Paul Finch's Blog

Horrors and terrors lurk on lonely islands

After a headline like that, it probably won’t surprise you good people to know that today I’m going to be talking about THE ISLAND again. And why not?, I ask you. It’s my first title with Thomas & Mercer, it’s a freestanding crime thriller, it’s set on - yes, you guessed it - an island, and it’s published on September 1

I won’t pretend that I haven’t always been a fan of the ‘location thriller’, as it’s refereed to these days, and I’ve particularly been a fan of those where the location is an island, in other words an isolated spot somewhere in the real world, but where unless you’ve got the means, it can be really difficult to get away again. When danger threatens on a isolated island, you’ve got a real problem.

Of course, I’m far from the first thriller writer to pick up on this, so that will be the big gist of today’s blogpost: dark and scary fiction set on islands. In fact, I’m going to pick ten thriller novels and ten horror novels that make the best possible use of their island locations. So, that should be a bit of fun.

Before then, a quick reminder about a few other titles that I’ve got coming out this year.

Other stuff
First of all, as you’ll have seen from the image at the top of today’s column, my eighth Heck novel, ROGUE , is at last getting the Audible treatment. I’m delighted to announce that it will be out on August 21 and will be narrated by the ever popular Paul Thornley, who did such a sterling job with all the other Heck Audibles. I cannot stress how much fan-mail I’ve had begging and pleading that it would be Paul who took on the acting job for ROGUE . The truth is, and has always been, that I have no control over who gets that gig. It’s always fun to hear the audition tapes and be asked my opinion, but I doubt my word counts for much. But I will say that on this occasion I did request Paul, and it looks as though WF Howes Ltd (the Audible publisher) have come through for me.

I’m hoping they’ll be able to recruit Paul again for NO QUARTER (Heck #9), but it’s a bit early to talk about that one yet.

Another publication due later this year (October 9), THE DEVIL’S KNIGHT , will see me flip back into my historical author persona, PW Finch. It commences the two-volume story of Thurstan Wildblood, a knight in the personal guard of Richard the Lionheart, who, during the chaos and bloodshed of the Third Crusade, encounters a mysterious, demonic bishop and is promised invincibility on the battlefield in return for his soul. From this point on, or so it seems, Thurstan cannot be defeated, but increasingly he fears that Hell awaits him.

When he is put in charge of Melinda of Jerusalem, a young female captive with the power to heal wounds simply by prayer, and ordered to return her to England, it’s a task he initially resists, though in due course, he starts to believe that it might save him from damnation. However, the road home is fraught with danger, because also in pursuit of Melinda are the elite and zealous blades of the Assassin sect, the battle-hardened longswords of the Knights Templar, and most dangerous of all, the Order of Siegfried, a mercenary band loyal to the German Emperor, who will literally stop at nothing to achieve their scheming master’s aims.

Thurstan Wildblood thinks he knows evil, thinks he’s seen it all. But in fact, he hasn’t seen anything yet.

Okay, that’s THE DEVIL’S KNIGHT . It’s published on October 9, and is the first in the Thurstan Wildblood series, the second one out next year. More details on that when I get it.

Now, back to those...

ISLANDS IN THE SCREAM
Island settings have always worked in thriller fiction. And as the concept of the ‘location thriller’ is now a real thing, I reckon we’ll see a lot more of them in the near future.
For what it’s worth, here’s a quick thumbnail of my own forthcoming novel, THE ISLAND (published on Sept 1). A bunch of disgraced ex-cops join a support group, and are whisked away for a timely break on a glorious, mostly uninhabited island in the Scillies. It isn’t long after they’ve arrived, however, when the first body shows up, and they start to wonder what the real reason for this gathering is.
Sorry ... that’s it. No further spoilers when we are this close to home.
Of course, as I’ve already said, remote islands settings are nothing new.
Agatha Christie’s seminal island chiller, And Then There Were None (1939), set on Burgh Island, just off the Devonshire coast, is still the best-selling crime novel in history. Peter Benchley’s Jaws  (1974), set on fictional Amity Island just off New England, emptied seaside bathing areas across the Northern Hemisphere for several years afterwards, especially when the blockbuster movie version came out. In Jurassic Park (1990), Michael Crichton warned about the dangers of genetic meddling when it saw the fictional Isla Nublar near Costa Rica transformed into a dinosaur safari park. But perhaps the Big Daddy of all island-set horror novels is William Golding’s Lord of the Flies (1954), which saw a bunch of English schoolboys marooned in the Tropical Pacific and gradually revert to a savage hunter-killer existence. It is regarded as a true classic in dark literature.
We obviously won’t mention any of these examples in the following checklist. For one thing, they’re already very well known. However, here are a few others in order of publication (the blurbs accompanying them provided by the publishers).
As I said: ten island-bound thrillers, and ten island-bound horrors.

You never know... you might encounter some new titles here, and could just be able to acquire them before you set off on your summer holiday - to that island paradise that looked so deceptively charming in the brochure.

THRILLERS SET ON ISLANDS
1. EVIL UNDER THE SUN by Agatha Christie (1941)

‘It is peaceful. The sun shines. The sea is blue. But you forget, there is evil everywhere under the sun.’

It was not unusual to find the beautiful bronzed body of the sun-loving Arlena Stuart stretched out on a beach, face down. Only, on this occasion, there was no sun… she had been strangled.

Ever since Arlena’s arrival at the swish resort on the island off the Devon coast, Hercule Poirot had detected sexual tension in the seaside air. But could this apparent ‘crime of passion’ have been something more evil and premeditated altogether?


2. SHUTTER ISLAND by Dennis Lehane (2003)

US Marshal Teddy Daniels has come to Shutter Island in Boston Harbour, home of Ashecliffe Hospital for the Criminally Insane, to find an escaped murderer named Rachel Solando.

As a killer hurricane bears down on the island, the investigation deepens and the questions mount. How has a barefoot woman escaped from a locked room? Who is leaving them clues in the form of cryptic codes? And what really goes on in Ward C?

The closer Teddy gets to the truth, the more elusive it becomes. And the more he begins to believe that he may never leave Shutter Island. Because someone is trying to drive him insane...

3. PIG ISLAND  by Mo Hayder (2006)

SEE EVILJournalist Joe Oakes makes a living exposing supernatural hoaxes. But what he sees when he visits a secretive religious community on a remote Scottish island forces him to question everything he thought he knew.

HEAR EVIL
Why have the islanders been accused of Satanism? What has happened to their leader? And why will no one discuss the strange creature seen wandering the lonely beaches of Pig Island?

READ EVIL
In PIG ISLAND, Mo Hayder dares you to face your fears head on and to look at what lurks beneath the surface of everyday normality. Because ordinary people are perfectly capable of doing unspeakable things to each other...


4. DEVIL SHARKS  by Chris Jameson (2018)

A pleasure cruise in paradise leads a group of friends to a shark-infested Hell...

When Alex Simmons is invited to a college reunion in the Hawaiian islands aboard the private yacht of his old pal Harry Curtis, he is not sure what to expect. The two men had a falling-out years ago over the suicide of one of their friends. Could this be Harry’s way of making amends? Or is something more sinister in store? The crew sets sail and arrives at Orchid Atoll, the site of a deserted former Coast Guard station. But they are far from alone...

Out here, three hundred miles from civilization, Alex and his friends are about to encounter two very different brands of evil - one human, the other with fins - unlike anything they could have possibly imagined. They have entered a place where there’s no law, no mercy... and no way out.


5. A HOUSE OF GHOSTS by WC Ryan (2018)

Winter 1917. As the First World War enters its most brutal phase, back home in England, everyone is seeking answers to the darkness that has seeped into their lives.

At Blackwater Abbey, on an island off the Devon coast, Lord Highmount has arranged a spiritualist gathering to contact his two sons who were lost in the conflict. But as his guests begin to arrive, it gradually becomes clear that each has something they would rather keep hidden. Then, when a storm descends on the island, the guests will find themselves trapped. Soon one of their number will die.

For Blackwater Abbey is haunted in more ways than one...


6. THE GUEST LIST  by Lucy Foley (2020)

On an island off the windswept Irish coast, guests gather for the wedding of the year – the marriage of Jules Keegan and Will Slater.

Old friends.
Past grudges.

Happy families.
Hidden jealousies.

Thirteen guests.
One body.

The wedding cake has barely been cut when one of the guests is found dead. And as a storm unleashes its fury on the island, everyone is trapped.

All have a secret. All have a motive.
One guest won’t leave this wedding alive...


7. THE BLACKHOUSE by Peter May (2020)

A brutal killing takes place on the Isle of Lewis, Scotland: a land of harsh beauty and inhabitants of deep-rooted faith.

A MURDER

Detective Inspector Fin Macleod is sent from Edinburgh to investigate. For Lewis-born Macleod, the case represents a journey both home and into his past.

A SECRET

Something lurks within the close-knit island community. Something sinister.

A TRAP

As Fin investigates, old skeletons begin to surface, and soon he, the hunter, becomes the hunted.


8. LOOK BOTH WAYS by Linwood Barclay (2022)

They think as one. They act as one. They kill as one.

The residents of Garrett Island off the coast of Massachusetts are part of a ground-breaking experiment. For a month, their cars will be replaced by self-driving vehicles – voice-controlled, comfortable and safe.

Single mum Sandra is prepping for the huge media event, and she’s ready for a driverless future. Widowed after her husband fell asleep at the wheel, she’s relieved that her kids may never need to drive themselves.

But as the day gets underway, disaster strikes. A journalist vanishes, possibly murdered. And before long, it’s clear something is very wrong. The cars are no longer taking orders from their passengers. They’re starting to organise. They’re starting to hunt. And they’ve got the residents of Garrett Island in their sights.


9. THE ISLAND  by Adrian McKinty (2022)
YOU DON'T KNOW WHAT YOU’RE CAPABLE OF UNTIL THEY COME FOR YOUR FAMILY.
After moving from a small country town to Seattle, Heather Baxter marries Tom, a widowed doctor with a young son and teenage daughter. A working vacation overseas seems like the perfect way to bring the new family together, but once they’re deep in the Australian outback, the jet-lagged and exhausted kids are so over their new mom.
When they discover remote Dutch Island, off-limits to outside visitors, the family talks their way onto the ferry, taking a chance on an adventure far from the reach of iPhones and Instagram. But as soon as they set foot on the island, which is run by a tightly knit clan of locals, everything feels wrong. Then a shocking accident propels the Baxters from an unsettling situation into an absolute nightmare.

When Heather and the kids are separated from Tom, they are forced to escape alone, seconds ahead of their pursuers. Now it’s up to Heather to save herself and the kids, even though they don’t trust her, the harsh bushland is filled with danger, and the locals want her dead.
Heather has been underestimated her entire life, but she knows that only she can bring her family home again and become the mother the children desperately need, even if it means doing the unthinkable to keep them all alive.

10. YULE ISLAND  by Johana Gustawsson (2024)

Don’t
Art expert Emma Lindahl is anxious when she’s asked to appraise the antiques and artefacts in the infamous manor house of one of Sweden’s wealthiest families, on the island of Storholmen, where a young woman was murdered nine years earlier, her killer never found.
Emma must work alone, and with the Gussman family apparently avoiding her, she sees virtually no one in the house. Do they have something to hide?

Trust

As she goes about her painstaking work and one shocking discovery yields clues that lead to another, Emma becomes determined to uncover the secrets of the house and its occupants.

When the lifeless body of another young woman is found in the icy waters surrounding the island, Detective Karl Rosén arrives to investigate, and memories of his failure to solve the first case come rushing back. Could this young woman's tragic death somehow hold the key?

