“Expect Mitchell’s usual linguistic fireworks, multiple narrators and intricate plotting.”
Born out of the short story David Mitchell published on Twitter in 2014 and inhabiting the same universe as his latest bestselling novel The Bone Clocks, this is the perfect book to curl up with on a dark and stormy night.
Turn down Slade Alley – narrow, dank and easy to miss, even when you’re looking for it. Find the small black iron door set into the right-hand wall. No handle, no keyhole, but at your touch it swings open. Enter the sunlit garden of an old house that doesn’t quite make sense; too grand for the shabby neighbourhood, too large for the space it occupies.
A stranger greets you by name and invites you inside. At first, you won’t want to leave. Later, you’ll find that you can’t.
This unnerving, taut and intricately woven tale by one of our most original and bewitching writers begins in 1979 and reaches its turbulent conclusion around Hallowe’en, 2015. Because every nine years, on the last Saturday of October, a ‘guest’ is summoned to Slade House. But why has that person been chosen, by whom and for what purpose? The answers lie waiting in the long attic, at the top of the stairs…
Why We’re Excited About This Book: David Mitchell is the acclaimed author of such multi-genre works as Ghostwritten and Cloud Atlas. His work has touched on horror and the supernatural before, but then Mitchell’s freewheeling and inventive novels have touched upon just about every genre imaginable. Now with Slade House he has written a book which is a whole-heartedly a horror story.
Expect Mitchell’s usual linguistic fireworks, multiple narrators and intricate plotting as he tells the story of Slade House from 1979 to 2015 – every nine years, on the last Saturday of October, a ‘guest’ is summoned to a mysterious house. A house that isn’t always there, and that hides secrets behind its handle-less door… Mitchell tells the story of successive guests at Slade House and what befalls them.
Taut, unnerving and eerie, Slade House is as good a horror story as you’ll find, as well as a great introduction to Mitchell’s wider work.
Slade House is out now from Sceptre.
“With its frenetic, blood-soaked pace, Slaughter Beach barely gives the reader the chance to breath.”
When glamour photographer William Marshall charters Don Curtis’ boat The Ariadne for a photo-shoot on a remote tropical island it’s an offer too good to turn down. Beautiful scenery, beautiful girls… What could possibly go wrong?
The island hides a deadly secret though and soon Don, the photographer and models find themselves involved in a terrifying game of cat and mouse with a deadly adversary where death lies in wait behind every tree and boulder…
Why We’re Excited About This Book: In contrast to the literary intricacies of Slade House is this new novella from Benedict Jones: Slaughter Beach. Jones has written what is essentially a love-letter to the 80s pulp novels and grindhouse films of his youth; a photographer and a group of models arrive for a photo-shoot on a gorgeous tropical island, only to find themselves being killed off one by one.
With its frenetic, blood-soaked pace, Slaughter Beach barely gives the reader the chance to breathe and its gory scenes are described with a sense of brio and exhilaration as well as horror. Which is not to say this is poorly written, with Jones’ skill at describing character and especially location to the forefront.
A blast of a novella ideal to read in one sitting, Slaughter Beach is highly recommended.
Slaughter Beach is out now from Dark Minds Press.
JAMES EVERINGTON