The Society of Dirty Hearts

by Ben Cheetham

There's a darkness lying just under the surface of Julian Harris's young mind. He has bad dreams. Very bad dreams in which he sees himself rape and murder teenage girls. Sometimes they seem more like visions than dreams. More and more he fears his dreams will spill over into the waking world and he'll become the monster he is in them.

There's a darkness lying just under the surface of Julian Harris's picture-perfect hometown too. A schoolgirl is missing. Julian is convinced there's something sinister behind her disappearance, but the police think otherwise. The girl comes from a bad background. She hung out with petty criminals and junkies. Some people think the town is better off without her.

Julian isn't one of those people. Neither is Mia Bradshaw, a disturbed, self-harming orphan and the best-friend of the missing girl. Drawn to each other by a desire to find out the truth, Julian and Mia form a bond that goes beyond friendship or sexual attraction into something neither of them understands. When Mia goes missing, Julian's desire turns into obsession - an obsession that leads him to a depraved underworld of drugs, prostitution, blackmail and murder headed by a man who seems to have stepped straight out of his nightmares.

230 pages, Kindle Edition

First published July 22, 2011

About the author

Ben Cheetham is an award-winning writer and Pushcart Prize nominee. His writing spans the genres, from horror and sci-fi to literary fiction, but he has a passion for dark, gritty crime fiction. His short stories have been published in Swill Magazine, The Fiction Desk, Deadcore (Comet Press), The London Magazine, The Willisden Herald New Short Stories 3, The Grist Anthology of New Writing, Dream Catcher, Staple, Fast Forward: A Collection of Flash Fiction, Voice From The Planet (Harvard Square Editions), The Momaya Annual Review, Transmission, The Chaffey Review, and numerous other magazines.

Ben lives in Sheffield, UK, where - when he's not chasing around after his two-year old son - he spends most of his time locked away in his study racking his brain for the next paragraph, the next sentence, the next word.

Reviews

[Darren Sant · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Society of Dirty Hearts is the story of a young man's descent into obsession, addiction and depravity. Julian is a lad born with a silver spoon in his mouth. His father owns a long-standing shoe manufacturing company that has recently fallen on hard times. Julian wants for nothing and all should be well in his world.

At the start of the story he is a personable and pleasant youth who you can't help but like. However, following a traumatic event in his childhood he is a troubled soul who is plagued by dreams in which he commits unspeakable acts of violence. Julian bumps into Mia, a fifteen year old girl that he feels inexplicably drawn to. In an attempt to understand this connection he spends time with her. She is a wild child with a dark past and events soon spiral out of control for both Mia and Julian.

I am rapidly becoming a big fan of Cheetham's very accomplished narrative. This is the second of his works that I've read and I quickly became thoroughly immersed in the plot. Ben Cheetham has much in common with Allan Guthrie in that he seems to enjoy systematically destroying his characters one chapter at a time and like Guthrie he does this in a credible, believable and exciting fashion.

I'm quite a canny reader and often guess the twist before it comes, not so with this novel. Cheetham kept the tension and suspense up right until the very last word. A thrilling exploration into the darkness that is held within us all. This is very much an adult novel in theme and content. I was left satisfied in the knowledge that I’d had a great read. I wouldn’t hesitate to recommend this novel to others.

[Val · Rating 3 out of 5]

Girls going missing at regular intervals in a small town. Some bodies show up, others vanish. Local police suspect drugs or suicide. But when a university student stumbles upon a body it becomes his mission to get to the bottom of the disappearances. This psychological thriller plunges Julian into a murky world of prostitution, drugs, blackmail and murder.

[Michelle · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a decent read.
Don't be fooled by false truths when you live in a place where everyone knows each other.
It is not always idyllic.

[Richard · Rating 5 out of 5]

I have been “writing” this review for a couple days. This book has been hard to wrap my mind around. This was an awesome book. I’ve even recommended it to people already. I just couldn’t figure out how to review it.

To say I really enjoyed this book doesn’t seen quite strong enough, but to say I loved it seems awkward since this book is so dark. It’s so well crafted, so gritty and real, so…I just can’t find the right words.

The characters are three-dimensional. They’re genuine. You relate to them. Even though they were completely opposite from me, and I’ve never been through anything like them. But you felt for them, wanted them to succeed, to survive, to excel. Through all the drugging and alcoholing and violence and sex, you still rooting for them!