Anyone

Battling her own demons, Emma joins forces with Karl to embark upon a chilling investigation, plunging them into horrifying secrets from the past – Viking rites and tainted love – and Scandinavia's deepest, darkest winter…


HORRORS SET ON ISLANDS
1. THE ISLAND OF DOCTOR MOREAU  by HG Wells (1896)

Adrift in a dinghy, Edward Prendick, the single survivor from the good ship Lady Vain, is rescued by a vessel carrying a profoundly unusual cargo - a menagerie of savage animals. 
Tended to recovery by their keeper Montgomery, who gives him dark medicine that tastes of blood, Prendick soon finds himself stranded upon an uncharted island in the Pacific with his rescuer and the beasts. Here, he meets Montgomery's master, the sinister Dr. Moreau - a brilliant scientist whose notorious experiments in vivisection have caused him to abandon the civilised world. 
It soon becomes clear he has been developing these experiments - with truly horrific results.


2. WEB by John Wyndham (1979)

A millionaire English lord dreams of founding a Utopian community on a remote Pacific island. Among the 40-odd men and women selected for the project are a pestologist named Camilla and the narrator. 
Within hours of the group’s arrival on the sunny isle, their radio has been destroyed. 
Within days, several members of the group are dead. 
Dream turns to nightmare as they discover the island is overrun by a spider species programmed to resist and dominate any invader.

3. THE WOMAN IN BLACK by Susan Hill (1983)

Arthur Kipps, a junior solicitor, is summoned to attend the funeral of Mrs Alice Drablow, the sole inhabitant of Eel Marsh House.

The house stands at the end of a causeway off the Northumbrian coast. Quite often it’s cut off by the tide, becoming a desolate island, but at all times it is wreathed in fog and mystery. 
But it is not until he glimpses a wasted young woman, dressed all in black, at the funeral, that a creeping sense of unease begins to take hold, a feeling deepened by the reluctance of the locals to talk of the woman in black - and her terrible purpose.

4. NEVERLAND  by Douglas Clegg (1991)

What calls to the children from within the dark shadows of the shack called Neverland?

What lurks within the shack? What kinds of dangerous — and deadly — games do the children play there?

For years, the Jackson family vacationed at their matriarch’s old Victorian house on Gull Island, a place of superstition and legend off the southern coast of the US. One particular summer, young Beau follows his cousin Sumter into a shack hidden among the brambles and windswept trees near bluffs overlooking the sea.
And within Neverland, the mysteries and terror grow...

5. DUMA KEY  by Stephen King (2008)

When Edgar Freemantle moves to the remote island of Duma Key, off Florida’s coast, to escape his past, he doesn’t expect to find much there.
But Duma has been waiting for him, and something in the view from his window urges him to discover a talent he never knew he had.

Edgar Freemantle begins to paint. And as he paints, the island’s secrets begin to stir. Secrets of children lost in the undertow, of a ghost ship riding the distant horizon - and a family’s buried past reaching long hands into the present.

6. CASTAWAYS  by Brian Keene (2011)

They came to the deserted South Pacific island to compete on a popular reality television show. Each one hoped to be the last to leave. Now they're just hoping to stay alive, because the island isn’t deserted after all. 
Contestants are disappearing, but they aren’t being eliminated by the game. They’re being taken by the monstrous, half-human creatures that live deep in the jungle. The men will be slaughtered. The women will be kept alive as captives. 
Night is falling, the creatures are coming, and rescue is so far away...

7. THE TROOP  by Nick Cutter (2014)

He felt something touch his hand. Which is when he looked down.

For the scouts of Troop 52, three days of camping, hiking and survival lessons on Canada’s Falstaff Island is as close as they’ll get to a proper holiday.
Which was when he saw it.

But when an emaciated figure stumbles into their camp asking for food, the trip takes a horrifying turn. The man is not just hungry, he’s sick. Sick in a way they have never seen before.
Which was when he screamed.

Cut off from the mainland, the troop face a terror far worse than anything they could have made up around a campfire. To survive they will have to fight their fears, the elements... and eventually each other.


8. THE FORGOTTEN ISLAND by David Sodergren (2018)

When Ana Logan agrees to go on holiday to Thailand with her estranged sister Rachel, she hopes it will be a way for them to reconnect after years of drifting apart.
But now, stranded on a seemingly deserted island paradise with no radio and no food, reconciliation becomes a desperate fight for survival.
For when night falls on The Forgotten Island, the dark secrets of the jungle reveal themselves.
Something is watching them from the trees.
Something ancient.
Something evil.

9. ISLAND OF THE FORBIDDEN  by Hunter Shea (2020)

Sometimes, the dead are best left in peace.
Jessica Backman has been called to help a strange family living on a haunted island in Charleston Harbour, South Carolina. Ormsby Island was the site of a brutal massacre two decades ago, and now the mysterious Harper family needs someone to exorcise the ghosts that still call it home. 
The phantoms of over one hundred children cannot rest. But something far more insidious is living on the island. 
When the living and the dead guard their true intentions, how can Jessica discover just what sort of evil lurks on Ormsby Island? And why is Jessica the only one who can plumb its dark depths?

10. THE WHISTLING by Rebecca Netley (2021)

When Elspeth arrives on a remote Scottish island to become nanny to a young child, she hopes to bond with her. Until she learns that, for reasons no one will explain, Mary has not spoken for months.

And the girl’s silence is not the only mystery.
Hypnotic lullabies drift down empty corridors.
Strange dolls appear in abandoned rooms.
And as the nights draw in, darker questions arise . . .

What happened to Mary's late twin, William? Why did their previous nanny disappear so suddenly?

And is the whistling Elspeth hears at night just the storm outside?

Or is somebody coming for her.... ?

Can we bring terror to the isles ... again?

Don’t you just love islands. The way it’s really easy to trap people there, out of sight, out of earshot, out of reach. The way it’s really easy to cut their communications, to cut the power, to maroon them in a situation where they can literally only rely on their wits, and maybe a sharp piece of shell, to survive. The way you can turn what initially may appear to be a carefree paradise into a seething, stinking Hell.

I’m talking about this from the perspective of a thriller/horror writer, of course. I mean, don’t get me wrong. I also love islands because in my experience they’ve nearly always been great places to go on holiday, though that ‘nice island’ thing isn't on our radar today. No, today’s blogpost is about two islands in particular, both on the fringes of the British Isles, neither of which actually exist, yet on both of which I’ve gleefully inflicted my own brand of terror.

One you may already be familiar with. One, you won’t, yet. But don’t worry. I’m going to talk about BOTH of them today.

Islands in the scream

I don’t consciously seek out islands in my thriller/horror fiction, but clearly I’m naturally drawn to them. Because I’ve visited them multiple times in my fiction, often revelling in their isolation and inaccessibility. At the end of the day, an island is not a great place to be marooned with an extreme antagonist.

I can illustrate this just off the top of my head with two instances from my Heck novels. 

In STALKERS (2013), Heck struggles to survive on a manufactured island, a great monolithic structure of corroded steel and rotted concrete far out in the Thames estuary, called Blacksand Tower (a former WW2 gun platform), when a contract killer lures him there. In THE KILLING CLUB (2014), meanwhile, he finds himself on Holy Island off England's northeast coast, seeking to uncover a band of mercenaries responsible for a series of horrific thrill-killings. In HUNTING GROUND, which only exists at present in movie treatment form, and was first optioned in 2009, I dump a group of terrified military cadets on a special forces training base far out in the Hebrides, only for their SAS instructors to start going crazy having been exposed to a chemical weapon (that one’s available again now, if anyone’s interested).

One key factor here though is that all these islands are real, or at least based on real places. Holy Island of course is best known as Lindisfarne,  while you can replace Blacksand Tower with the real life Red Sand Tower (pictured), also out in the mouth of the Thames. The spec ops training island in HUNTING GROUND, meanwhile, was strongly influenced by the semi-mythical Anthrax Island, reputedly in existence since the 1940s and so named to keep the curious at bay. 

But as I hinted at in my intro, of all the islands in my fiction where terror dwells, I’m most fond of the following two, primarily because neither of them are real, even though both are part of environments that do exist on the wild outer rim of the British Isles.

They are:

Forau Island, a fictional part of the real-life Channel Islands, which first appeared in my horror movie of 2011 (co-written with director, Paul Campion), THE DEVIL'S ROCK. 

And:

St Dunstan, an uninhabited and pristinely beautiful (though non-existent) member of the Isles of Scilly, which will first appear in my thriller novel due for publication later this year, THE ISLAND .

‘For Heaven's sake,’ I hear you groan, ‘must you continually besmirch these green and tranquil havens surrounded by cerulean seascapes with murder, mayhem and other horrors?’

Well, I’m sorry. I guess it’s just in my blood. 

My dad, the late Brian Finch, a successful screenwriter, whose career spanned four decades of British television, set all kinds of nightmarish scenarios on the lovely island of Jersey in the original series of BERGERAC, back in the 1980s, including one of my favourite ever 55 minutes of British TV. 

In WHAT DREAMS MAY COME (1985), his flawless script was graced by the late, great Charles Gray (pictured), who resurrected his chilling persona from THE DEVIL RIDES OUT (1968) as a ruthless warlock bent on destroying his enemies through black magic. 

All that aside, there isn’t an idyllic island I haven’t holidayed on myself, which I haven’t spent many pleasant hours dreaming up hellish scenarios for.

‘Okay, okay,’ I hear you say. ‘Enough with the schoolboy bragging. What happened on Forau Island? And what’s going to happen on St Dunstan?’ 

Well, I can obviously talk more about the former. 

THE DEVIL’S ROCK takes place on the night of June 5 1944, and sees two Allied commandos arriving on Forau by kayak, intent on blowing up a German gun emplacement before it wreaks havoc on the Invasion of Normandy. Needless to say when they get there, it isn’t anything like as straightforward even as that, because certain elements within the Nazis are in the process of cooking up an evil scheme to unleash an unstoppable demonic force.

It was the last movie script of mine to actually hit the cinemas, and it starred Craig Hall, Matt Sunderland and Gina Varela. It garnered lots of five-star reviews online. Check these out:

A fantastic movie that surpasses most big budget horror films. This is a movie you will come back to rewatch more than once.

Excellent movie with Luciferian symbolism, as well as Illuminati overtones. Must watch for all those who think playing with dark forces is cool ...

Different than most war movies and most horror movies. Some intense acting and interesting twists. Plus a bombshell lead actress. Take a chance on this film and allow yourself to be pleasantly surprised

One of the most enjoyable outcomes of THE DEVIL’S ROCK was a trip over to Guernsey (in the script the next closest island to Forau, and of course a real-life big player during WW2), to do a special Q&A with some of the island’s residents. We were treated rather royally, I have to say. We ate well, drank well and toured many of the island’s still-standing wartime ruins. (Check out the pic, Matt and myself making a recce).

The question now is will I be able to achieve the same with THE ISLAND?

And no, I don’t mean will I get invited to the Scillies to be wined, dined and asked to talk all about the novel (but, you know, if such an invite is forthcoming, hey ...). What I’m talking about here is can I effectively plunge another lovely place - very serene, very picturesque, and very cut off - into the depths of terror. I can’t talk as much about this one as I can THE DEVIL’S ROCK for obvious reason (it’s only out on September 1), but as it’s already available for pre-order, if you follow the LINK you can read the publishers’ blurb. 

Suffice to say that I went out of my way to capture the genteel atmosphere of the Scilly Isles, not so much utilising history on this occasion (though there is a bit of that woven in), as the steadily increasing paranoia of being trapped on a supposedly uninhabited island where there are buildings, beaches, footpaths and even quad bikes to take you from place to place and yet where you’re increasingly certain there’s someone else lurking just out of sight who is very, very, hostile to your presence. 

Here’s a snippet from THE ISLAND, just to whet your appetites.

‘Any thoughts on cause of death?’ Wayland asked.
     Pugh ran a limp hand through his mop of hair. He looked weary and haggard. ‘Dunno the correct terminology these days. Massive blood loss, massive tissue damage, shock, cardiac arrest . . . take your pick.’
     ‘Anything that we can actually move with?’
     The former CSI sniffed, his unruly moustache twitching. ‘Evidence of post-mortem bruising. Would suggest his wrists were bound not long before death.’
     ‘Bound together?’ Jack asked.
     ‘Probably behind his back. He was gagged too.’
     ‘Perhaps to make it easier to march him away from the hotel?’ Jack said.
     ‘Most likely.’ Pugh thought about it as they went into the taproom. ‘He was barefoot . . . I can tell you that much. There are injuries to the soles of his feet, consistent with stones, twigs, that sort of thing. There’s a heavy contusion to the back of his head. To stun him, I’d say.’
     ‘So . . . what’s the hypothesis?’ Milburn asked. She and the others had now come forward. ‘The bastard clubbed him from behind when he’d finally got him to the murder scene?’
     Pugh shrugged. ‘What I saw would align with that.’
     ‘And then, when he was stunned, he was nailed?’ she asked.
     Pugh shrugged again.
     Jack pondered the ugliness of that thought. ‘So, he was crucified alive?’
     Milburn frowned. ‘And the blade assault was to ensure he’d be dead by the time he got here?’
     ‘Either that, or whoever it was didn’t feel that beating him up and nailing him down was punishment enough,’ Pugh said...
***

So, what do you reckon, folks? Terror wreaked in the isles? Have we pulled it off again? We won’t know until September, but I don’t suppose that’s too long to wait now. 

A holiday from Hell - in every possible way

You’ve had a rough time of it. You need a break. Then you secure the holiday of a lifetime. But when you get there, where is everyone else? Slowly, you start to realise that this isn’t somewhere you want to be at all. THE ISLAND. Published September 1.

Sorry about that somewhat unconventional intro, but that’s basically what the next few months are going to be about here at Finch Towers. THE ISLAND, my first publication with Thomas & Mercer (Amazon Publishing), and a stand-alone thriller, which we all have very high hopes for.
I’ll be talking a little bit more about that a couple of paras down. In addition, we’ll mention two more titles of mine that are due out later in 2025: THE DEVIL’S KNIGHT from Canelo Books, and TERROR TALES OF CHAOS, from Telos Publishing.
Before any of that, I’m afraid, I have more sad news.
Deeply missed already
I also owe an apology for the length of time it’s taken me to get this blog together.
2025 has been a strange kind of year, for all sorts of reasons. Some of you reading this column will be aware that my mother, Margaret, passed away in March. That gave us all a very difficult first quarter. But more recently, would you believe, my beloved dog, Buddy, also passed on to heavenly pastures new, though at least he got to rejoin his brother, Buck, who went ahead of him in 2023. 
Believe it or not, this isn’t just a personal thing, it’s actually relevant to this column. I called Buck and Buddy (pictured right, being very restrained) my co-writers because I always dictate my first drafts, and I used to do it while I was walking that pair of rascals around the streets of my hometown of Wigan. Quite a few people seem to have become familiar with the sight, because since the pair of them departed, and I now walk and dictate alone, I’ve been stopped several times and asked where the pooches are.
It’s tough, to be frank. I mean, it’s not really an excuse for being slow off the mark with blog updates, but when your mind is elsewhere and you've also got lots of work to do, luxuries like pumping your innermost thoughts and fears out to the rest of the world tend to become a low priority. It’s also been busy in this neighbourhood of late, which allows me to segue neatly into the subject of m next publication...
THE ISLAND
It won’t have gone unnoticed by the eagle-eyed among you that my last two Heck novels, ROGUE and NO QUARTER , were published by an outfit called Brentwood Press, which some will probably have guessed is my own publishing company. I formed it a few years ago with my wife and business partner, Cathy, initially to reprint collections of short stories and novellas from my rather extensive back-catalogue. However, it’s now home to a fictional character I now consider to be my most enduring hero: Detective Sergeant Mark Heckenburg of the National Crime Group.
It’s fairly well known now that that my Heck series of novels hit the buffers during the Covid crisis. The fact that this coincided with a change of publisher didn’t help the situation at all, and when we finally emerged from the chaos, I found that my former employers had largely lost interest in bringing back a character whom they considered had had his day. I thus moved Heck to Brentwood, where he isn’t so much enjoying an Indian summer as running around like a spring chicken, with hopefully many more adventures ahead of him.
Deepest thanks to all those of you who kept the faith that Heck would return and who bought into the continuation of the series when it reappeared. Sales for both ROGUE and NO QUARTER are very good, which proves to me at least that there’s still an appetite out there for tough action and hardboiled grit. The fact that both titles have also been acquired for Audible publication (more info on that when I get it) only adds to my conviction that we were right to keep Heck going.
In the meantime though, my new mass-market publisher, Thomas & Mercer, have been very keen to get their hands on some original free-standing crime novels, and so I’ve happily obliged.
The first one of these will be THE ISLAND , and it’s out on September 1, but you can pre-order it now if you're up for that.
Terror in the sun
So, what can I say about THE ISLAND  so far in advance of publication?
Well, you’ve seen the intro to this column, and that’s about a much as I want to give away of the plot, because I don’t want to drop too many spoilers your way. Suffice to say that previous freestanding crime thrillers of mine have been investigative procedurals. 
In ONE EYE OPEN for example, a lady traffic-cop looks into a seemingly routine road collision only to find herself embroiled in a vicious contest between rival underworld factions, neither side prepared to take prisoners. Likewise, in NEVER SEEN AGAIN , a bloodhound journalist goes looking for a kidnapped heiress and ends up putting both himself and his friends in the most terrible danger. 
I love both of those books. They were proper contemporary Noirs, but now that I’ve arrived at Thomas & Mercer, the time is right to try something slightly different.
I’ve been particularly interested recently in the works of crime authors like Lucy Foley, Ruth Ware and Lucy Clarke. It’s not so much the locked room mystery that fascinates me, but I’ve long loved the idea of everyday people - not cops, not secret agents, not former spec op guys - finding themselves marooned in some particularly lonesome spot, and at the mercy of an unknown killer, who they are forced to track down themselves if for no other reason than to save their own lives.
Now, I should point out straight away that this is not quite what THE ISLAND is about, but I can’t pretend that its overall vibe hasn’t been inspired by those kinds of ‘struggle to survive’ crime novels. In addition to all that, because it’s me, I’ve pumped it full of raw action and added some sprinklings of terror. You know, just in case living in the real world at present doesn’t scare you enough.
So, there you have it. THE ISLAND  is published on September 1. If there isn’t enough here to whet your appetite, worry not. There is plenty more to come before then. Watch this space or feel free to check out my ramblings on Facebook or X.
It will be a bit of a right-hand turn on Heck, but then, what isn’t?
Even more of a right-hand turn are my late autumn publications, which I tauntingly alluded to near the start of today's column.
THE DEVIL’S KNIGHT , the first instalment in the forthcoming Wildblood Saga, is out on October 9 (but already available for pre-order), and will obviously be completely different from my crime writing, as you’ll see from the cover. For anyone who enjoyed my Norman Conquest series, USURPER and BATTLE LORD , I’m reasonably confident that you’ll be up for this one.
Here’s the official blurb:
AND THE WORD WAS MADE STEEL ... AND DWELT AMONG US.
An invincible warrior. A living saint. A demonic spirit cloaked in red. A Holy Land fallen into darkness.

Amid the dust and mayhem of the Third Crusade, a fearsome knight, Thurstan Wildblood, ‘a man with a hole where his soul should be’, is charged with returning a female hostage to Christendom, specifically to Canterbury.

Melinda of Jerusalem, they say, works miracles. She is touched by God and when she prays, astonishing cures are affected. The problem is that everyone seeks her as their prize. The crusaders captured her from an Islamic stronghold, and Sultan Saladin wants her back. The Christians themselves are divided. Richard the Lionheart believes her ‘liberation’ to England will justify this war of annihilation, but the Knights Templar are adamant the only place for her is Rome. Meanwhile, there are others in the Christian army, sell-swords and freebooters, who dream of ransom should she fall into their mercenary hands.

Wildblood and his captive could not be facing more terrible odds, nor a more exhausting journey. And yet this indomitable knight has reasons of his own for undertaking the perilous quest. For he is certain he is damned. In the midst of carnage, he encountered a mysterious being – Belphagor, the ‘Bishop of Hell’ – who in return for a multitude already slain, granted him martial skills second to none.

Wildblood has no concerns for the schemes of kings and bishops. He has strayed far from the light, and his only hope for redemption now lies in the delivery of this living saint to the holiest place he knows. But even Wildblood will be tested by the hardships and horrors that await him on the endless road home.

He thinks he knows evil. But he doesn’t. Not yet.
Meet-up
On the subject of my final publication of 2025, TERROR TALES OF CHAOS, I ought to mention that I’ll be making a few public appearances during the course of this year. So, if anyone wants to get a book signed or just say hello, you’re free to pop along and do so.
The next of these will be at Leigh Library (Greater Manchester) on June 5 (6pm) for BOOKFEST , where I’ll be in attendance with numerous other authors from the Northwest, sitting at my own stall, selling and signing books, and generally chatting to anyone who comes along.
After that, I’ll be appearing as a guest at the SYKEHOUSE INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL at the Owston Hall Hotel, Doncaster, on June 27 and 28.
The next one after that will be at the annual THEAKSTON’S OLD PECULIAR CRIME-WRITING FESTIVAL  at the famous Old Swan Hotel in Harrogate (July 17-20), where I’ll be around the outdoor bar area for most of the Friday and Saturday.
We then round things off (at least thus far, though new dates may yet be added), at the WORLD FANTASY CONVENTION at the Metropole Hotel in Brighton from October 30 to November 2. Look for me there at the Telos table, where we’ll be launching the latest in the TERROR TALES series, a special World Fantasy bumper volume, TERROR TALES OF CHAOS, in which a wide range of top quality horror authors will tackle a wide range of horrific monsters.
Alas, I’ve no artwork of TOC for that last one. Not yet, though we will have very soon. So again, keep watching this space.
All good?
Excellent.
Speak to you all again soon. 

Great reviews, eerie art, Christmas chillers

Apologies for my tardiness on here during the course of this autumn. I’m sorry I haven’t been posting more. The truth is that November in particular has been a phenomenally busy time, what with my promotional campaign for ROGUE, and the finishing touches I’ve been putting to my next novel (my first with Thomas & Mercer), whose title I can’t yet divulge, though as the publicity campaign for that one will be commencing soon, it won’t be too long (and the cover art is sweet, trust me).
I’ve also, as it happens, been working hard on the next book after that, my second for Thomas & Mercer, and am deep in the process of editing the next Heck epic, which is tentatively titled DEVIL’S BARGAIN, though that may change. On top of all that, I’ve got some other bits and bobs to talk about, including more Heck stuff, and a comprehensive list of MY FAVOURITE CHRISTMAS GHOST STORIES, all of which can be found below (the latter near the bottom of today’s post).

First though, how about something …

FABULOUS
I’m obviously talking about the image at the top of today’s column. It’s the work of Polish artist, Dawid Boldys, and it will adorn the cover of the Czech edition of my autumn/winter horror novella, SEASON OF MIST , or, as it translates, OBDOBI MLH. It depicts the scene in the novella when a bunch of schoolkids go up to the derelict coal mine, to collect bonfire fuel, even though they’ve been warned that there is a serial child killer on the loose. (If you want to know how that works out for them, you’ll need to grab hold of the English version; just follow the link).
If memory serves, OBDOBI MLH, is due for publication just around now, which some of my more regular readers may be confused by, given that the narrative commences in September, though in truth,  SEASON OF MIST  isn’t just about the autumn months. Its narrative runs deep into December, only ending quite close to Christmas. So, hopefully, brand new readers in the Czech Republic will still find it a potent tale.

In addition to this, I want to talk a little bit about  ROGUE , the eighth installment in the Heck saga. It’s doing fantastically well; I’m truly delighted the way sales are going and how it’s drawn quite a bit of attention from the crime-writing community. You might be interested in the online interview I did with Sam Brownley of the UK CRIME BOOK CLUB:  HERE .

If that’s not enough, since my last post, ROGUE has gathered several more great reviews from some very august persons. Check these out below (sorry, I’m being very self-indulgent and running them in their entirety, so feel free to skip down to the next item, if these are of no interest) …
Wow! Strap in & hold on tight for one Heck (sorry) of a rollercoaster ride from Paul Finch with literally everything you need & more from a cop thriller - a battered, bruised, disgraced cop out for revenge & a system out to thwart him at every turn. Truly outstanding!
Nick Oldham,  author of the Henry Christie Mysteries

Grim, gritty, and gripping. Heck crashes through the pages like a bull in a China shop: relentless and unstoppable. Antony Johnston, author of the Dog Sitter Detective series
When two masked gunmen wipe out an elite police unit in an attack on a London pub they make a deadly mistake: leaving Mark ‘Heck’ Heckenburg alive.

Suspended from the Met and under investigation by his former colleagues, Heck is determined to avenge his dead friends at any cost. The journey to do so takes him from London gangland, through the industrial wastelands of the North, to the wilds of Scotland. There he encounters a crime syndicate more brutal than anything even he has faced before.

There are tough maverick cops, and then there is the tungsten hard version created by Paul Finch. The difference when the gloves are off and the rule book in the bin is as wide as that between a banger and the atom bomb.

In this latest instalment, as would be expected, the action is both relentless and bruising. The climax is made all the more dramatic by being played out with one of the most dramatic landscapes in the world as a backdrop.

Finch pays close attention to the tools of the trade of violence, not just in the expected way writers in the genre note the capacities of a gun or a knife for a readership avid for detail. He is fully aware of their capacity to do harm, both to the person hit, and the one pulling the trigger. This lends an extra level of authenticity to the resulting carnage.

Finch also asks an interesting moral question in this book, in previous outings there has always been something of the time bomb about Heck. What will happen now the fail safes that have previously stopped the clock before the hands reach twelve are no longer in place? Just how thin is the line between being a maverick on the side of right, and the sort of person they are best placed to hunt?

Answering those questions potentially opens up a new chapter both for this series and its main character.
Adam Colclough, Shots Magazine
Paul Finch’s previous DS Mark Heckenburg novel, KISS OF DEATH ended on the most brutal cliff-hanger imaginable, with most of Heck’s long-term colleagues mown down in a hail of gunfire and even his long-term love-interest, DSU Gemma Piper, apparently lifeless in his arms.

That was almost six years ago - a LONG time to wait for the next instalment! - but ROGUE picks only a couple of months after the Ace of Diamonds massacre, with Heck suspended and now under investigation himself, suspected of having a role in the slaughter. Heck’s alone, but he has two things the rest of the police don’t: a clue to the killers’ true identity, and a burning desire for revenge.
Eluding police surveillance, Heck sets off on the trail of the killers, knowing he’s going down a road of no return. It leads back up North... and beyond it, into the Scottish Highlands and a riveting conclusion.

Paul Finch is a first-class storyteller, and in ROGUE he’s lost none of his touch. As you’d hope for Heck’s long-awaited return, this one has the volume dialled up to eleven, with all the unflinching eye for human cruelty, relentless pace and pulse-pounding action you’d expect from Finch - and a little bit more. After all, Heck’s hell on wheels even when he’s a police officer, but now he’s on a personal mission of revenge. I was almost afraid to find out how far he’d actually go to make the killers pay for what they’d done, and of what would be left for him afterwards.

Almost, but not quite. Paul Finch is far too good a storyteller for that.

Five stars, and I can’t wait for the next Heck book. I understand the delays that held further instalments of the series up are now resolved, and so here’s hoping there's a new one very soon.
Daniel Church, author of The Hollows and The Ravening
When Kiss Of Death was published in 2018, I doubt Paul Finch expected his readers to have to wait six years to see how he resolved the astounding cliff-hanger DS Heckenburg faced at the conclusion of that novel. But it seems not even best-selling authors are immune to the vagaries of the publishing industry. Still, better late than never, Rogue has arrived and once more chaos reigns as the one man wrecking ball known as Heck is let loose on the unsuspecting criminal community.

DS Mark ‘Heck’ Heckenburg works for the Serial Crimes Unit, a specialist department of the National Crime Agency whose remit is to investigate cases of serial murder and Rogue is the eighth in the series. Heck has had a complicated relationship with the head of the unit, DSU Gemma Piper. The two were in love but chose the job over their relationship and so he has been reconsidering his position in the SCU.

Their last case was an investigation into a multinational crime syndicate led by the Armenian oligarch Milena Misanyan. While celebrating after closing the case, 26 officers were gunned down in the Ace of Diamonds pub in Barnet, London. Two masked men decimated the unit.

Because he was picking up his colleague DC Gail Honeyford on the way, Heck arrived late and gave chase as the killers left the scene. Heck was able to injure one of the men in a fight before they escaped. Shot in the initial gunfight, Gemma Piper was left fighting for her life. Was the slaughter a revenge attack for the death of Misanyan during the operation?

Nearly two months later the investigation into the Ace of Diamonds massacre is going nowhere. No stone can be left unturned, and no matter how unlikely it may be, Heck has to be considered a suspect. DI Jude Penhaligan of Internal Investigations has been given the job of deciding whether or not Heck was involved. Although much reduced by grief and survivor’s guilt, Heck himself has no intention of being a bystander following the murder of his colleagues.

His only lead is a bangle snatched from the wrist of one of the killers. It suggests a link to the satanic Black Chapel murder case that was solved in Kiss of Death as a place to start. The Black Chapel killers were inspired by a black metal band, now retired to the Scottish countryside. Heck’s heading north! Once Penhaligan realises he has flown the coop, the chase is on. By dodging Internal Investigations, Heck has gone from a colleague who just needs to be ruled out to prime suspect.

From this point on, Rogue is all action. Heck reminds me of Parker in Richard Stark’s Point Blank, working his way up the criminal chain in ruthless, inexorable fashion; always beating the odds with a combination of street smarts, animal cunning and sheer bloody mindedness. Heck is a more human protagonist than Stark’s famously never-evolving antihero. Finch has given his character a traumatic back history and consequently a vulnerability which probably accounts for his popularity as much as his hard man persona. In particular, Heck’s relationships with women – his sister, Piper and Honeyford, for example – are nuanced, and allow him to stand out from the hard man copper crowd.

There is relatively little investigative work in Rogue. To a large extent, the novel succeeds or fails on its action sequences. Thankfully, Finch has included a number of them but two in particular stand out. The first is a shoot out on the motorway heading north, and the second is an especially extended sequence in the Scottish countryside. Both are excellent, dramatic, full of momentum and with a genuine sense of peril. Finch is also a successful horror writer, and he uses those skills to keep the tension ratcheted up.

Readers expecting a police procedural story might be slightly disappointed in this regard, but for my money Rogue more than delivers on its promise of Heck being let off his leash. After such a long delay, Finch must have felt some pressure when writing about Heck’s return. He needn’t have worried.
RoughJustice, Crime Fiction Lover website
In addition to all those, check out this one from top author and blogger, Donna Morfett, who classifies  ROGUE  as one of her top reads of 2024:
***
Okay, with  ROGUE  now discussed and done, let’s move onto the elephant in the room.
The one thing that sits in the backs of so many of our minds through from September to the year’s end (but which we’ll rarely admit to until around December), which is of course …

CHRISTMAS
I’m hoping to hit you with another completely original and free-to-read ghost story, right here on this blog, before the big occasional. Regular visitors will know that I try to do this every year. 
Unfortunately, it won’t be quite as easy this time. As I’ve already hinted, I have a mid-January deadline, and though I’m in a good position on that, it sometimes feels like madness to simply break off from a job like that in order to do something else.

I can’t make any promises on this, so all I can say is hang tight and we’ll see what we can do.

For anyone who considers it essential that they get their festive ghostly fix, all I can do is point you in the direction of my two relatively recent ghost collections, IN A DEEP, DARK DECEMBER and THE CHRISTMAS YOU DESERVE , both of which you’ll find several snippets from (and direct links to) if you follow this link back to a blogpost I made Last December: THE GHOSTING SEASON .  
There is also, of course, my British Fantasy Award shortlisted novella of 2010, SPARROWHAWK , which is another Christmas chiller, though in this case with romantic and historical elements as well.
However, in case you’ve already ‘done’ these collection, and I’m not able to deliver anything new before the end of the year, here, in chronological order, is a quick rundown of my 60 FAVOURITE CHRISTMAS GHOST AND HORROR SHORT STORIES (by other authors). Please don’t ask why I’ve chosen 60 instead of a more rounded-off number like 50 or 75 or 100; it just happened to be that these were all the stories I could remember. Also, worry not ... I’m not going to bore you with their outlines or offer reviews in each case. I’ve already said that I consider all of these to be outstanding efforts in the field. Just be advised that some of these will take some seeking out. (In addition, please don’t shout at me if I’ve missed out any good ones; just suggest them in the column underneath).
SIXTY CRACKING CHRISTMAS CHILLERS(with lots of unconnected festive horror artwork just to add colour)
1. Horror: A True Tale by John Berwick Hardwood (1861)
2. The Crooked Mirror by Anton Chekov (1883)
3. Markheim by Robert Louis Stevenson (1885)

4. Christmas Eve on a Haunted Hulk by Frank Cowper (1889)

5. The White Raven by Dick Donovan (1899)
6. Jerry Bundler by WW Jacobs (1901)
7. The Shadow by E Nesbit (1905)

8. Between the Lights by EF Benson (1912)
9. How Fear Departed from the Long Gallery by EF Benson (1912)

10. The Story of an Appearance and a Disappearance by MR James (1913)
11. The Dead by James Joyce (1914)

12. The Festival by HP Lovecraft (1925)

13. The Prescription by Marjorie Bowen (1929)

14. The Crime on Christmas Night by Gaston Leroux (1930)

15. Smee by AM Burrage (1931)

16. The Crown Derby Plate by Marjorie Bowen (1933)

17. Back for Christmas by John Collier (1939)

18. Christmas Reunion by Andrew Caldecott (1947)

19. A Christmas Game by ANL Munby (1950)

20. Someone in the Lift by LP Hartley (1955)

21. Florinda by Shamus Frazer (1956)

22. The Waits by LP Hartley (1961)

23. And All Around the House by Jack Oleck (1972)

24. Christmas Night by Elizabeth Walter (1975)

25. The Chimney by Ramsey Campbell (1977)

26. Nursery Tea by Mary Danby (1978)

27. Christmas Entertainment by Daphne Froome (1979)

28. The Night Before Christmas by Robert Bloch (1980)

29. Calling Card by Ramsey Campbell (1980)

30. The Peculiar Demesne by Russell Kirk (1980)
31. Come, Follow! by Sheila Hodgson (1982)

32. Red Christmas by David Garnett (1985)

33. To Dance by the Light of the Moon by Stephen Gallagher (1986)

34. A Dickensian Christmas by Lanyon Jones (1986)

35. The Grotto by Alexander Welch (1988)

36. The Uninvited by John Glasby (1989)

37. The Deliverer by Simon MacCulloch (1989)

38. A Present for Christmas by AJ Merak (John Glasby) (1989)

39. A Christmas Story by James Dorr (1992)

40. In the Bleak Midwinter by Robert Swindells (1992)

41. Christmas Past by David Belbin (1992)

42. Christmas Game by Susan Price (1993)

43. Green by Mark Morris (1994)

44. Grandma Babka's Christmas Ginger And The Good Luck/Bad Luck Leshy by Ken Wisman (1994)

45. ... And Eight Rabid Pigs by David Gerold (1995)

46. The Travelling Saleman’s Christmas Special by C. Bruce Hunter (1995)

47. Christmas Dinner by Steve Harris (1996)

48. The Decorations by Ramsey Campbell (2005)

49. The Last to be Found by Christopher Harman (2006)

50. Loving Angels by Gary McMahon (2007)

51. Last Christmas by John Llewellyn Probert (2008)

52. Where the Stones Lie by Richard Farren Barbber (2012

53. With Their Eyes All Aglow by Jeff C. Carter (2013)
54. Dark Christmas by Jeanette Winterson (2013)

55. A Christmas Tradition by Peter James (2014)

56. The Psychomenteum by Steve Duffy (2020)

57. The Fourth Call by Ramsey Campbell (2021)

58. The Hanging of the Greens by Andrew Michael Hurley (2021)

59. Grey Glass by Reggie Oliver (2021)
60. Carol of the Bells and Chains by Laura Purcell (2023)

Uncompromising action, demented villains

Today is publication day for ROGUE, the eighth novel in the Mark Heckenburg series.

