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Dark of the Sun
Harry Beck has a carefree life in the Bahamas, with few responsibilities and fewer commitments.
His peaceful life is shattered when people are brutally killed, his friend goes missing, his home is ransacked and the girl who crews for him is tortured and left for dead.
When evidence that a cartel of rich and influential people are using the Bahamas as a gateway through which to traffic children from Haiti and Cuba points to his missing friend, Harry is forced to fight back.
In a thrilling story of friendship, murder, and betrayal, set against the idyllic background of the Bahamas, Harry Beck is forced to re-evaluate his life, and make some difficult choices about his future and, reluctantly, take responsibility and show commitment to those he holds dear.
He has two friends from boyhood. Can he trust either? Can he trust anyone?
His peaceful life is shattered when people are brutally killed, his friend goes missing, his home is ransacked and the girl who crews for him is tortured and left for dead.
When evidence that a cartel of rich and influential people are using the Bahamas as a gateway through which to traffic children from Haiti and Cuba points to his missing friend, Harry is forced to fight back.
In a thrilling story of friendship, murder, and betrayal, set against the idyllic background of the Bahamas, Harry Beck is forced to re-evaluate his life, and make some difficult choices about his future and, reluctantly, take responsibility and show commitment to those he holds dear.
He has two friends from boyhood. Can he trust either? Can he trust anyone?
- GenresThriller
332 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2013
1 person is currently reading
273 people want to read
About the author
Maynard Sims
72 books36 followersMAYNARD SIMS www.maynard-sims.com
The DCI Jack Callum series of crime novels - No Evil,Prime Evil and For Her Sins with The Detective Jack Callum Trilogy. The Bahamas series of thriller novels - Touching The Sun, Calling Down The Lightning, and Raging Against The Storm. The Department 18 series of supernatural crime novels - Black Cathedral, Night Souls, The Eighth Witch, A Plague Of Echoes, and Mother Of Demons. The crime novels Let Death Begin, Through The Sad Heart, and Falling Apart At The Edges. The supernatural novels, Shelter, Demon Eyes, Nightmare City, Stronghold, and Stillwater. The erotic romance novels, under a pseudonym, - The Love Project and The Romance Project.
One screenplay, based on the first two Department 18 books, won the 2013 British Horror Film Festival Award for Best New Screenplay.
Numerous stories have been published in a variety of anthologies and magazines. Collections include, Shadows At Midnight, 1979 and 1999 (revised and enlarged), Echoes Of Darkness, 2000, Incantations, 2002, two retrospective collections of their stories, essays and interviews, The Secret Geography Of Nightmare and Selling Dark Miracles, both 2002, Falling Into Heaven 2004, The Odd Ghosts, 2011, and Flame And Other Enigmatic Tales, and A Haunting Of Ghosts, both 2012. Their tenth collection of ghost stories and strange tales – Death’s Sweet Echo – which includes all their recent and new stories, many of them previously unpublished, is 2016.
Novellas, The Hidden Language Of Demons, The Seminar, His Other Son, and Convalescence have been published in 2002, 2003, 2013 and 2015 respectively. All their stories and novellas have been reprinted in eight uniform volumes through The Maynard Sims Library in 2014. An erotic romance novella, First Time Love, 2015 and First Time Arousal, 2016. Devil is a 2016 crime novella..
They worked as editors on the nine volumes of Darkness Rising anthologies. They co-edited and published F20 with The British Fantasy Society. As editors/publishers they ran Enigmatic Press in the UK, which produced Enigmatic Tales, and its sister titles. They have written essays. They still do commissioned editing projects, most recently Dead Water, and the Capital Crimes anthology for the ITW. They do ghost writing commissions.
