A place to find out author interviews along with book reviews of thier works in the following genres:
science fiction, fantasy, historical fiction, crime, horror, history, arts and crafts, hobby, true life, real life, autobiography, zombie, paranormal, demons, vampires, religion and spirituality, thriller, mystery, psychological thriller, spy tory, techno thriller, humour.
Release Date: 23/04/16 Publisher: Simon and Schuster SYNOPSIS:
‘What impresses me most is Lloyd’s ability to bring big themes into the weave of the story and yet keep to the underlying threads of an astonishingly good detective novel. Such a magnificent writer’ Manda Scott
‘This is historical crime fiction at its very best’ Shots
From the author of the acclaimed historical thriller Savage Magic comes The Detective and the Devil, a riveting tale of villainy, alchemy and murder.
London, 1815: Constable Charles Horton of the River Police Office is called to investigate the brutal murder of a clerk and his family in London's East End. Horton's investigation draws him into the secretive world of the East India Company, which will stop at nothing to protect the secrets of its vast empire. What is the Company hiding, and why are its employees disappearing - particularly those linked to the small island of St Helena? The trail takes Horton and his wife Abigail from the steps of John Dee's house in Mortlake to the lonely South Atlantic, on the trail of a killer who seems to be the very Devil.
REVIEW:
The fourth outing for Charles Horton and a book that delightfully continues his "war" against the dark forces that beset this superntural crime thriller.
The prose is solid, the dialogue wonderfully rich and when you throw into the mix a principle character that you love to spend time around as he goes about his duty all round makes this a book that was a sheer delight to read. Whilst you can pick this up with no knowledge of what has gone before, I would suggest that you start from the beginning to get the fuller picture and with the holiday period fast approaching, could be a good time to order the lot for one hell of an adventure to get you away from the ensuing chaos it inevitably brings.
Release Date: 30/01/15 Publisher: Severn House Publishers SYNOPSIS:
Ishmael Jones is someone who can't afford to be noticed, someone who lives under the radar, who drives on the dark side of the road. He's employed to search out secrets, investigate mysteries and shine a light in dark places. Sometimes he kills people. Invited by his employer, the enigmatic Colonel, to join him and his family for Christmas, Ishmael arrives at the grand but isolated Belcourt Manor in the midst of a blizzard to find that the Colonel has mysteriously disappeared. As he questions his fellow guests, Ishmael concludes that at least one of them - not least Ishmael himself - is harbouring a dangerous secret, and that beneath the veneer of festive cheer lurk passion, jealousy, resentment and betrayal. As a storm sets in, sealing off the Manor from the rest of the world, Ishmael must unmask a ruthless murderer before they strike again.
REVIEW:
OK,. I’m a huge Simon Green fan, I’ve loved stories he’s woven before from the immutable Deathstalker series through to the fun I had with his Secret History series so when I read that he had a new book out and that it had a supernatural edge I couldn’t wait to see what would occur.
What unfurled within was a story that had some solid crime mystery elements and whilst a little predictable with the overall thinking was something that entertained, that was of course until the book went its “supernatural” way that left me feeling that it wasn’t something that was required, the reveal felt flat, almost as if it had to happen at that point and overall from there on it was rushed to get to an ending that was more of a fix than an y solid real conclusion. Almost as if the author gave up 80% of the way through the writing (or was rushing to meet the deadline.) Don’t get me wrong, there will be people that will love it, but for me, I just didn’t like the way it felt that the author had to tie it all up in a nice big bow.
Release Date: 05/11/12 SYNOPSIS:
This haunting series follows the Winchester brothers as they crisscross the lonely and mysterious back roads of the country in their '67 Chevy Impala, hunting down every evil supernatural force they encounter along the way. This season, something is hunting them, and they will face an enemy more canny and adaptable than any they've ever fought.
Bonus Features
3 episode commentaries
Directing the Supernatural: 7 Directors discuss the opportunities & challenges of directing Supernatural
Washboards & Tommy Guns: Scoring time after time. Composers discuss their work on the film noir homage episode time after time.
Jensen sings outtake - the unused fuller version of Jensen crooning Air Supply's I'm All Out of Love
Unaired scenes
Gag reels
REVIEW:
As huge fans of Supernatural, we couldn’t wait to get our hands on Season 7 where the Winchesters face a new major threat brought through from Purgatory in the previous series within Castiel. All emotions are gone through within this series bringing it back to a more rounded keel that for me as a viewer has been missing from some of the previous seasons
In addition to this, there’s heartache that will have the fans crying out, some light-hearted moments and a whole range of hunts that the brothers embark upon whilst dealing with their major quest.
Add to the epic 22 episodes some wonderful additions on the DVD include Jensen Singing:
A funny gag reel as well as audio commetaries which when added to a few others makes this a cracking addition to any fans collection.
Release Date: 27/08/10 BOOK BLURB: This is a supernatural novel that reveals a previously unseen adventure for the Winchester brothers, from the hit ITV series! Twenty-three years ago, Sam and Dean Winchester lost their mother to a demonic supernatural force. Following the tragedy, their father taught the boys everything about the paranormal evil that lives in the dark corners of America...and how to kill it. On the hunt for Lucifer, the boys find themselves in a small town in South Dakota where they meet Don - an angel with a proposition...How far will the boys go to uncover the secret Satan never wanted them to find out?
REVIEW: With a change of authors, I expected this offering to be marked improvement on the previous outings. Unfortunately it was sadly yet another failure in the published world of the Winchester Brothers. The story was weak and I felt, after season five, that I’d heard it all before. The first couple of pages was ridiculous as the author seemed to have mixed Sam and Dean up, the tale then changed tack and you could see that this book had more than one writer as it wasn’t a smooth transition. Again the characters didn’t come across and had I read these novels prior to watching the TV series, I would never have bothered. The author’s really don’t seem to know the characters, the plot outline goes into a “where can I put them now that I have time travel available” scenario and the overall effect is a complete waste of time. As mentioned in the other review, give the fans a chance to write a tale or two even if its just a series of short stories, they’ll be more successful, they’ll have a better grasp of the characters and the tales presented will be something not only novel but more on the tack of the original concept.
Release Date: 26/02/10 BOOK BLURB: This is a supernatural novel that reveals a previously unseen adventure for the Winchester brothers, from the hit ITV series! Twenty-three years ago, Sam and Dean Winchester lost their mother to a demonic supernatural force. Following the tragedy, their father taught the boys everything about the paranormal evil that lives in the dark corners of America...and how to kill it. Bobby Singer alerts Sam and Dean to a series of particularly brutal killings in San Francisco's Japantown. It's been 270 new moons since the last time, and it looks like the Heart of the Dragon is back...
REVIEW: To be honest Keith is an author who seemed to have gotten the job because of who he knew over talent. Whilst this, at times, can lead to a reasonable offering, the reader prefers that the tale that they’ve spent their hard earned money upon was written by an author who not only knew the characters backwards but also managed to give the readers a tale that had at least some basic research done towards it. (For example their use of Doragon instead of Ryu or Tatsu for Dragon.)
Add to this, the usual problem with this author’s previous outings that he hasn’t gotten a grip on the mannerisms of Sam and Dean (from what little we actually get of them in this title) and overall I felt pretty cheated. Within this offering, the brothers bicker, they unfortunately didn’t mesh as the fans demand and with so much reference material available felt that the author was looking more to his bank balance rather than fulfilling the readers brief.
Whilst the overall concept was interesting alongside the depth of character history available for the author to have tapped into, the story felt slow, badly created and overall pretty lackadasical and I felt that perhaps that it might be better to run a competition for the fans to create their own Sam and Dean Tales with the chance for publication. It would be more accurate, it would get back to the original series concept and would all in, definitely be the full experience that the reader not only deserve but demand rather than an author who writes a whole tale around what could have been a reasonable novella.
BOOK BLURB: 'You're going to hell, Jack Nightingale': They are words that ended his career as a police negotiator. Now Jack's a struggling private detective -- and the chilling words come back to haunt him. Nightingale's life is turned upside down the day that he inherits a mansion with a priceless library; it comes from a man who claims to be his father, and it comes with a warning. That Nightingale's soul was sold at birth and a devil will come to claim it on his thirty-third birthday -- just three weeks away. Jack doesn't believe in Hell, probably doesn't believe in Heaven either. But when people close to him start to die horribly, he is led to the inescapable conclusion that real evil may be at work. And that if he doesn't find a way out he'll be damned in hell for eternity.
REVIEW: In a world where multiple genre titles are becoming the norm, its pretty interesting to see how an author will adapt things to make the title not only fit within one but blend seamlessly to create something a little bit special to appeal to many readers.
What Stephen does within this offering is create a principle protagonist who would do in his professional career what many others would like to do in real life. Within that one scene this author creates a strong bond between the readers and the character that will give the reader a hell of a hard time to put down. (Literally.) The prose is perfect the dialogue ideal and to be brutal the characters just step from the pages into readers imagination as a darker world comes to the readers mind, demonstrating that there are more dangerous things in heaven and hell than mankind has yet to dream.
Great stuff and above all a tale that will have the reader demanding more from this author. I really can’t wait to see what Stephen turns up in his next offering.