I’m delighted but also aware that it must seem - certainly to those who follow the Heck books - as if it’s been an age in the writing, but that actually isn’t true. It was written as a direct follow-up to KISS OF DEATH, which was published in 2018, but a change of publisher and then the Covid crisis created an interruption to the natural flow of things, which the Heck saga almost didn’t survive.

It was mainly due to my own determination to keep my favourite character going that the concept remained afloat during this period, though it would still have sunk without the strong encouragement of my wife and business partner, Cathy, who considered the million-selling series too worthwhile and valuable to simply abandon (while the persuasive powers of the innumerable fans who sent me emails, pms and texts, begging me to continue - for which I can’t thank them all enough - was instrumental too).

Anyway, I won’t say much more about ROGUE here, as you can all get hold of it yourselves now and make your own judgements. But the meat of today’s blogpost will contain some of the delightful reviews at the book has had so far. 

Let’s get on with it ...
What the Heck?
Okay ... so ROGUE is out at last. My best-selling series of crime/thriller novels is back on the road.

As promised, I won’t belabour you with any further snippets of content info. I’ll simply say Happy Publication Day to my ‘stop at nothing’ detective, and now give the floor to a bunch of people whose professional expertise and literary opinions I value very highly indeed, so that they can offer their own views on the matter ...

‘Finch’s original hero returns explosively. As hardboiled as cop fiction gets. Viciously action-packed but layered with feeling and a deep sense of loss. An assault on the senses in book form.’
Helen S Fields Author of The Institution and the DI Callanach series
‘If any Heck fans were wondering what he’d get up to once the constraints of being a police officer were lifted, wonder no more.
     In this fast-moving tale, he takes on ever more dangerous foes as he hunts the people behind the massacre of his closest colleagues.
     Now suspended, he can’t rely on backup from his colleagues. Despite this, he won’t back down or take the easy path, even when the odds against him look hopeless.
     My mistake was assuming I could read a bit and get on with my work, but each time I picked it up, I didn’t want to stop reading.
     Explosive action-packed and gripping. A worthy addition to a great series.’ David Beckler Author of the Antonia Conti series

‘Need a rest after tearing through ROGUE, the latest Heck novel by Paul Finch. A thrill-per-page ride with action sequences that wouldn't be out of place in a Bond film.’
David Jackson Author of Don't Make a Sound, The Resident and the Nathan Cody series
‘Author Paul Finch should be a household name. He is the type of author admired by his peers and readers alike. In ROGUE we have an excellent, superbly written action thriller from one of the UK’s best. In Heck’s latest gut-and-heart-wrenching tale we have tough action, intrigue and a revenge driven maverick hero reminiscent (to me) of a northern Luther. I loved this book, I think you will too.’
Matt Hilton Author of the Grey and Villere series

‘Finch’s ROGUE is utterly unputdownable as it’s the consummate thriller that thrills, excites, exhilarates and catches you off guard with beautifully placed twists. Excuse me while I head off to hammer on Finch’s door to demand the next novel.’ Graham Smith / John Ryder Author of Watching the Bodies and First Shot
‘Brutal, brilliant contemporary noir with a jet-black heart. Heck is formidable, tough as old boots, and makes for irresistible reading.’
Tom Mead Author of Death and the Conjuror


‘A gritty, dark, explosive crime thriller. Heck is hard to beat!’ Alex Shaw Author of the Jack Tate SAS series
‘Paul Finch is one of the best police procedural writers out there. If you’re a fan, don’t miss this page-turner!’ Marnie Riches Author of the Detective Jackie Cooke series


‘Heck’s return is not only so welcome and anticipated, but so damn thrilling. Finch’s flair for relentless, unputdownable excitement is here in abundance, dragging us lucky readers face first through his trademark grit and darkness. Loving it!’ Rob Parker Author of the Ben Bracken series
‘ROGUE is my first foray into Heck’s world and what a rollocking, riveting page-turner it is! Now I’ll have to start the series at the beginning!’ Caroline England Author of The Stranger Beside Me

‘As packed with twisting mystery, as it is full-throttle action, Paul Finch brings Heck back with a bang! The very definition of a page-turner, it all leads up to a thrilling finale I guarantee you won’t forget in a hurry. Fans really are in for a treat.’ Paul Kane Author of Her Husband's Grave, The Family Lie and Sherlock Holmes and the Servants of Hell
‘After an absence of several years, Detective Sergeant Mark ‘Heck’ Heckenburg is back with a bang in this latest action-packed thriller from Standish-based novelist, Paul Finch.
     In this latest instalment, Rogue, (already available for pre-order online), Finch’s “lone wolf” hero is up against tougher odds than he’s faced in any of the previous seven books, pursuing a gang of cop-killers all over the country, while being hunted by his own team and several deadly-dangerous hitmen.
     All the Wigan-born writer’s trademarks are here: raw, uncompromising action, tough dialogue and a whole host of weird and demented villains.
     It also page-flips at a furious pace, including one explosive chase sequence up the M6 from Heck’s hometown of Bradburn (a thinly-veiled Wigan), which literally had this reader on the edge of his seat.
     Finch, himself a former police officer, has probably surpassed himself with this latest offering in the Heck canon, delivering a pacy, hardboiled romp of a crime novel, which ends in most satisfying fashion. Highly recommended.’
Wigan Today

Promote your book with some acting talent

Want to do something different to promote your next book? How about this? Select certain sections of text and condense them down to the raw dialogue - in other words, turn them into snippets of audio drama. Then get a bunch of talented amateur actors, furnish them with copies of the ‘script’, get them on a mic together and see what happens ...
As part of the promotional strategy for my new Heck novel, ROGUE (published on the 24th of this month, but ready to preorder right NOW), I’ve done exactly this, producing new and, I hope, quite original book trailers. And in today’s blogpost, if you say tuned, you can see AND HEAR them. 
You’ll also note the several images with which I’ve peppered this post: those are the actors themselves hard at work on the project. If you want to know how it all happened, you’ll need to stay tuned a little bit longer.  
In addition today, I’ll talk about my horror output now that we’re getting to the darker end of the year, and to round things off, will hit you with another of my new-look Thrillers, Chillers, focussing on some of the latest books, both old and new, that I’ve recently read and which have really done it for me.

Before any of that, though, let’s get onto the subject of ...
Trailers ... trailers ... trailers ... trailers ...

The first thing to say is that I’m not here today to tell you how to make a book trailer. Initially, because I’m not by any means a font of knowledge on this matter. But in addition, because the internet is already full of professional and artistic individuals offering this service to writers, and though they’d obviously charge, they can do a far better job than me.
What I AM going to talk about, though, is the brand new step I’ve taken this year - brand new to me at least - as part of the promotion package for the new DS Heckenburg thriller, ROGUE (the ebook of which, I reiterate, can be pre-ordered right now, though both the ebook and the paperback will be available immediately on October 24): 
It’s this dramatisation business I alluded to earlier.

I’ve no doubt there are several questions you’ll already want to ask about this. So, let’s go:

1) Why bother doing your own promo?

Well, it’s an understandable position to take. We all like to think that our publishers and their promotions people will take care of publicity. They should do. And most of the time they do, and sometimes they’re even successful ... but not always. In truth, I’ve never met a working author yet who doesn’t gripe at least a little bit about his or her experience of the mass-market publicity machine.

But even if you implicitly trust your publisher to showcase your new book in the best way possible and literally drive an avalanche of sales, how can it hurt you do some promotional work yourself? Most of us do that already, of course. We sit on panels at literary festivals, we attend launches and signings, we give interviews to the press, we write guest blogs for book review websites. But in this age of mass media, there are other things we can do too. Granted, not all of them are cost-free, or can be done on a whim and require next to no time or effort ... but I suppose it all depends how much you want to put into promoting your latest piece of work. It’s your call in the end. No one will force you.

2) Isn’t self-promotion a bit self-indulgent?

Well, the short answer is: Yes, of course it is. But if you want people to read your book, or even just be aware that it’s out there, what else are you going to do? Yes, word of mouth will travel, but it doesn’t always travel quickly. Unless you’re prepared to pay for big advertising, there aren’t too many other avenues open to you. 

3) Won’t internet folk just get sick of seeing you talking about your own book, and switch off?

Absolutely they will. Which is why it pays dividends to think laterally, varying what you are doing in terms of promo, experimenting a little, creating a campaign that is slightly different from the norm, and perhaps more interesting each time. In truth, the only limit to what you can do here is the limit of your imagination, but it’s easy to say that. In any case, today, we’re only going to talk about one new method. The one I’ve already mentioned: dramatising passages from the text, getting seriously talented people to perform it, and then weaving it all into a series of eye and ear-catching trailers. Here’s how it happened in the case of ROGUE ...

Audio drama

My wife (and business partner), Cathy, and I, are fortunate enough to both be members of WIGAN LITTLE THEATRE , a dynamic, multi-award-winning operation, which produces top quality on-stage drama at a rate of one play a month, all the year round. Yes, you heard that correctly - ALL the year round. this means, producing about ten plays, invariably to semi-professional standards, every year. After one such exceptional production, Tim Firth’s Sheila's Island, way back in April this year, it suddenly struck me as astonishing that I hadn't tried to make use of this remarkable pool of talent to assist me on the publicity trail. And when I raised this issue in the theatre bar with a group of actors who Cath and I are particularly friendly with, I was amazed at how keen everyone was to participate.

Of course, it wasn't as simple as that.

The first thing I had to do was select chunks of the new book, ROGUE , and narrow them down into pieces of drama, create mini-scripts in effect, which I could then send out to people who didn’t know much about the plot at this stage, and thus had no real context. Next, I had to secure a producer/director/production manager, who could turn what at the time was a still a concept rather than a workable plan into something solid. Then I had to secure a recording date on which everyone would be available. And then find a recording venue, a studio in effect. 

The first of these challenges I met quickly because the positive response from all concerned had kindled my enthusiasm no end. It was also the case that I was very in tune with ROGUE by this time. Though I’d completed it several years earlier, Cathy and I had been working hard to devise promotional strategies, and so had refamiliarised ourselves with the book massively. The actors meanwhile were very receptive to my context notes, and so that hurdle was overcome relatively quickly as well.