Email contact can be made at ms@micksims.f9.co.uk
Find Maynard Sims on most social media - links are on the website
The DCI Jack Callum series of crime novels - No Evil,Prime Evil and For Her Sins with The Detective Jack Callum Trilogy. The Bahamas series of thriller novels - Touching The Sun, Calling Down The Lightning, and Raging Against The Storm. The Department 18 series of supernatural crime novels - Black Cathedral, Night Souls, The Eighth Witch, A Plague Of Echoes, and Mother Of Demons. The crime novels Let Death Begin, Through The Sad Heart, and Falling Apart At The Edges. The supernatural novels, Shelter, Demon Eyes, Nightmare City, Stronghold, and Stillwater. The erotic romance novels, under a pseudonym, - The Love Project and The Romance Project.
One screenplay, based on the first two Department 18 books, won the 2013 British Horror Film Festival Award for Best New Screenplay.
Numerous stories have been published in a variety of anthologies and magazines. Collections include, Shadows At Midnight, 1979 and 1999 (revised and enlarged), Echoes Of Darkness, 2000, Incantations, 2002, two retrospective collections of their stories, essays and interviews, The Secret Geography Of Nightmare and Selling Dark Miracles, both 2002, Falling Into Heaven 2004, The Odd Ghosts, 2011, and Flame And Other Enigmatic Tales, and A Haunting Of Ghosts, both 2012. Their tenth collection of ghost stories and strange tales – Death’s Sweet Echo – which includes all their recent and new stories, many of them previously unpublished, is 2016.
Novellas, The Hidden Language Of Demons, The Seminar, His Other Son, and Convalescence have been published in 2002, 2003, 2013 and 2015 respectively. All their stories and novellas have been reprinted in eight uniform volumes through The Maynard Sims Library in 2014. An erotic romance novella, First Time Love, 2015 and First Time Arousal, 2016. Devil is a 2016 crime novella..
They worked as editors on the nine volumes of Darkness Rising anthologies. They co-edited and published F20 with The British Fantasy Society. As editors/publishers they ran Enigmatic Press in the UK, which produced Enigmatic Tales, and its sister titles. They have written essays. They still do commissioned editing projects, most recently Dead Water, and the Capital Crimes anthology for the ITW. They do ghost writing commissions.
Email contact can be made at ms@micksims.f9.co.uk
Find Maynard Sims on most social media - links are on the website
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Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews
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July 11, 2015This is copy number 4 of 100 signed and numbered copies.
Signed by:
Len Maynard
Lee Sims
Signed by:
Len Maynard
Lee Sims
January 13, 2013
In the peaceful setting of the Bahamas, Harry Beck, a laid-back sea charter captain, who seems to excel in not having lofty ambitions, enjoying the lack of stress of the status quo, finds himself caught up in murder, mystery and mayhem. A cartel of rich and influential people are using the Bahamas as a gateway through which to traffic children from Haiti and Cuba. One of Harry's best friends is involved and Harry must step up to the plate and get involved to stop the madness.
People are dying, being beaten to near death, Harry is threatened, his place ransacked, he doesn't know who to trust. People he has known all of his life are not who they seem to be. Is that because Harry didn't bother to really know them? How could they have had such a dark and brutal side he was unaware of? Can he stop what is happening? How did he get involved?
With an edgy quality, Maynard Sims has written a great mystery thriller that has layer upon layer of intrigue. Harry is like a sleeping bear who has been awakened to a strange, new world. Trust me, he is not hero material, but manages to stumble along quite nicely and I found myself right there with him! The satellite characters varied from a young, independent teen with more guts than Harry to his weak, alcoholic father.
Written with a masculine hand, this book follows an action-packed trail to its conclusion at a good pace.
This ARC edition was given to me by NetGalley and DarkFuse in exchange for an honest review. Publication Date: March 26, 2013
People are dying, being beaten to near death, Harry is threatened, his place ransacked, he doesn't know who to trust. People he has known all of his life are not who they seem to be. Is that because Harry didn't bother to really know them? How could they have had such a dark and brutal side he was unaware of? Can he stop what is happening? How did he get involved?
