s most feared and respected SHADE officer, a living legend.  But when the vampires start rioting in their ghettoes, and angry humans respond with violence of their own, even Redlaw may not be able to keep the peace. Especially Read more […]