Securing a production manager/techie guy was also relatively painless. My first port of all was Cash Productions, as owned and operated by pro TV cameraman and movie-maker, Iain Cash, who was more than willing to lend us his expertise. But it was after this when the problems started. All those who'd initially agreed to participate were still willing, but by now it was summer, and so the holiday season was approaching and all the kids were off-school. It was going to be asking a lot therefore to find an afternoon that would suit everyone, and not just the cast, but Cash Productions too.


Somehow, we managed it. Don’t ask me how. Sorry if you were expecting pearls of wisdom on this. I honestly think we just got lucky on that front.
In terms of studio space, this was even more complex. Obviously we had to try and keep the costs down, which meant trying to avoid hiring somewhere. In the end we settled for our own house. We had enough room thankfully, and our springer spaniel Buddy, who’s been moping a lot since the loss of his brother last year, was content to sit quietly and be petted. This would also enable us to reward our amateur cast with as much food and booze as they could manage once the recording session had wrapped.

With everything in the can, it was then a matter of Iain Cash and I going into postproduction, assessing the raw material we’d gathered, editing where necessary - and we had to do a lot of that because, by design, we’d recorded far more than we knew we’d need (to keep trailers interesting, you must keep them short and tight) - and then splicing it all together as effectively as possible.

As to whether we’ve succeeded in that, you can be the judges. Several of the trailers we made - or perhaps I should call them SOUNDBITES - are posted below. Just make sure you TURN THE SOUND ON when you check them out, as otherwise that will defeat the whole object.


I won’t deny that we’re on a learning curve here. As far as I know, this is the first time something like this has ever been done to promote a book. I could be wrong on that, of course - don’t hold me to it. But I’m reasonably confident that readers and book fans won’t have encountered this very often before.

Is it something we’ll do again when the next book comes out? Very likely. And I suspect we’ll be better at it then. I urge all writers who want to do their bit when it comes to promoting their upcoming work to consider trying something similar, because if nothing else, you’ll have one hell of a time while you’re doing it.

My thanks now go to Iain Cash and Cash Productions, and the Wigan Little Theatre crowd, Mark Lloyd, Stacey Vernon, John Churnside, Helen Gray, Joey Wiswell, John Dudley, Nicola Reynolds and Tara Haywood ... for going above and beyond the call of duty to make this thing happen.

One final time, ROGUE hits the shops both as an ebook and paperback, on October 24. And now ...
The scary stuff
It’s almost Halloween. So, it would be pretty remiss of me not to mention some out-and-out horror stuff. I think I’ve just got time to remind you all that ELEMENTAL FORCES has now been published. It’s the latest entry in the excellent anthology series, ABC OF HORROR from Flametree Press, as edited by the tireless Mark Morris.
My own contribution (my second to this series, I’m proud to say), is Jack-a-Lent, a Liverpool-set crime story drawing on the old myths of the city, which very quickly becomes riddled with supernatural terror. If that isn’t enough to interest you, look at some of the other authors involved. I mean, it’s a no-brainer really, isn’t it.
On a similar subject, I’m going to mention, as I do every year around this time,  SEASON OF MIST , my autumnal coming-of-age horror novella, first published in 2010, and still available as a paperback, ebook and in Audible.
Looking beyond October 31, in fact probably from the day after November 5, we’ll be thinking increasingly about Christmas. And if you like Christmas spook stories, why not grab another novella of mine from 2010? 
SPARROWHAWK , one of my favourite pieces of work to date, is also available in ebook, paperback or Audible. 
It’s set in early Victorian London during a bitterly cold Christmas, wherein a range of festive spectres are summoned to confront an embittered veteran of the Afghan War.
On top of that, if Yuletide scare-fare is to your liking, you might also try IN A DEEP, DARK DECEMBER , or THE CHRISTMAS YOU DESERVE , two collections of my Christmas spook stories, which again are available in Kindle, paperback and Audible.

And now, to finish things off today, as promised ...


THRILLERS, CHILLERS, SHOCKERS AND KILLERS
Works of dark fiction  that I have recently read, thoroughly enjoyed and heartily recommend (sometimes with a few lighter ones mixed in).


BY BIZARRE HANDS by Joe R Lansdale (1989)

The weird preacher whose obsessive lunacy always brings death. The Gulf Coast camping trip that quickly turns hideous. The roving teen troublemakers who get far more trouble than they can handle. Lansdale’s first collection of short stories is a mixed bag of horror and crime, but written to perfection, packed with odious fragments of humanity, terrifying scenarios and fist-in-the-face violence so gut-thumpingly brutal that you’ll never forget it.

SATURDAY NIGHT AND SUNDAY MORNING by Alan Sillitoe (1958)

In the late 50s, a Nottingham factory worker causes domestic chaos with his drinking, his carryings-on with married women, and his general disrespect. All-time classic of working-class literature, still as raw, energised and passionate in the 2020s, and of course, flawlessly written, taking the reader right back to another time and place, making the boisterous world of the Angry Young Man as real today as it was then.

SOME WILL NOT SLEEP by Adam L.G. Nevill (2016)

‘The beautiful tall house on the hill’, where trespassers may suffer lifelong damage. The roommate engaged in something unspeakable. The innocent children menaced by the abominable pig thing. The isolated cottage in the Nordic wilds, and the monstrosity that calls it home. And much more. A masterclass in genuine, continuous terror. Nevill writes magnificent prose, but his stories cut like ripsaws.


ROOM AT THE TOP by John Braine (1957)

A former POW embarks on an ambitious career in an industrial Yorkshire town, using every trick in the book, and the local women, to advance his interests. Less an Angry Young Man diatribe, and more a bitter-sweet romance as a young tough learns the hard way that he’s a tad less pitiless than he thought. A stark picture of austerity-ridden postwar Britain, lovingly and handsomely evoked and deeply redolent of a land on the cusp of social revolt.

THE GRAVEYARD APARTMENT by Mariko Koike (1993)

A Tokyo family takes a new apartment amid a complex of old temples and derelict cemeteries, but soon wish they hadn’t. A real slow burner this one but jam-packed with all the typical jolts of eerie horror we find in Japanese spook stories, finally building to a bone-jarring climax. Koike writes with chilling effectiveness, while Deborah Boliver Boehm translates in style.

THE MONSTER OF FLORENCE by Douglas Preston and Mario Spezi (2008)
When US author Doug Preston moved to Italy, he became fascinated by a series of grotesque murders committed by ‘the Monster’, a predator who was still at large. His own investigation followed, and this is it. A masterclass in True Crime, packed with grim detail, but endlessly tense and intriguing (especially when the authors themselves become suspects!), and delving deep into Tuscan lore, arcane ritual, rumours of secret societies etc. As absorbing as any work of fiction.

HECK is back, ROGUE ready to pre-order

At long last I’m able to post this. The e-book of ROGUE, the next Heck novel, Number 8 in the series, is now available for pre-order right HERE, with the paperback to follow shortly.

It will officially be published on October 24, and all you have to do make sure you get it the moment it comes available is follow this LINK.

I’ve said this before and I’ll say it again, thanks very much to all of those Heck fans and loyal readers who encouraged and cajoled me with their messages and posts throughout the period when Heck was ‘off the air’. A change of publisher coincided (tremendously unfortunately) with the Covid crisis, and the Mark Heckenburg series was not the only project to hit the buffers because of this.

I wish we could have got things going again a little sooner, but looking back now, the world as I knew it after Covid was very different from the world before. People had left their positions and others’ priorities had changed. What once had been hot no longer was. The upshot was that it soon became apparent I was going to have to put in way more work than usual if I wanted to see the next DS Heckenburg novel, which was already written (and had been for a couple of years!), see the light of day.

Thankfully though, that time now has come. I’ll be talking a little bit more about it further down, when I offer you a first glimpse of the Dramatis Personae of this all-new Mark Heckenburg thriller.
In addition today, I’ll be posting another Thrillers, Chillers, hitting you all with another quick blurb for each of the novels or anthologies that I’ve recently read and been impressed by.
ROGUE Who’s Who
ROGUE picks up pretty much where KISS OF DEATH , the seventh Mark Heckenburg left off, Heck now on the trail of the two anonymous hitmen who gunned down 26 of his friends and colleagues and left him to take the blame. That’s all I’m going to say for now about the synopsis. If you can’t live without at least a little bit more, I suggest you get yourself over to the Amazon SITE , where it’s currently on pre-order, and feast on the slightly more extensive info we provide there. 
If, on the other hand, you simply MUST know everything, all I can say is get your order in. It isn’t too long until October 24.
And now, as promised, a rollcall of all the key characters in ROGUE (some of whom regular readers will recognise, some of whom are completely new to the saga) ...
Mark ‘Heck’ Heckenburg

Formerly a detective sergeant in the Serial Crimes Unit sub-section of the National Crime Group, currently on suspension. An instinct investigator rather than an analyst. Not exactly a maverick, but he does prefer to go it alone, and is constantly frustrated by what he considers the inadequacies of the job’s higher echelons. Can be ruthless but mostly is affable, though at present he’s carrying a lot of grief, along with a lot of suppressed anger.

Detective Constable Gail Honeyford

One of Heck’s best and most loyal friends in the job. She is feisty, outspoken and excitable, and sometimes insufficiently respectful of her supervisors, for which she often gets reprimanded.

Detective Chief Superintendent Gwen Straker

SIO on Operation Sledgehammer and a very popular supervisor, Gwen has a maternal style rather than a bossy one, but like all good mothers, she can be firm when it’s required. Very measured. Doesn’t get shouty but can lay the law down when she needs to.

Detective Inspector Jude Penhaligon

Internal Investigations officer, so an outsider from the start – but that doesn’t bother her. Very well educated, cool and analytical. Doesn’t miss much and rarely gets ruffled.

Director Joe Wullerton

Director of the National Crime Group, and one of Britain’s most senior and respected detectives. A gruff but approachable commander, who’s politically savvy enough to trust his top investigators (though he sometimes wonders why). Close to retirement but still a calm, capable leader.

Detective Superintendent Mike Garrickson

A throwback to the ‘good old days’. A diamond geezer who’s often so close to the underworld that he could equally be a villain. However, he’s deceptively clever and shouldn’t be underestimated.

Snake Fletcher

A classic inner-city toerag. A metalhead drug-user, spiv and sneak thief, who has also worked as Heck’s informer, though recently it’s become apparent that he has been playing for other teams. A weaselly, cowardly rat.

Dana Black

Heck’s older sister, and though she doesn’t always approve of his methods (and dislikes the cops anyway), she and he are the only two left of their family, and so the bond is tight. Very working class in her attitude and manner.

Leroy Butler

A former bank-robber but with a code of ethics. He dislikes the police but feels he owes Heck because Heck once took a terrible risk when he pulled his children out of a housefire.

Detective Constable Gary Quinnell

Another of Heck’s mates. Big boisterous character, a Welsh rugby union player and something of a roughneck even though he’s also a practising Christian. Tough as teak.

Kyle Armstrong

President of a Manchester Hells Angels chapter, and a dangerous, violent career criminal. At the same time, a cool, calculating customer who no one should underestimate. Devilishly handsome.

I should add that this isn't the entire list. The names and details of certain other participants have been withheld for the time being to avoid hitting you with any unfortunate SPOILERS.

THRILLERS, CHILLERS, SHOCKERS AND KILLERS
Works of dark fiction  that I have recently read, thoroughly enjoyed and heartily recommend (sometimes with a few lighter ones occasionally mixed in).

CHILD OF GOD by Cormac McCarthy (1973)

A rejected misanthrope goes it alone in the Appalachian wilderness and slowly degenerates into a predatory beast. Short but disturbing novel from the king of dark fables, and a far cry from the ‘subnormal mountain man’ horror some may expect, the antihero at its heart de-evolving through neglect and isolation. Sad, distressing, and a groundbreaker in its effort to understand extreme deviance.