With an edgy quality, Maynard Sims has written a great mystery thriller that has layer upon layer of intrigue. Harry is like a sleeping bear who has been awakened to a strange, new world. Trust me, he is not hero material, but manages to stumble along quite nicely and I found myself right there with him! The satellite characters varied from a young, independent teen with more guts than Harry to his weak, alcoholic father.
Written with a masculine hand, this book follows an action-packed trail to its conclusion at a good pace.
This ARC edition was given to me by NetGalley and DarkFuse in exchange for an honest review. Publication Date: March 26, 2013
March 1, 2013
I enjoy reading a crime thriller now and again. This one from DarkFuse--which is a bit of a genre departure from other books I've read from them so far (I like variety)--has us following journalist and boater Harry Beck thrust into finding his friend, Alan, missing somewhere in the Bahamas. Harry soon discovers and plans to expose a rich cartel that are trafficking children.
Think of Harry as a dollop of Magnum P.I.--only on a boat--and a sprinkle of Jessica Fletcher from Murder She Wrote. There are some plot bends but not any major twists or huge reveals (at least that I didn't see coming). The story starts a bit slow for a thriller until about 30% onward where things reach a better pace.
The writing flows pretty well and the descriptions of the Bahamas are good. Characterization was up to what I've seen from other tales in this genre with my favorite character being Harry's ex-girlfriend first, then Alan and finally the main character. I was kind of hoping something different would happen with one of these characters than what happens (sorry, don't want to spoil), but that didn't ruin my overall enjoyment of the story.
I'm not as well-read in these types of stories as dark fiction but the plot seemed like average fare, nothing hugely original. This leaves me somewhere in the middle on being able to recommend--or not recommend--to other readers. Overall, an easy on the eyes, swift read that, for most the part, entertained me. 3.5 stars, rounded (up for crime thriller readers, down for dark fiction readers). 5,117 Kindle locations.
Think of Harry as a dollop of Magnum P.I.--only on a boat--and a sprinkle of Jessica Fletcher from Murder She Wrote. There are some plot bends but not any major twists or huge reveals (at least that I didn't see coming). The story starts a bit slow for a thriller until about 30% onward where things reach a better pace.
The writing flows pretty well and the descriptions of the Bahamas are good. Characterization was up to what I've seen from other tales in this genre with my favorite character being Harry's ex-girlfriend first, then Alan and finally the main character. I was kind of hoping something different would happen with one of these characters than what happens (sorry, don't want to spoil), but that didn't ruin my overall enjoyment of the story.
I'm not as well-read in these types of stories as dark fiction but the plot seemed like average fare, nothing hugely original. This leaves me somewhere in the middle on being able to recommend--or not recommend--to other readers. Overall, an easy on the eyes, swift read that, for most the part, entertained me. 3.5 stars, rounded (up for crime thriller readers, down for dark fiction readers). 5,117 Kindle locations.
March 28, 2013
I went into this with the knowledge that it wasn't one of "Maynard Sims" usual supernatural-themed stories (which I do enjoy!) I would classify this as more of a detective/thriller type of read. As such, I really did enjoy it! The characters weren't ALL that memorable, but the ones that were (Harry, Stevie, and the elusive Alan) were enough to keep me rapidly turning pages. The plot progressed very well, and the scenes/conflicts were very engaging. Great style of writing, and I felt that the stoyline was well crafted and progressed smoothly.
A very good novel that shows the authors are able to successfully cross over into other genres.
A very good novel that shows the authors are able to successfully cross over into other genres.
July 16, 2013
This is the story of Harry Beck. He is happy living a lazy life in the Bahamas. Having lived there all his life with his 2 childhood friends, Alan Lancaster and Jack Dylan. Now grown up, he runs a boat charter for the guests of Alan's hotel. One day when visiting Alan, Alan's wife and daughter are killed in a car bomb. Whilst trying to get to the bottom of the mystery, and trying to locate a missing Alan, Harry stumbles on some information that will change his life forever. Soon all he holds dear to him will be at stake, and he begins to wonder if he ever really knew his friends at all...
