Against the Darkness

by John Llewellyn Probert

A collection of eleven adventures featuring a supernatural detective couple Mr Henderson and Samantha Jephcott, who will be risking life and limb against, amongst others, bats in a Portishead belfry, zombie Vikings in Weston-super-Mare, and an Egyptian mummy on the rampage in an NHS hospital.

Genres: Horror

300 pages, Paperback

First published August 21, 2009

Reviews

[Riju Ganguly · Rating 5 out of 5]

Adventures of Occult detectives have always occupied a soft corner in my mind. No matter how bizarre the trappings appear, no matter how convoluted the logic becomes while establishing the scene of the crime/haunting/event, I have always enjoyed the basic premise of sharp logic (unstoppable force, as proved by Holmes) prevailing over supernatural horrors (apparently immovable objects, since their roots often lie within human folly & vanity). And when such adventures come packaged in the unique Probertian style of humour & wit, the combination becomes irresistible, as proved by this slim volume containing the adventures of Mr. Henderson and Ms. Samantha, as they take on all sorts of nasty creatures. These adventures, similar to the episodes in the 'X-Files' are: -

*) Introduction: New Readers Start Here (the essential stepping stone for the newcomers in Probert-country)
1) Bother in the Belfry
2) A Fear of Fitness
3) Bloodsucking in Berkshire
4) Moonlight Sonatas
5) Horror in the Heavens
6) The States of the Art
7) The Rhyme of the Ancient Sub-Mariners
8) Within the Walls
9) Under Wraps
10) Happily Ever After
11) An Eliment of Emotion
*) Afterword [Story-Notes]

Perhaps the titles of these episodes might be suggestive of the aim of the author as he effortlessly mixes high classicism with blood & gore in preparing this tremendously enjoyable book. Recommended!

[John Hepple · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is my third foray into the works of John Llewellyn Probert; and I have to say - the man only impresses me more with each collection of stories.
Contained within are 11 darkly comic tales of paranormal mystery and very nasty happenings in unlikely surroundings. The overall tone is rather jovial and knowingly campy, and I couldnt get enough of it.
I look forward to reading further adventures of Henderson and Jephcott, the characterisation of the pairing is superb and I liked the way they grew and evolved as the stories continued.


So yeah, in summary, check out this book.

Ta.