THE ENTITY  by Frank De Felitta (1978)

An LA single mother is raped repeatedly by a half-seen being, but an investigating psychiatrist suspects it’s a painful delusion created by trauma. Non-sensational, psychologically complex but fictionalised account of true-life events that shocked America in the 1970s. More like a case study than a horror novel, highly intelligent and soberly paced, and though hair-raising in parts, cleverly keeping many possibilities open. 


MULADONA by Eric Stener Carlson (2016)

Texas 1918, the height of the Spanish Flu catastrophe. An abandoned boy falls victim to repeated visits by a demon, who, if his identity isn’t discovered during the course of seven terrifying tales, will drag him to Hell. Effective blend of Hispanic myth and occult horror, with a literary subtext about ignorance, fundamentalism and hypocrisy. Packed with full-on scares, and exquisitely written.


IMPERIUM by Robert Harris (2006)

The struggles of lawyer, Marcus Cicero, during the dying days of the Roman Republic. Political chicanery par excellence, set in a distant but not unfamiliar world, Harris hitting us with complex, intriguing tale and vividly evoking an era long gone.


GRENDEL by John Gardner (1971)

A retelling of the Dark Age poem but from the perspective of its main antagonist, Grendel. A marvel of fantasy fiction from an author who left us too soon. Mythology, philosophy and much metaphysical pondering combine to create a thinking man’s epic, complete with comedy, tragedy, heroism and brutality. At the same time a study of isolation, which asks lots of questions but provides no easy answers. A stunning literary feat, well worth its ‘modern classic’ status.

TESTIMONY by Mark Chadbourn (2014)

True case of an idyllic Welsh farm, which malignant spirits soon turn into a literal Hell. A British Amityville minus the charlatanism, the eerie tale of Heol Fanog is better known now after recent TV publicity, but for the full skinny read this excellent study by Mark Chadbourn, who flexes his journalist muscles in leaving no stone unturned to hunt an elusive truth. Very thorough, very engrossing, very frightening.

A host of devils arriving here this autumn

You’re probably all getting sick of reading about ROGUE, the next Mark Heckenburg novel (which is out this October). But today, you’re not going to need to read about it. You can hear about it instead.

Because, exclusively in today’s column, I’ve posted a clip of my good self reading the book’s prologue. In addition today, because I’ve got lots more to report in this second half of 2024, I’ll be intro’ing two new novellas I have out by offering you, in each case, the official blurb from the book’s back cover, and a couple of choice snippets.

Hopefully, you’ll find all this sufficiently interesting to stick around for a few minutes. However, I know that time is often short, and so, without further ado, let's get cracking with the ...

New titles
Those who are eagerly awaiting ROGUE - and I’m really delighted that you’ve made yourself known to me, because it proves that there is still a sizeable chunk of readers out there who are dying to know what happens next in the Heck universe - should be pleased to hear that as the final proof-read is now complete (here it is above, in progress), the book has now gone off to be typeset and the production wheels are rolling.

Anyway, there’s been enough teasing done about this. Let’s get into the meat ...

Here is ROGUE, the (four-minute) Prologue ...


Hope you all enjoyed that.

There is still a bit of time to go between now and publication - we haven’t got an actual pre-order date yet, but rest assured, it’ll be on here at torpedo speed when we do. However, you can now buy either or both of my two new novellas this autumn.

First up, we have another Heck outing. This one was is set several years ago, before the recent catastrophic events. It’s called KILLER INSTINCT .

I’ll start with a blurb, and after that a juicy snippet:
When a frantic burglar tells Heck that he’s found photographs of ghastly crime scenes in a privately-owned cellar, Heck initially treats it with scepticism ... but then remembers that there are many gruesome murders in the unsolved file. 
Alarmed, he wonders if the Serial Crimes Unit has missed a particularly vicious assailant. And yet none of this sickening evidence marries up. The locations are different, the implements are different, the methods used, though in all cases terrifying, range widely across the spectrum of tortured insanity.
These can’t all be victims of the same perpetrator. But if that isn’t the case, what in God’s name is going on here?
And now the snippet ...

Metal clattered again, and a pair of headlamps sprang into life. With a low, clunky rumble, a vehicle emerged along the shadowy passage. A white high-sided van, battered, rusty and dented, an empty steel rack occupying its roof.
     It halted at the alley entrance, signalling to go right. It was difficult to see who was behind the wheel, but in truth it could only be one person. Heck hurried around the first of the idling taxis and leaned in at the passenger window.  
     ‘Do you take card?’
     The driver, a hefty bloke wearing a khaki jacket and a flat cap, nodded. ‘Sure do.’
     ‘Good. I’ll give you two hundred minimum …’ across the road, the van turned right, ‘if you follow that van.’
     The driver pulled a face. ‘Don’t waste my time, mate.’
     ‘I guarantee you I’m not, but we’ve got to go now, or we’ll lose him.’
     Along the road, the van stopped at a red light. The driver meanwhile gave Heck a long, quizzical look. ‘This really happens?’
     ‘It’s a first for me too.’
     ‘I dunno. Who are you?’
     Heck showed his warrant card. ‘Police.’
     ‘Two hundred?’ The driver pursed his lip. ‘Make it three and we’re on.’
     ‘Deal.’ Heck jumped in.     The van left Upminster by zigzagging its way through several residential housing estates before hitting the open countryside.
     ‘The hell?’ the taxi driver muttered. ‘Is he lost?’
     ‘Far from it,’ Heck replied.
     ‘This a real bad boy, then?’
     ‘To be honest … I don’t know.’
     ‘You don’t know?’
     ‘Never can tell,’ Heck said. ‘So, stay on him. But keep it nice and steady, eh? Let’s not give him a heads-up.’
     ‘Bloody hell.’ The driver looked shaken, as though it had taken him this long to realise what it was he’d undertaken. ‘Is he armed?’
     ‘Again, I don’t know.’
     ‘Lord help us! And I only charged you three hundred ...’
    Still with us? Good, because here is the next of the year’s new releases.
ALL THE DEVILS ARE HERE , from Absinthe Books, is a project I haven’t spoken about very much, because all discussions were embargoed until last month, when it was launched at Worldcon in Glasgow. This one is another cop story, but it’s a cop story with a difference. While it has the trappings of a crime thriller, it’s actually, as you may deduce from Greg Chapman’s amazing artwork, an occult horror.
I won’t say anything else about it at present, except that, here’s the official blurb, and following that, a choice extract:
The midnight cathedral filled with fire The leather-clad monstrosity that kills with a spiked mace The unholy pact between man and demon
Cynical London cop, Dora “Mac” McDougal, of the Metropolitan Police’s elite Organised Crime Command, has a strike-rate that is second-to-none, mainly because of her cavalier approach to rules and regulations. However, when Mac discovers the whereabouts of a cop-killer whom she has a personal beef with, she literally throws caution to the wind.

This animal in human form took out the only guy she ever cared about. And only one response is possible to that.

However, when Mac’s off-the-books revenge mission takes her north, she finds herself in a woe-begotten town, itself in the grip of supernatural evil. And uncovers a devilish plot to unleash torturous death on an epic scale.

Throughout her twenty-year war against the nation’s deadliest criminals, Mac could never have dreamed how many lower levels of darkness there still are, all just waiting to unleash their malevolent forces.

And here’s the sneak preview I mentioned ...
With a sweeping right hand, it struck her across the face. It wasn’t a punch so much as a raking talon, the extended nails on their shrivelled, stick fingers rending her cheek open. With frantic squeals, she kicked and punched. Another shot went wild above their heads before she released the weapon, and forced herself through the next gate into the garden itself.
     Here, it was all knee-deep thorns and bracken, which tangled her legs and threw her down. As she scrambled to her feet, the thing caught up with her again, the fog of its foetor overwhelming as it clenched its fist in the collar of her jacket and hurled her sideways. She flew through the undergrowth, slamming hard into a solid upright beam or post, which knocked all the breath and stuffing from her, the blow to her ribs so fierce that she thought she’d pass out. She had to wrap her arms around it just to stay on her feet.
     Again, she sensed the thing looming up behind. She swung around, fists balled, but already it was onto her, those wiry talons clamped on her throat as it shoved her back into the post. The face was an inch from hers. Even in the red-tinged gloom, she saw those lifeless, sunken orbs, the nasal gap where the nose had fallen away, the sagging lower jaw hanging from wasted, string-like muscles ...

Heck returns, on a mission of total revenge

I’m not going to beat around the bush. Heck is back, ROGUE, the eighth novel in the series, is due for publication on October 1 this year, and today, as you can see, we are proud to reveal the cover.

Yes, you heard that rightly. After a lengthy break, imposed on us by unforeseen circumstances, the DS Mark Heckenburg saga resumes. 

The next book, ROGUE, which picks up the story only a couple of months after the last one ended, will be available in paperback and ebook from early October. Be assured, we will shout the actual publication date from the rooftops and post the pre-order details all over the place just as soon as that info is available.

If anyone ’ s a bit concerned by that, perhaps worried that they can ’ t remember what had happened or where we were up to, don ’ t worry, we ’ ll have a quick recap further down this column.

In addition today, though I don’t tend to do my very fulsome book reviews anymore - sadly, they were taking too much time - I’ll be covering a few titles I’ve recently read and enjoyed, but much more briefly and succinctly than before. As usual, you’ll find that at the bottom end of today’s blogpost.

First though, let’s talk about ...

Heck
Before anything else, here’s the official blurb:
A ONE-WAY TICKET ALONG A ROAD OF NO RETURN
They shot everyone. His friends, his colleagues, the woman he loved. And then they vanished into the night. But they left one clue. A clue by which he knows he can track them to their lair. And when he gets there, he’s going to kill them all. Or die in the effort.
Detective Sergeant Mark ‘Heck’ Heckenburg has a reputation for bending the rules, but when a ruthless gun attack on a North London pub leaves 26 of his closest workmates dead, he throws the rulebook away.

Devastated beyond recovery, he goes rogue.

But Heck himself is a suspect. Suspended from duty and watched day and night, it isn’t just a matter of eluding the surveillance net in London, and so when he makes his move, he becomes a fugitive, an outlaw now infamous across the whole of the UK.

And yet that’s the least of his problems. Because as Heck heads north through the wintry badlands of industrial England, and from there into the mountainous wilds of the Scottish Highlands, the killers and their acolytes, who know full well that he is coming, have prepared accordingly, and some deadly and deranged individuals are lying in wait …

Another hard-as-nails addition to the hugely popular crime series. Ideal reading for fans of MW Craven, Stuart MacBride and Lee Child ...

*
If any newcomers to the Heck novel series are reading this, you’d be advised, being honest, to start at the beginning. But don’t get me wrong. You can read ROGUE as a stand-alone thriller, though you’d probably get more enjoyment out of it if you had some backstory.

The Heck series follows the investigations of a ‘lone wolf’ copper who is reassigned from the Greater Manchester Police to the Metropolitan Police after a fall-out with his family, and who then blazes a trail with his unique brand of stop-at-nothing policing, finally ending up a detective sergeant in the National Crime Group’s elite Serial Crimes Unit (SCU), whose remit is pursuit and capture of the UK’s most dangerous and violent psychopaths.

Not yet counting ROGUE (published on October 1 this year), there are seven Mark Heckenburg novels: STALKERS, SACRIFICE , THE KILLING CLUB , DEAD MAN WALKING , HUNTED , ASHES TO ASHES and KISS OF DEATH . 
In addition, there are two Heck short stories out there, A WANTED MAN and DEATH’S DOOR , the former available on Kindle on 99p, the latter free to read, and one novella, BRIGHTLY SHONE THE MOON THAT NIGHT , which you can also read free of charge on my own blog, by following these links: PART 1 , PART 2 , PART 3 .
The central arc of the Heck stories is his on/off romance with Gemma Piper, a young female detective he met on first arriving in London, and whom he commenced an intense relationship with. They were fire and water, to put it mildly, Gemma the ultimate by-the-book ‘straight bat’, Heck the rule-bender extraordinaire. This, though a constant bone of contention between them, wasn’t the main reason their relationship broke down. It was more the case that Heck, in the pig-headed fashion of all men everywhere, became frustrated by his girlfriend’s very fast ascent through the ranks, while he, through his famous lack of political acumen, remained anchored at the level of detective sergeant, though he himself would often admit (usually under pressure) that he’d turned down several offers of promotion because he’d ‘rather be an investigator than an administrator’.

Either way, the scene was set for a dramatic new stage in their relationship, when he arrived at the Serial Crimes Unit to find that Gemma, by this time a detective superintendent, was its senior supervisor. Despite all this baggage, their professional partnership would prove to be productive, Gemma constantly rollocking Heck but at the same time giving him plenty room to employ his eccentric, often high-risk methods, enabling him to snag some seriously nasty criminals.

But things came to a head in KISS OF DEATH ...

Warning for SPOILERS for the next three paragraphs.

... when at the end of a particularly difficult and dangerous enquiry, Operation Sledgehammer, the entire SCU team convene in a North London pub, the Ace of Diamonds, when two unknown gunmen open up on them with automatic weapons. A massacre results, with 26 killed and numerous others critically wounded. Heck survives, but Gemma is among the shot.

It was one of those horror endings, which usually leave readers gagging for more, but which in this case, through unavoidable circumstances (as outlined in earlier blogposts) became more than just a short-lived cliff-hanger as months and months, and then years and years passed, while I found myself working on other projects.

But, as I say, that wait is now over. ROGUE will be the eighth novel in the Heck series, arriving in October, and taking up the story just a couple of months down the line after KISS OF DEATH , with the fallout from the Ace of Diamonds shootings still descending everywhere, chaos in the upper echelons of the police, and one man absolutely determined that, come hell or high water, he will avenge the fallen.

THRILLERS, CHILLERS, SHOCKERS AND KILLERS

JUMP CUT by Helen Grant (2023)

What hellish secrets might ancient cans of film contain? When the quest for a lost movie leads a keen researcher to a remote Scottish mansion, she has a uniquely terrifying experience. Stately paced blood-curdler from our uncrowned queen of the supernatural. Exquisitely written, rising to some genuinely hair-raising chills, and packed with fearsome antagonists both living and dead.

THE HAUNTED by Bentley Little (2012)

A troubled family moves to New Mexico, and find themselves in a suburban house where terror dwells. The master of curious horror channels Amityville in what at first feels like a standard haunted houser but soon turns into a penetrating study of stress, torment and family collapse. Not exactly terrifying, but the scares work well enough, while the power lies in the deep emotional impact.

JULIA by Peter Straub (aka FULL CIRCLE) (1976)

An unhinged woman descends into total madness, convinced she is being stalked by a demonic child. Interesting first horror novel from Straub, and though it drags in parts, and is a tad cluttered with protracted description, there are moments of high horror, the tension builds to breaking point, and the question constantly nags: is this evil the real deal or the phantom of a despairing psyche?

THIS IS MIDNIGHT by Bernard Taylor (2019)

The US tourist in London who becomes too obsessed with the tale of serial killer, John Christie. The neglected baby who takes revenge on its slatternly young mother. The misguided scientist and his ill-advised work with a praying mantis. Excellent range of horror and suspense from one of Britain’s forgotten masters. More great work from Valancourt Books.

SEEKING WHOM HE MAY DEVOUR by Fred Vargas (2008)

When a mysterious predator in the French Alps switches from killing sheep to killing people, a detective par excellence is called in. Despite its hallmarks of the classic werewolf tale, we’re in firm crime thriller territory here. May have suffered a little in translation, but engaging all the same, at times uproariously funny and with a quality twist at the end. A fun read for dark fiction fans.

THE NIGHT CHURCH by Whitley Strieber (1983)

Young lovers try to break free from the Satanic cult who groomed them and now seek to replace mankind with a monstrous master race. Hit and miss horror thriller, but an effective blending of arcane mystery, demonic evil and modern day bio-terrorism. Despite uncharacteristically dull execution, a basically daft idea is handled convincingly and laced with shock moments.

ONCE A PILGRIM by James Deegan (2018)

In the post-Ceasefire era, a former IRA commander plots a long revenge on the ex-SAS man who killed his brothers, only for his opponent to slowly turn the tables. Hard-as-nails military thriller from a genuine SAS trooper, superbly written and reeking of authenticity. The horrific violence and ultra-dark undertone of unending hatred won’t suit everyone, but it’s compulsive reading.

ELEVEN KINDS OF LONELINESS by Richard Yates (1957)

Sobering collection of tales from ‘50s America, courtesy of a very fine author who never enjoyed real recognition during his life. The schoolkid who brings isolation on himself. The tough drill sergeant who can’t compete in a world of postwar bureaucracy. The wannabe writer conned into turning a cab-driver’s life into literature. Sad, funny and thought-provoking.

Heck returns this autumn in all new novel

I’m absolutely delighted to announce that the Mark Heckenburg crime series will recommence in the autumn of this year, with a scheduled publication date of mid-October.

There. I’ve said it, I’m committed to it and nothing will change it. 

I know that for fans of the Heck novels there have been false daws previously, which has been agonising for me as well, I assure you. But all the days of uncertainty at last are over, and I’ll be bringing the next novel out - it’s called ROGUE, and will be the eighth in the Heck series - in time for the Christmas market. It’s been a long and difficult road, this, and I’ll explain a little bit about the problems that have arisen.

First though, as a quick interlude, just a quick reminder that there will be no Terror Tales volume this year, as my bandwidth is simply too full, but that we’ll be making up for it next year with a bumper edition, TERROR TALES OF CHAOS, as provided by a host of top horror names. 

And now, back to the main news item of the day ...

Heck returns

The Heck series was a great success for me. The first batch of Heck novels ran from 2012 until 2018. There were seven in total, but also a number of short stories and novellas. 

They follow the investigations of a young detective sergeant attached to the Serial Crimes Unit, a subsection of the National Grime Group (a kind of British version of the FBI, and before anyone says anything, the first of these books was published before the National Crime Agency was born, so as I always say, Scotland Yard got the idea from me).

As a cop whose brief is to follow the very worst of the worst - serial killers and rapists, hitmen, torturers and other violent psychopaths who are all deemed likely to continue their reigns of terror until brought to book - Heck has got himself into some unenviable scrapes over the years, and thanks to his unit’s remit to cover the whole of England and Wales, has pursued ultra-dangerous offenders in locations as far apart as the Thames estuary, Sunderland, the Lake District, Manchester and even on occasion, in the wilds of the Scottish Highlands. 

At the core of the overarching story sits Heck’s difficult relationship with his ex-girlfriend, Gemma Piper, who by this time, as the detective superintendent in charge of the Serial Crimes Unit (or SCU), had become his senior supervisor.

Heck and Gemma had originally split up for spurious reasons (mainly Heck’s) and by the time the books start, have a purely professional relationship, though of course things can never be that simple.

Throughout the books and stories, they unsuccessfully try to keep each other at arm’s length. In fact, they hold each other in such unspoken affection that simply concealing it is difficult, though increasingly not so much for Gemma, who as the straightest bat in the police service is endlessly frustrated by Heck’s more chaotic approach to the job.

Basically, Heck will stop at nothing to shut down the careers of those he considers to be enemies of society. And this isn’t just restricted to playing every trick in the book. If necessary, he can and will strongarm his targets. Of course, that’s a dangerous game in the modern police era. You can end up in prison yourself, which for Heck would be a death sentence. So, he continually walks a perilous tightrope through the world of law enforcement, as often at odds with his own side as with the opposition.

What happened?

The reason the Heck series came to its temporary halt in 2018, with KISS OF DEATH the most recent caper in chronological terms, is purely technical. 

In short, I changed publishers. 

Avon Books were part of HarperCollins, who enabled me to create the Heck series, and I had many happy years rolling out the novels for them. When I moved to Orion in 2020, they were willing to continue the series under their banner - which was amazingly generous of them, given that Heck had never been their original character - but in the end, it was my own decision to write stand-alones for Orion. Two of these books were produced: ONE EYE OPEN and NEVER SEEN AGAIN. Again, they were no holds barred crime thrillers, set in the same universe as Heck (the National Crime Group and the Serial Crimes Unit were all referenced, though Heck himself didn’t appear).

After writing a couple of historical novels for Canelo - USURPER and BATTLE LORD - something I was simply desperate to do, I’ve now returned to the crime fiction scene with Thomas & Mercer, who have commissioned two more stand-alone novels, DEATH LIST and THE MURDER TOUR. Again, these are not Heck novels, but seeing that they are only slated for publication in 2025, T&M have very graciously allowed me to bring the next Heck novel out this year.

Anyway, that’s the background stuff. Now ...

Where do we pick up?

The Heck series resumes a very short time after KISS OF DEATH.

For those new to the series, KISS OF DEATH saw Gemma Piper’s Serial Crimes Unit, under dire threat of being axed in order to save costs, and thus put under joint-command with the Cold Cases Team (helmed by Detective Chief Superintendent Gwen Straker) with the codename Operation Sledgehammer, and

 assigned to bring in the 20 most dangerous wanted fugitives from UK justice who are still believed to be in mainland Britain.

The whereabouts of these various killers are unknown, but all of them are classified as Category A, aka they are wanted in connection with the most heinous crimes imaginable and are capable of homicidal violence at the drop of a hat.

For example, Leonard Spate is chief suspect in the murder of a his ex-girlfriend and then the burning down of the Carlisle house in which her two children were sleeping, while Patrick Hallahan is believed to have committed a restaurant robbery in Slough, where two members of staff and a customer were shot dead, and Malcolm Kaye is the suspected deviant who’s been raping and strangling sex workers in Liverpool.

Heck, now working with his new SCU partner, the spiky but spirited Detective Constable Gail Honeyford (whom we first met in HUNTED ), is sent in pursuit of Eddie Creeley, a career bank robber, whose last job saw him abduct a bank manager and his wife, and murder the latter by injecting her with battery acid.   

Immediately, though he’s focussed on capturing Creeley, Heck is mystified that so many of these ultra-violent offenders have gone missing. Have they themselves become a target for someone?

What follows is a investigation fraught with danger, as Heck and Honeyford follow Creeley’s twisting trail from Humberside back to London and finally to Cornwall, in the process entering the world of high-level organised crime, where vengeance can be enacted on recalcitrant elements by forcing them to fight each other to the death in hideous gladiatorial combats.

In case there are any folks reading this who haven’t yet read KISS OF DEATH, I won’t say any more about how the book pans out, but I do need to mention that once all the dust has apparently settled, it culminates in a truly horrific event, which nobody involved saw coming, and which sets the scene for ROGUE, a Heck thriller which ultimately is as much about revenge as law enforcement.

My recommendation would be that, if you haven’t already read KISS OF DEATH, do so before you pick up ROGUE. But if you’d rather not, you can rest assured that ROGUE stands on its own merits; I’ve endeavoured from the start to make it crystal clear what is happening and why, and to ensure that not having read the previous volume will NOT spoil your enjoyment of it.

Dear All ... ROGUE is a book I’ve been dying to launch into the public domain. The final processes are now underway, and, as I say, it will be published this autumn, most likely in October. But keep watching this space for lots of updates re. artwork, blurbs, book trailers, pre-order details and so forth.