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F G COTTAM: THE HOUSE OF LOST SOULS (Hodder PB) The Fischer House was the scene of a vicious crime in the 1920s - a crime which still resonates as the century turns. At its heart was a beautiful, enigmatic woman called
Pandora Gibson-Hoare, a photographer of genius whose only legacy is a handful of photographs and the clues to a mystery. Paul Seaton was lured to the house ten years ago and escaped, a damaged man. Now three students will die unless he dares to go back. But this time he has Nick Mason at his side, and maybe Mason's military skills and visceral courage will be enough. About the Author
F.G. Cottam turns to a dark episode
in Britain's past for the inspiration for this novel. A former magazine editor, he has two children. An amazing tale of a group of satanists, including Alastair Crowley and Dennis Wheatley, who attempt to conjure up a demon by sacrificing a young boy and in so doing manage to curse the house in which the ceremony takes place for all time. Riveting, compelling drama, so well written, and chilling in the extreme. Available from the Gateway Amazon store!
REGINALD HILL: A CURE FOR ALL DISEASES (Harper Collins HB) The highly anticipated return of Dalziel and Pascoe, the hugely popular police duo and stars of
the long-running BBC TV series, in a new psychological
thriller. Some say that Andy Dalziel wasn't ready for God, others that God
wasn't ready for Dalziel. Either way, despite his recent proximity to a
terrorist blast, the Superintendent remains firmly of this world. And, while
Death may be the cure for all diseases, Dalziel is happy to settle for a few
weeks' care under a tender nurse. Convalescing in Sandytown, a quiet seaside
resort devoted to healing, Dalziel befriends Charlotte Heywood, a fellow
newcomer and psychologist, who is researching the benefits of alternative
therapy. With much in common, the two soon find themselves in league when
trouble comes to town. Sandytown's principal landowners have grandiose plans for
the resort -- none of which they can agree on. One of them has to go, and when
one of them does, in spectacularly gruesome fashion, DCI Peter Pascoe is called
in to investigate -- with Dalziel and Charlotte providing unwelcome support. But
Pascoe finds dark forces at work in a place where medicine and holistic remedies
are no match for the oldest cure of all! I almost chose this as my book of the month, but I have to say I was put off by the e-mail sequences, long strings of text that I found very difficult to unravel. I ended up reading only the proper narrative, and even then I was disappointed when it changed from being told by Dalziell himself. The story is good enough, but I think Hill has tried to cater for modern e-mail and text-literate readers, rather than people who read for the sake of reading, and the result is disappointing. Available from the Gateway Amazon store!
KAREN CAMPBELL: THE
TWILIGHT TIME (Hodder HB) Anna Cameron is a new Sergeant in the Flexi Unit. On
her first day in the new job she discovers she'll be working with her ex,
Jamie, now married with a child. In at the deep end emotionally after many
years without him, she's also plunged headlong into the underworld of Glasgow's
notorious Drag -- the haunt of working girls, drug dealers and sad, seedy men.
Someone is carving up the faces of local prostitutes, an old man has been
brutally killed and racist violence is on the rise; Anna must deal with all
this alongside tensions and backstabbing within her own team. Atmospheric,
affecting and beautifully-written, THE TWILIGHT TIME is a stunning debut from a
remarkably talented new crime writer. Available from the Gateway Amazon store!
CATHERINE SAMPSON: THE
POOL OF UNEASE (Pan PB) The scream - female, high-pitched, terrified,
breathless, a wordless, formless, plea for mercy - arrived from silence and was
cut off, abruptly strangled, leaving a gurgling echo in its airy wake ...Robin
Ballantyne is investigating the murder of a British man in Beijing. But in a
city thick with paranoia and corruption, she struggles to separate rumour from
reality. Meanwhile, late one freezing night, Chinese private detective Song
rescues a young boy from a fire on a building site. With witnesses appearing
from the murky surrounds, bloody clothes on the ground but no body, and flames
blazing around him, Song panics and flees through the woods - still clutching
the boy.From the smog of the capital to the poverty-stricken countryside, and
from the mansions of millionaires to a disused quarry where the children of
scavengers root among the rubbish, Song and Robin must unravel the truth behind
the murders before they find themselves silenced - and before the killer can
make another sinister move ... I'm never totally happy with thrillers set in the far east, but this one is quite a page-turner, and it's probably me just being parochial - I like my thrillers home-grown. Nicely written, this one, and a great plot with terrific twists and turns to keep your attention. Available from the Gateway Amazon store!
JENNI MILLS: CROW STONE
(Harper Perennial PB) A compulsively readable thriller that skillfully weaves
together past and present to uncover the sinister secrets buried in the ancient
stone quarries under Bath. Kit Parry is reluctant to take the job shoring up
the ancient quarries beneath her hometown of Bath -- a place as riddled with
memories she'd rather forget as it is with Roman ruins. The miners certainly
don't want her there, and her burgeoning romance with lanky foreman Gary looks
likely to complicate matters even further. But when dark developments threaten
the spa town's placid facade, Kit must face up to the past she's tried so
desperately to bury. Someone wants her out of Bath -- that much is clear -- but
who was it that brought her childhood to an abrupt end in the summer of her
fourteenth year? Why has she never been back to Bath, and how did she escape
her violent father? When Kit stumbles across evidence of a lost Mithraic
temple, the mysteries in her own past become entangled with a search for what
could be the archaeological discovery of the decade -- and what turns into a
dangerous obsession! Available from the Gateway Amazon store!
BRIAN McGILLOWAY: GALLOWS
LANE (Macmillan HB) Taking its title from the name of the road down which condemned
Donegal criminals were once led, Gallows Lane follows Inspector Benedict Devlin
as he investigates a series of gruesome murders in and around the Irish
borderlands. When a young woman is found beaten to death on a building site, in
what appears to be a sexually-motivated killing, Devlin's enquiries soon point
to a local body-builder and steroid addict. But days later, born-again ex-con
James Kerr is found nailed to a tree - crucified - having been released from
prison and returned to his hometown to spread the word of God. Increasingly
torn between his young family and his job, Devlin is determined to apprehend
those responsible for the murders be-fore they strike again, even as the
carnage begins to jeopardise those he cares about most. Gallows Lane is the
heart-stopping follow-up to Brian McGilloway's acclaimed debut Borderlands.
Why shouldn't the Irish have a successful police series? This is a really good read. Available from the Gateway Amazon store!
PETER LOVESEY: THE SECRET HANGMAN (Sphere PB) Peter Diamond, the Bath detective, is having woman trouble. His boss wants him
to find a missing person, the daughter of one of her friends in the choir. He is
not enthusiastic. Another woman, who calls herself his Secret Admirer, wants to
set up a meeting in a local pub. He tries ignoring her. Then there is sexy
Ingeborg Smith, the ex-journo detective constable, distracting the murder squad
from their duties. No one ignores Ingeborg. Murder becomes a possibility when a
woman's body is found hanging from a playground swing in Sydney Gardens and a
suspicious second ligature mark is found around her neck. Diamond investigates
the victim's colourful past. More hangings are discovered and soon he is certain
that a secret hangman is at work in the city ... From the author of the highly successful Cribb and Thackeray - this is another great read from Lovesey, who remains one of our finest mystery writers. Available from the Gateway Amazon store!
MO HAYDER: RITUAL (BANTAM PRESS HB) Just after lunch on a Tuesday in
April, nine feet under water, police diver Flea Marley closes her gloved
fingers around a human hand. The fact that there's no body attached is
disturbing enough. Yet more disturbing is the discovery, a day later, of the
matching hand. Both have been recently amputated, and the indications are that
the victim was still alive when they were removed. DI Jack Caffery has been
newly seconded to the Major Crime Investigation Unit in Bristol. He and Flea
soon establish that the hands belong to a boy who has recently disappeared.
Their search for him - and for his abductor - lead them into the darkest
recesses of Bristol's underworld, where drug addiction is rife, where
street-kids sell themselves for a hit, and where an ancient evil lurks; an evil
that feeds off the blood - and flesh - of others ... Living as I do in what's little more than a fishing village on the North Norfolk coast, I often wonder what it must be like to live in a city, and always find myself thankful I don't. By far the majority of modern thrillers are set in inner cities, with seedy buildings, sorry people going about their drug-crazed lives; why they appeal to readers I'm not sure, as they're presumably a reflection of real life. But they do, and Mo Hayder's latest, RITUAL, captures
perfectly the grim realities of modern city life, which seems, inevitably, to be dominated by drugs. Of course there is more than just a drug problem in RITUAL - there's ritual murder, for a start, and I guess that doesn't happen that often. But her mix of police officer interplay and terrifying torture scenes are just right. I just hope this way of life doesn't become the norm. Escape to this sort of thing just doesn't seem appealing, but it's the right setting for the sordid and dreadful goings on that make
this a terrific read. Available from the Gateway Amazon store!
JACK HIGGINS: THE IRON TIGER (HARPER PB) Classic adventure from the
million copy bestseller Jack Higgins The called it the Place of Silence: the
last frozen barrier between Balpur and Tibet. An icy wilderness where desperate
men made a living smuggling guns across the border. Even for the bravest, the
luck has to run out! On what he thought would be his last flight, Jack Drummond
found his own recipe for disaster. A deadly cargo of machine guns. A band of
ruthless guerrillas. And a confrontation with the Chinese Reds, leaving no
chance for escape! From the Back Cover They
called it the Place of Silence ... the last frozen barrier between Balpur and
Tibet. An icy wilderness where desperate men made a living smuggling guns
across the border. Even for the bravest, the luck has to run out ... On what he
thought would be his last flight, Jack Drummond found his own recipe for
disaster. A deadly cargo of machine guns. A band of ruthless guerrillas, and a
confrontation with the Chinese Reds, leaving no chance to escape ...New paperback edition of an old favourite. Available from the Gateway Amazon store!
JACK HIGGINS: TOUCH THE DEVIL (Harper PB) Classic adventure from the
million copy bestseller Jack Higgins If there's such a thing as a grade A
terrorist then his name is Frank Barry. His ideology is money and his track
record is flawless. When the Russians want review copies of the latest NATO
missile system, Barry's the man to deliver them. Stopping him will be near
enough impossible, but one man knows all the moves. Martin Brosnan is a poet,
scholar and trained killer. A graduate of Vietnam and polished in the ranks of
the IRA he could be the key to ending Barry's reign. There's one problem,
Brosnan is languishing in a French prison, and only the powerfully persuasive
Liam Devlin can get him out and working for British intelligence. From the Back Cover 'TOUCH THE DEVIL AND YOU CAN'T LET
GO ...' Frank Barry is a terrorist of
the highest order. His ideology is money and his track record is flawless. When
the Russians want review copies of the latest NATO missile system, Barry is the
man to deliver them. Martin Brosnan is a poet, scholar and killer. Trained in
Vietnam then polished in the ranks of the IRA he now languishes in a French
prison fortress of Belle Isle. Liam Devlin, Brosnan's best and oldest friend.
Devlin wants Brosnan out of jail and on Barry's tail, and he'll use everything
in his power to do so ...New paperback edition of an old favourite. Available from the Gateway Amazon store!
JACK HIGGINS: THE
SAVAGE DAY (HARPER PB) Simon Vaughan knows what it's like to fight a dirty war,
he's had first-hand experience in Korea. Now he languishes in a Greek jail.
When it comes to firearms and gun-running nobody does it better, but those days
are behind him, until the British army propose a deal. His freedom for his help
against the IRA in Belfast. He doesn't haven't any choice, if he wants his
freedom back he'll have to conquer a new battleground…New paperback edition of an old favourite. Available from the Gateway Amazon store!
JACK HIGGINS: WRATH OF
THE LION (HARPER PB) A rogue U–boat is patrolling the Atlantic coast, its
fanatical crew ready to slaughter for a self–proclaimed dream of France. In the
long dark years of the Cold War, not every battle merited centre stage. Many
threats to Europe were imagined, but this one is very real. L’Alouette has to
be stopped, eliminated before all out war prevails once again. Only one man can
stop the threat, and the prospect of peace in Europe rests in his hands. They
call him ‘the Butcher of Perak…’ New paperback edition of an old favourite. Available from the Gateway Amazon store!
JUNE
HAMPSON: BROKEN BODIES (ORION PB) Daisy Lane returns to her home town of
Gosport after a spell abroad. She's been getting over the bad times, having
lost both her husband Kenny and her lover Eddie to violent deaths. But in the
months away from home Daisy has not been idle - she's given birth to a baby
boy, and she's been plotting her revenge on Roy Kemp, the man who killed her
lover. But is it possible for a vulnerable woman to take on a man like Roy Kemp
and not be badly hurt? Roy's dealings are not confined to London; his reach extends
south, right down to the coast. Could he be the man behind the recent slaying
of prostitutes? And is the killer of these women also responsible for the two
badly abused bodies of young boys that have been found on waste ground in
Gosport? Meanwhile Daisy's best friend Vera has given up the life of the
streets to run a massage parlour, and policeman DS Vinnie Endersby, on the
trail of the Krays in London, finds himself pulled back to Gosport by his
powerful attraction to Daisy. Available from the Gateway Amazon store!
JUNE
HAMPSON: DAMAGED GOODS (ORION HB) Things have been going too well for Daisy
Lane. Her murdered lover, Eddie Lane, has left her comfortably off and his son
little Eddie is adorable and a constant reminder of his father. The new man in
her life, South London gangster Roy Kemp, looks out for her and is kind to
little Eddie. But someone is watching Daisy's every movement, like a predator
choosing the perfect moment to pounce. He is a man with murder in his heart - a
man obsessed with Daisy and enraged that she turned to Roy Kemp for love
instead of him. He plans to teach Daisy a lesson she will never forget. Set in
1966, DAMAGED GOODS re-acquaints us with several memorable characters from the
previous books - notably Daisy's friend Vera, queen of her massage parlour and
the best mate a girl ever had, and Gosport policeman DS Vinnie Endersby who
puts his job on the line for Daisy. Available from the Gateway Amazon store!
STEVE HAMILTON: NIGHT
WORK (Orion PB) Joe Trumble is a probation officer with a tragedy in his past.
Two years ago his fiancee was brutally killed three days before their wedding.
No one has yet been caught. As the story opens, Joe is heading for a blind date
with Marlene, a jewellery designer, his first encounter with a woman since his
late fiancee Laurel's death. The evening is a success, but next day Marlene is
reported missing and, two days later, her body is found. As the last person to
see her alive, Joe is at the very least a material witness and, as the evidence
mounts and another body is found, suspicion begins to centre on him. Available from the Gateway Amazon store!
STEVE MOSBY: CRY FOR
HELP (Orion PB) Dave Lewis is a man with a history. Haunted by his brother's
murder when they were children, and scarred by his parents' grief, he's built a
bitter life denying everything they ever stood for. He spends his time working
as a magician, running a cynical magazine that derides his parents. New Age
beliefs, and drowning his sorrows over his lost love, Tori. He's trying to
convince himself the past is the past. A promise he made to Tori has got him
into trouble before, and Dave's determined to move on and not let that happen
again. Detective Sam Currie is a man with a past. His failure to prevent his son's
death has ended his marriage and cast a shadow over his life and career. He's
directed his hatred towards the one man he sees as responsible, but he has
other priorities right now. A killer is stalking the city, abducting girls and
sending texts and emails to their families before he kills them. When Dave
Lewis appears to connect both investigations, it's an opportunity Currie can't
resist... Available from the Gateway Amazon store!
LESLEY HORTON: TWISTED
TRACKS (Orion PB) From honour killings to domestic violence, forbidden affairs
and ritual sacrifice - Lesley Horton shows with chilling accuracy what can
happen behind closed doors...Years of policing have turned John Handford and
Khalid Ali into two of the best investigators on their force. But nothing stays
the same for ever - and promotion has set the newly-styled DCI Handford and DI
Ali on separate cases. Handford is on the trail of a young woman who's vanished
without a trace, while Ali is tracking the killer of a 96-year-old pensioner
murdered in her own home. But the stories of these two woman, generations
apart, look set to converge in gruesome fashion. Handford and Ali must
investigate spurned lovers, feuding families, cash-hungry conmen and even the
ghosts of men buried alive a century back, to unpick the bitter motivations
behind the rising body count. With her trademark fiendish plotting and shocking
realism, Lesley Horton once again lifts the lid on the horrors that can hide
behind the facade of everyday life. Available from the Gateway Amazon store!
HARLAN COBEN: THE WOODS (Orion PB) Paul
Copeland's sister went missing twenty years ago. Now raising a daughter alone,
after the death of his wife, Paul - known as Cope - balances family life with a
career as a prosecutor. But when a homicide victim is found with evidence
linking him to Cope, the well-buried secrets of the past are threatening
everything. Is this body one of the campers who disappeared with his sister?
Could his sister be alive? Cope has to confront so much he left behind that
summer so long ago: his first love, Lucy, his mother who abandoned the family,
and the secrets that his parents might have been hiding even from their own
children. Cope must decide what is better left hidden in the dark and what
truths can be brought to the light. And can he find absolution? Available from the Gateway Amazon store!
TAMI HOAG: THE ALIBI MAN (Orion PB) She was avision. She was a siren. She was a nightmare. She was dead. Now he needed her
to disappear. And he knew just how to make it happen. The Palm Beach elite go
to great lengths to protect their ownand their own no longer includes Elena
Estes. Once a child of wealth and privilege, Elena turned her back on that
life. Betrayed and disillusioned by those closest to her, she chose the life of
an undercover cop, the hunt for justice her own personal passion. Then a
tragic, haunting mistake ended her career. Now Elena exists on the fringes of
her old life. But a shocking event is about to draw her back into the painful
vortex she's fought so hard to leave behind. First she finds the bodya young
woman used, murdered, and dumped in a canal. Not just a victim, but a friend.
As Elena delves into her dead friend's secret life, she discovers ties not only
to the Russian mob but also to a group of powerful and wealthy Palm Beach bad
boys known for giving each other alibis to cover a multitude of sins. A group that
includes a man Elena once knew very well her former fiance, Bennett Walker, a
man she knows has already escaped justice at least once in his life.Finding her
friend's killer will put Elena at odds with her old life, with her new lover,
and with herself. Available from the Gateway Amazon store!
MICHAEL CONNELLY: THE OVERLOOK (Orion PB) The
pulse-quickening new thriller from master of suspense Michael Connelly sees
Harry Bosch plunged into the dangerous world of international terrorism. When a
physicist is murdered in LA it seems the killer has no fear of publicity,
leaving the body on The Mulholland overlook, a site with a stunning view over
the city. And when it's discovered that the victim turned over a quantity of a
lethal chemical to his killer before he died, Harry knows he has more than just
a single death to worry about. Alongside the forces of Homeland Security, Harry
realises he must solve the murder or face unimaginable consequences. Available from the Gateway Amazon store!
SVEN HASSEL: O.G.P.U. PRISON (Phoenix PB) It
stood at the top of the hill, dominating the Russian landscape - menacing,
impenetrable - the O.G.P.U Prison. They were told to take it anyway they could,
with machine guns, flame-throwers, entrenching tools, their bare hands. They
were used to war, to blood, death, the vilest savagery that man could deviseBut
the O.G.P.U. Prison was something different - a hell they hadn't met beforea
bastion, an inferno that rained blood and butchery on Porta, the Legionnaire,
Tiny, Barcelonathe men of the Panzer battalion who no longer had tanks, only a
creeping barrage of death. Available from the Gateway Amazon store!
SVEN HASSEL: THE COMMISSAR
(Phoenix PB) The Commissar had the biggest secret of the Russian war. He had
hidden 30 million dollars of Soviet gold behind Russian lines - and Porta was
determined to make sure his band of prison-soldiers got their share. For enemy
gold they were prepared to take the company through the ice and blood of the
Soviet lines, prepared to kill or be killed, prepared to fight like animals and
cheat, lie, and steal like the criminals they had become. The lure of gold, the
promises of the Commissar, were to carry them into the bloodiest battles of the
Russian war. Available from the Gateway Amazon store!
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Gateway is published by Paul Edmund Norman on the first day of each month. Hosting is by Flying Porcupine at www.flyingporcupine.com - and web design by Gateway. Submitting to Gateway: Basically, all you need do is e-mail it along and I'll consider it - it can be any length, if it's very long I'll serialise it, if it's medium-length I'll put it in as a novella, if it's a short story or a feature article it will go in as it comes. Payment is zero, I'm afraid, as I don't make any money from Gateway, I do it all for fun! For Advertising rates in Gateway please contact me at paulenorman@yahoo.co.uk Should you be kind enough to want to send me books to review, please contact me by e-mail and I will gladly forward you my home address. Meanwhile, here's how to contact me: paulenorman@yahoo.co.uk