Look Out For … Albion Fay by Mark Morris
“Albion Fay is at once a familiar horror tale and something disconcertingly different.”
Albion Fay, a holiday house in the middle of nowhere, surrounded by nature’s bounty. For the adults, a time for relaxation and to recharge the batteries, while for the children, a chance for exploration and adventure in the English countryside. A happy time for all: nothing could possibly go wrong. Or could it? What should be a magical time ends in tragedy–but what really happened that summer?
Why We’re Excited About This Book:
Albion Fay is a novella from Mark Morris, author of Wrapped In Skin, Toady and the Obsidian Heart trilogy. It begins with the narrator, Frank, attending a family funeral, which causes him to remember a childhood holiday taken with his parents and sister, Angie. A holiday after which nothing was ever the same again. Not after Angie wandered into a network of caves behind the holiday house; caves that, in the best tradition of folk horror, the locals believe contains something inhuman.
Switching between time periods, Albion Fay is a story thoroughly rooted in British landscape and culture. It weaves together timeless elements of rural horror with a modern tale of familial abuse. This blending together of elements gives the book a distinctive edge, at once a familiar horror tale and something disconcertingly different.
Eerie, creepy and in places genuinely moving, Albion Fay is one of the best books Morris has written. Which is high praise indeed.
Albion Fay is out on 23 September 2016 from Snowbooks.
Look Out For … Catacombs Of Terror by Stanley Donwood
“Catacombs of Terror! is an utterly over the top, darkly comic parody of bad books that nonetheless manages to disturb and thrill.”
Catacombs of Terror! is a noir crime thriller set in Bath, England, in which private investigator Martin Valpolicella receives a tip that he will soon be framed for a future murder–that of his former lover–one that is set to take place in the catacombs buried beneath the city. Can he save the girl, and himself? A drug-fuelled escapade takes place in the seedy subterranean of the countryside better known for hot springs and Jane Austen.
Donwood has penned a breakneck tale that weaves through secret societies, underground tunnels, and a surreal cast of characters where nothing is as it seems except looming danger!
Why We’re Excited About This Book:
Stanley Donwood is better known for his artwork than his fiction–his imagery has been used by Radiohead for album covers and promotional material since the 1990s. But Donwood also writes stories, short pieces of surreal and perfectly crafted flash-fiction, collected together in books such as Humor, Slowly Downward and Household Worms. His prose is unsettlingly matter of fact, as if the terrible things he describes are just normal, everyday occurrences.
Catacombs Of Terror! is a longer work, written in order to win a £5 bet that Donwood couldn’t write a pulp fiction book in a month. It’s an utterly over the top, darkly comic parody of bad books that nonetheless manages to disturb and thrill. It features flesh eating pigs, global conspirators and what the author describes as “hellish psychogeography and doublecrossing motherfuckers”. And in a typical Donwood move, it’s set in Bath.
It’s safe to say you’ll never have read anything like Catacombs Of Terror! before. Give it a read and find out if Donwood deserved his £5.
Catacombs Of Terror is out on 2 September 2016 from Tyrus Books.
JAMES EVERINGTON
