Look Out For … A Time Of Torment by John Connolly

“Connolly balances both human and supernatural horrors with aplomb.”

Jerome Burnel was once a hero. He intervened to prevent multiple killings and in doing so damned himself. His life was torn apart. He was imprisoned, brutalized.

But in his final days, with the hunters circling, he tells his story to private detective Charlie Parker. He speaks of the girl who was marked for death but was saved, of the ones who tormented him, and an entity that hides in a ruined stockade.

Parker is not like other men. He died, and was reborn. He is ready to wage war.

Now he will descend upon a strange, isolated community called the Cut, and face down a force of men who rule by terror, intimidation, and murder.

All in the name of the being they serve.

All in the name of the Dead King.

Why We’re Excited About This Book: Charlie Parker is back in the fourteenth novel in the series from John Connolly. Building on previous stories, A Time Of Torment sees Parker contacted by an ex-prisoner still protesting he was innocent of the hideous crimes of which he was accused… And so Connolly begins a typically assured and engrossing narrative. His nightmarish take on American society remains, especially when dealing with the Cut, a self-contained, out of time community with their own twisted view of morality.

As ever, the author balances both human and supernatural horrors with aplomb and his characterisation of Parker himself is fascinatingly ambiguous. The central character has changed over the series, but whether the Parker depicted here, Hell-bent on revenge, is right in his actions is up to the reader to decide.

The Charlie Parker novels have a devoted fan-base, and this continuation of Parker’s story is yet further reward for that devotion.

A Time Of Torment is out now from Hodder & Stoughton.

Look Out For … Diseases Of The Teeth by Simon Kurt Unsworth

“Echoes of the greats like M.R. James and Aickman combined with a thoroughly modern view of the world.”

Simon Kurt Unsworth’s fourth collection brings together more than 20 previously uncollected stories, as well as a completely new story featuring Richard Nakata, the central figure of Unsworth’s second collection Quiet Houses.

Diseases of the Teeth will be available in paperback and Kindle formats, and also as two limited edition hardbacks.

Why We’re Excited About This Book:

The supremely talented Simon Kurt Unsworth returns with his fourth collection of short stories, Diseases Of the Teeth from Black Shuck Books. Unsworth’s fiction eschews the shock tactics of much modern horror, instead concentrating on building up atmosphere and tension. There are echoes of the greats like M.R. James and Aickman in his work, but combined with a thoroughly modern view of the world. Fans of his previous collection Quiet Houses will be especially eager to get their hands on this new volume, as it contains a further story featuring ghost hunter Richard Nakata.

Diseases Of The Teeth is available in both a Special Edition (limited to 100 copies) and a personalised Deluxe Edition (limited to just 10 copies) which comes with a hand-written piece of flash fiction.

So snap this one up.

Diseases Of The Teeth is available to pre-order now from Black Shuck Books.

JAMES EVERINGTON