Look Out For… Within The Wind, Beneath The Snow by Ray Cluley

“Promises to be something very special indeed.”

Gjerta Jørgensen patrols the frozen coastline of Greenland. She is the first woman to do so as part of Slædepatruljen Sirius, an elite dogsled team pushed to the limits of physical survival, risking hunger, exhaustion, frostbite and attack. But out here, where beautiful frozen desolation shows you little but snow, ice, and darkness, there is more to fear than this. She can hear it within the wind. It waits beneath the snow.

The darkteeth.

With only Søren Olsen and a dozen dogs for company, Gjerta must face these dangers and the darkness that hides in her past. Or else succumb to the cold and all it brings to haunt her.

Why We’re Excited About This Book: Maybe it’s the unrelenting cold, maybe it’s the nights that last for months at a time, but there’s something about horror set in the far North that is especially, well, chilling. Dark Matter by Michelle Paver and The Terror by Dan Simmons are two recent examples of books that work in part because of their dark and freezing setting. Into this distinguished line-up comes a new novella from Ray Cluley, Within The Wind, Beneath The Snow.

The title is the first release from a new imprint of Spectral Press called Theatrum Mundi, set up to publish genre stories with a wider remit than Spectral’s normal titles. And there couldn’t be a better author for the first release than Ray Cluley, who’s on something of a roll at the moment, as readers of his This Is Horror novella Water For Drowning will know. With bonus material of several additional stories, and Spectral’s usual high production values, Within The Wind, Beneath The Snow promises to be something very special indeed.

This Book Will Appeal To: those readers looking for something to read as the cold nights draw in…

Within The Wind, Beneath The Snow is available for pre-order from Spectral Press now.

Look Out For … Discovering Scarfolk by Richard Littler

“Despite how twisted it all is, Scarfolk seems disturbingly plausible”

Scarfolk is a town in north-west England that did not progress beyond 1979. The entire decade of the 1970s loops ad infinitum. In Scarfolk children must not be seen OR heard, and everyone has to be in bed by 8 p.m. because they are perpetually running a slight fever…

Part-comedy, part-horror, part-satire, Discovering Scarfolk is the surreal account of a family trapped in the town. Through public information posters, news reports, books, tourist brochures and other ephemera, we learn about the darker side of childhood, school and society in Scarfolk.

A massive cult hit online, Scarfolk re-creates with shiver-inducing accuracy and humour our most nightmarish childhood memories.

FOR MORE INFORMATION PLEASE RE-READ.

Why We’re Excited About This Book: If you’ve never visited the Scarfolk website, it’s hard to explain its appeal. Scarfolk is a fictional Northern town, described via a series of blog posts supposedly from the Town Council’s archives. These included grimly amusing public information posters (Children, Know Your Cigaretiquette), spoof book covers (How To Burn Books: Libricide For The Illiterate), surreal and disturbing toys and all manner of ridiculous yet oddly plausible brochures and public information campaigns. Despite how twisted it all is, Scarfolk is disturbingly realistic; in fact one publisher has received calls from people trying to get copies of the invented title Children & Hallucinogens: The Future Of Discipline.

Now Scarfolk is to be immortalized in book-form: Discovering Scarfolk uses the same format of fake posters and documents to tell the story of a family trapped in the town where the 70s have never ended. So don’t delay in visiting Scarfolk although be aware that, like a certain other fictional town, you might never leave…

This Book Will Appeal To: fans of twisted and darkly disturbing comedy.

Discovering Scarfolk Tom is out now from Ebury Digital.

You can visit the Scarfolk website here.

JAMES EVERINGTON