But I was always a little wary of Julian. I just couldn’t ever figure out what was going on with him. And that was a unique aspect of this book, that you wanted to give-in and trust Julian completely, but there was always a reason to hold back, always something there that just wasn’t right about him.

Cheetham ensnared me in the web of his inescapable story. I felt like a junkie needing a fix—I had to know what was happening next and couldn’t get enough of this book. If I could have mainlined this book, I would have. Then my supply ran out.

I used up all the words in The Society of Dirty Hearts, flipped all the pages. I’ve been going through withdrawal. Cheetham ends then book, but leaves so many questions unanswered, so many blanks left empty.

And I needed a fix, so I emailed Ben a Totally Impromptu Interview. {To read the interview, please visit My Review}

5 Trees: Addictive and unnerving!

Now…

Go buy this book…

And…

Get to reading,
Richard


*This book was provided to me by the author in exchange for an honest review*

[Cheryl M-M · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read this in one session last night and have to say this would make a great "Twin Peaksesque" modern series a la What happened to Mia Bradshaw? The main character comes back from Uni to find that a young girl has gone missing, unfortunately he is the one that finds her. I don't want to rehash the story, because even the smallest detail would be a spoiler. Julian is plagued by dreams of a violent nature, which are so realistic he isn't sure where dream begins and reality stops. I thought the dream sequences were a great window into Julians subconscious feelings and perhaps even more violent nature. Then again perhaps that is exactly what the writer is saying, that we all have the capacity to commit heinous acts of violence, it just depends on how high each individuals threshold is when it comes to making a choice. I felt the story describes the nature of the beast our society is confronted with, in which people who have the ability to buy or do anything they want, choose to cross the threshold, because human life is just one more thing they can buy. It comes very close to the global and non global powerful men set ups we see across the planet, they are just never brought to justice because they are in powerful positions and pull the strings. That brings me to another element of the story, which I found interesting. How children, teenagers and even adults can dissapear without a trace and they have no one looking for them, because the system has made them inconsequential in the first place. In essence like catching and putting down stray dogs. Some of the sub plots didn't seem to connect to the main one as well as they could have, but I put that down to the Noir like style. I received a complimentary copy of this book.

[Fiona Johnson · Rating 4 out of 5]

Julian has very bad nightmares, well he calls them nightmares but they seem more real than that; more like premonitions. He sees himself rape then murder a teenage girl and can feel the sexual pleasure he gets from this. Julian, a college student, is pretty much screwed up and can't sleep for fear of the dreams returning and terrified that he may actually be the person he becomes in his dreams. Doctor Jekyll and Mr. Hide, eat your heart out!

Way back in his childhood (enter mad granny) Julian inadvertently walked in on one of granny's seances and saw gran in full flight; glazed eyes, deep voice, saliva dribbling down her chin - enough to scare any wean! Now that he's older, he fears that he has inherited some of granny's talents for finding murdered girls so when a young girl in his hometown vanishes, Julian can't keep away and becomes entwined in the nasty goings on of small town life that are usually swept well underneath the carpet.

Great story form Mr. Cheetham, well told, fast paced and engaging. Julian discovers that adults aren't always what teenagers believe them to be in this coming of age tale.

[Lisa Wightman · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this book and found that it was much better written than the previous book I had read by this author. I really got drawn in and found myself reading till well into the night. My only gripe would be the amount of alcohol the main character drank without appearing to be totally inebriated.... He carried on having conversations, working and driving after downing bottles of whisky and not sleeping for days. Seems like a stupid thing to get hung up on, but for me, it really grated!

[Lisa-Jaine · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a very interesting book. I never quite knew where it was taking me or how my journey would end. Julian is battling the demons within himself and has very dark dreams. He finds a missing girl dead in the forest and that is just the start as this dark story unfolds. Its very hard to talk about the plot without giving away any spoilers but a very dark atmospheric read.

[Charlotte Brough · Rating 1 out of 5]

This is one of the worst books I've ever finished. It was badly written, with a twist that was obvious quite early on, with random strings of plot that didn't go anywhere or tie in with the main plot at all. It needed editing, or just binning. I never bother with reviews but I had to write one to warn people off bothering.

[Laura Elisabeth · Rating 3 out of 5]

Tools awhile to get into this book. Although I pretty much had guessed many of the elements, I still enjoyed the book. Cheetham is a very talented writer, only zombie appocalse to read now then I've finished his novels to date!