This was markedly different from the usual DarkFuse offerings. Having been used to dark fiction from them, this was a suspenseful thriller that kept me glued to every page. It was a fast paced rollercoaster of a ride with many twists and turns until the very end. In fact just when I thought I had everything worked out, at about 96% of the book done, the author took me by the hand and dragged me off in another direction entirely! The ending was explosive and quite unexpected. The characters had depth, and I enjoyed getting to know them on a personal level. The paragraph structures were great, quick 5 minute chapters that ended in such a way as to keep me page turning to find out what happened next. Hopefully there will be more like this from the author, as I thoroughly enjoyed reading the story.
This was markedly different from the usual DarkFuse offerings. Having been used to dark fiction from them, this was a suspenseful thriller that kept me glued to every page. It was a fast paced rollercoaster of a ride with many twists and turns until the very end. In fact just when I thought I had everything worked out, at about 96% of the book done, the author took me by the hand and dragged me off in another direction entirely! The ending was explosive and quite unexpected. The characters had depth, and I enjoyed getting to know them on a personal level. The paragraph structures were great, quick 5 minute chapters that ended in such a way as to keep me page turning to find out what happened next. Hopefully there will be more like this from the author, as I thoroughly enjoyed reading the story.
February 25, 2013
I received this book as free advanced review copy through Good Reads First Reads. This is just an excellent mystery/thriller, set in the Bahamas. Harry Beck owns a nice boat, upon which he takes tourists to see the islands. He is generally a laid-back kind of guy, living in paradise, doing only what he loves to do. He has no ambition to be a hero. But his life is turned upside down one day when he witnesses his best friend's wife & young daughter blown up by a car bomb. He can't find the friend (Alan) anywhere. When he returns home, he finds his house has been broken into, his possessions smashed or slashed, then finds the girl who crews for him on his boat, tortured and left for dead. His subsequent investigations lead to discovery of a child sex-trafficing ring, and deceit by close friends and family. Harry's search for his missing friend takes him all over the islands, before he finally learns the truth about more than one friend. I enjoyed this book so much that I read it in one day, only putting it down to eat! I feel comfortable recommending Dark of the Sun to anyone who enjoys a good adventure.
January 18, 2013
This was just ok for me. Sometimes I like thriller/mystery books and sometimes I don't. Unfortunately, there was nothing really extraordinary about this one from Maynard Sims. There were a few twists but nothing overly shocking. I wanted it to be bloodier or sexier or nastier or something. The story did flow well and was a quick light read, but just kindof left me wishing there was a bit more thrown at me (that I didn't see coming). 2.5*
May 19, 2015
I won this book on Goodreads! This a very suspenseful and exciting book. I will look for more from this author. Thank you goodreads for introducing to books and authors I might never have known about.
April 19, 2024
Maynard / Sims - Dark Of The Sun
I recognized the writing duo for their many supernatural efforts.
The imprint was Dark Fuse, known primarily for its horror offerings.
So with false assumptions, I started reading a mystery thriller set in the Caribbean.
Three childhood friends, their trajectories seemingly preordained, mature into adults living in different social strata.
The mystery elements begin fairly early on and the book is expertly written to be a page turner.
Not predictable, though not original either. Decent airport read or beach read.
I recognized the writing duo for their many supernatural efforts.
The imprint was Dark Fuse, known primarily for its horror offerings.
So with false assumptions, I started reading a mystery thriller set in the Caribbean.
Three childhood friends, their trajectories seemingly preordained, mature into adults living in different social strata.
The mystery elements begin fairly early on and the book is expertly written to be a page turner.
Not predictable, though not original either. Decent airport read or beach read.
March 21, 2013
Excellent well-paced action suspense novel. I highly recommend it.
Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews