The Way Of The Worm By Ramsey Campbell

I received The Way Of The Worm by Ramsey Campbell to read and review thanks to random things blog tours. This is book 3 in the Three Births of Daoloth Trilogy, a fantastic modern horror that really sucks you in.

The Way Of The Worm

The present day, or something very like it. Dominic Sheldrake has retired from lecturing and lives on his own. His son Toby is married with a small daughter. The occultist Noble family are more active than ever. Their cult now openly operates as the Church of the Eternal Three,and has spread worldwide. The local branch occupies the top floors of Starview Tower, a Liverpool waterfront skyscraper.

To Dominic’s dismay, Toby and his wife Claudine are deeply involved in it, and he suspects they are involving their small daughter Macy too.
Dominic lets his son persuade him to attend a meeting of the church, where he encounters all three generations of the Nobles. Although Christian Noble is almost a century old, he’s more vigorous than ever– inhumanly so. The
family takes turns to preach an apocalyptic sermon that hints at dark secrets masked by the Bible and at the future that lies in wait.

In a bid to investigate further Dominic undergoes the rite the church offers its members, which confers the ability to travel psychically through time. Before he’s able to flee
back to the present he has a vision of the monstrous fate that’s in store for the world.
Dominic discovers a secret he’s sure the Nobles won’t want to be made public. Although he has retired from the police, Jim helps him establish the truth, and Roberta publishes it on her online blog. It’s the subject of a court
case, the results of which seem to defeat the Nobles, only for them to return in a dreadfully transformed shape.

Now Dominic and his friends are at their mercy,and is there anywhere in the world to hide? Even if they manage somehow to deal with the Nobles, there may be no escaping or preventing the alien apocalypse that all the events of the trilogy have been bringing ever closer…

Ramsey Campbell

Ramsey Campbell was born in Liverpool in 1946 and
now lives in Wallasey. He has received the Grand Master
Award of the World Horror Convention, the Lifetime
Achievement Award of the Horror Writers Association,
the Living Legend Award of the International Horror
Guild and the World FantasyLifetime Achievement
Award. In 2015 he was made an Honorary Fellow of Liverpool John Moores University for outstanding services to literature.


His first book was published by the legendary Arkham House when he was eighteen years old. His later work draws on the British and American traditions of horror fiction. It ranges from the psychological to the ghostly,
the subtly uncanny to the cosmic, the quietly disquieting to the terrifying, the poignant to the darkly comic.

His Flame Tree books include Thirteen Days by
Sunset Beach, in which afamily on holiday encounters an ancient horror on a Greek island,and Think Yourself Lucky, where the internet lets loose the monsters lurking within people just like us. In Somebody’s Voice a writer
finds his memoryand personality threatened by trying to write the memoir of a victim of abuse. The Three Births of Daoloth trilogy– The Searching Dead, Born to the Dark and The Way of the Worm – pits three childhood friends
against a terror as vast as time and space.
Three of Campbell’s novels have been filmed – The Influence (available from FLAME TREE PRESS), Pact of the Fathers and The Nameless (in development as a Netflix series). He reviewed films for the local BBC for nearly forty years, and is presently working on an appreciation of the Three Stooges, Six Stooges and Counting. A new supernatural novel, Fellstones, is in progress too.

My Thoughts

Ramsey Campbell really draws you into his world of horror, I couldn’t put The Way of The Worm down! A storyline unlike any other I’ve read, Dominic and his friends just can’t let Toby, Claudine and Macy get wrapped up in a religious cult they suspect is run by the same monster they came up against years ago. My heart was racing hoping Dominic and his friends could somehow persuade Toby to see who or what their religious leader really was before something could happen to his granddaughter.

The Searching Dead By Ramsey Campbell

I received The Searching Dead by Ramsey Campbell to read and review thanks to Random Things Tours. The Searching Dead is a horror suspense book that will have you hooked. This the first book The Three Births of Daoloth Trilogy and one of several written by Ramsey Campbell.

The Searching Dead Book Cove by Ramsey Campbell. Green book cover with an image of an eye in the bottom right corner

The Searching Dead

1952. On a school trip to France teenager Dominic Sheldrake begins to suspect his teacher Christian Noble has reasons to be there as secret as they’re strange. 

Meanwhile a widowed neighbour joins a church that puts you in touch with your dead relatives, who prove much harder to get rid of. 

As Dominic and his friends Roberta and Jim investigate, they can’t suspect how much larger and more terrible the link between these mysteries will become. A monstrous discovery beneath a church only hints at terrors that are poised to engulf the world as the trilogy brings us to the present day…

My Thoughts

The Searching Dead is a fantastic read if you love horror stories such as those written by Stephen King. Dominic begins investigating what his teacher is up to after a rather strange incident on a school trip to France. Along with his friends, they slowly begin to uncover what Mr. Noble is up to. It’s nothing quite like any of them could have ever imagined! The first of the trilogy certainly has me hooked and looking forward to finding out what happens next. I’m also curious if the three friends find out together or if Dominic goes it alone.

Ramsey Campbell author photo - The author is pictured in a long sleeved black top with his hands crossed stood in front of bookshelves.


Ramsey Campbell

Ramsey Campbell was born in Liverpool in 1946 and still lives on Merseyside. He is an English horror fiction writer, editor, and critic; writing for well over fifty years. He is the author of over 30 novels and hundreds of short stories. Many of Campbell’s books are widely considered classics in the field. Several of his books are winners of multiple literary awards and three of his novels have been filmed. The Oxford Companion to English Literature described him as “Britain’s most respected living horror writer”. He has been given more awards than any other writer in the field, including :

  • The Grand Master Award of the World Horror Convention
  • The Lifetime Achievement Award of the International Horror Guild
  • The World Fantasy Lifetime Achievement Award

In 2015 he was made an Honorary Fellow of Liverpool John Moores University for outstanding services to literature. Among his novels are:

  • The Face That Must Die
  • Incarnate
  • Midnight Sun
  • The Count of Eleven
  • Silent Children
  • The Darkest Part of the Woods
  • The Overnight
  • Secret Story
  • The Cain
  • Ghosts Know
  • The Kind Folk
  • Think Yourself Lucky
  • Thirteen Days By Sunset Beach

His novels The Nameless, Pact of the Fathers and The Influence have been filmed in Spain. He is the President of the Society of Fantastic Films.

Flame Tree Press

Flame Tree Press is the new fiction imprint of Flame Tree Publishing. Launched in 2018 the list brings together brilliant new authors and the more established; the award winners, and exciting, original voices.

The Searching Dead Blog Tour

Into The Dark By Karen Rose

I received Into The Dark by Karen Rose to review as part of the Random Things Blog Tours. The Sunday Times bestselling author Karen Rose is back with the gripping fifth instalment of the Cincinnati Series.

Into The Dark By Karen Rose https://amzn.to/33mI73R

Into The Dark

When Michael Rowland saves his younger brother Joshua from the clutches of his stepfather, he runs for his life with his brother in his arms. From his hiding place he sees the man who has made their lives a misery taken away in the trunk of a stranger’s car, never to be seen again.

Doctor Dani Novak has been keeping soccer coach Diesel Kennedy at arm’s length to protect him from her dark secrets. When they are brought together by the two young brothers who desperately need their help, it seems they might finally be able to leave their damaged pasts behind them.

But as the only witness to the man who kidnapped and murdered his sterpfather, Micheal is in danger. As Diesel and Dani do all that they can to protect him, their own investigation into the murder uncovers a much darker web of secrets than they could have imagined.

As more bodies start to appear it’s clear that his killer wants vengeance. And will wipe out anything that gets in his way…

Karen Rose

Karen Rose Author Picture

Karen Rose was introduce to suspense and horror at the tender age of eight when she accidentally read Poe’s The Pit and The Pendulum and was afraid to go to sleep for years. She now enjoys writing books that make other people afraid to go to sleep.

Karen lives in Florida with her family, their cat Bella, and two dogs, Loki and Freya. When she’s not writing, she enjoys reading, and her new hobby – knitting.

My Thoughts

Having read some of Karen Rose’s – The Chicago Series, I was really looking forward to Into The Dark. It definitely didn’t disappoint! Right from the start you find yourself hooked as Michael runs for his life with Joshua in his arms.

I found myself walking around tidying up with the book still in my hand thinking I’ll just read to the end of this chapter. Into The Dark is full of suspense and so many twists and turns. As each dark and dirty secret unfolds it makes you wonder what they will discover next. Dani and Diesel’s complicated relationship with Dani’s own dark secrets keep you just as hooked right until the end.

Having utterly enjoyed Into The Dark, I think I’ll be reading some of the other series I have missed!

Have you read anything by Karen Rose? Does this sound like a book for you?

Hellrider By JG Faherty – Blog Tour

I received Hellrider to review, a fantastic horror by JG Faherty. Published by Flame Tree Press, Hellrider is available in both paperback and hardback copies.

Hellrider

Hellrider

Eddie, a former biker gang member is burned alive by fellow members of the Hellrider gang when they burn down his garage for ratting out their president. With his last breath, Eddie vows revenge. Returning as a twisted, psychotic ghost with his trusty custom motorcycle Diablo, Eddie seeks vengeance leaving a trail of bodies behind. With his power growing with each diabolical murder he commits, the whole town is at mercy of Eddie’s insanity. Can anyone put Eddie back in his grave Hell Creek burns to the ground?

My Thoughts

Hellrider was a fantastic read from start to finish. Darkly satirical and violent with a message deep at the heart of it, everything you want from a good horror. Eddies need for revenge fuels him further and further until even he realises he is turning into some kind of monster! Worse than even he could imagine. I have to admit I did giggle at some of his ways of revenge! Each attack ending more gruesomely than the last. I would definitely recommend Hellrider for anyone that enjoyed grindhouse movies from Quentin Tarantino and Robert Rodriguez.

JG Faherty

A life-long resident of New York’s haunted Hudson Valley, JG Faherty is the author of six novels, nine novellas, and more than sixty short stories. He has been a finalist for both the Bram Stoker Award (The Cure, Ghosts of Coronado Bay) and ITW Thriller Award (The Burning Time).

JG Faherty

He writes adult and YA horror, science fiction, dark fantasy, and paranormal romance. His works range from quiet, dark suspense to over-the-top comic gruesomeness. As a child, his favourite playground was a seventeenthcentury cemetery, which many people feel explains a lot. You can find him on Twitter at @JGfaherty, on Facebook or on his website.

You Never Forget A Good Book

It’s true that once you read a good book you never forget it. I’ve been a keen reader since I was quite young and people used to joke about the fact I would prefer to sit and read the Evening Echo (Our local paper at the time) at the age of 5 over a childrens book. I remember my mother had quite a few books on shelves around the house which is where I discovered a few of my favourite authors. I haven’t picked up a book in a while which I intend to do more of over the coming months so I thought I’d share with you some of my all time favourites!

You never forget a good book
The Misery front cover I read and the books currently on my shelf!

Stephen King’s Misery is a book I definitely read far too young but as I loved to scare myself silly with physchological horrors like this it’s a book I read several times growing up and is still my absolute favourite book of all time. I love the way Stephen King writes and how twisted & clever the storyline is. Whenever I fancy something a bit darker I go for a Stephen King books and I’ve read quite a few. I currently have a few on my bookshelf at the moment that I need to read, what’s your favourite?

As you can see my copy is quite worn!

This is a set of books rather than just one but I think most people will agree that C.S. Lewis’s The Chronicles of Narnia is an amazing set for children and adults. I still have the original box-set I had as a child, unfortunately they are quite sun-faded but I cant wait to start reading them to the girls! I always got so lost in these books that I would spend most of a school holiday re-reading the whole set just because.

 

On my bookshelf

Another one that is probably on most peoples lists is J.R.R Tolkien’s Lord of the rings Trilogy. I read this when I was about 11 and I remember being superglued to my bed for 5 days reading the entire book & then went on to read The Hobbit. I was gutted when I finally watched the films as they had just missed out far too much as usually happens when books are turned into films. I still have the same copy of Lord of the rings but lost The Hobbit years ago.

Frances Hodgson Burnett’s The Secret garden us another classic I absolutely loved reading over and over again. I loved the idea of escaping to such beautiful gardens.

The only image of the front cover I remember reading as a child!

One book I fell in love with as a child has bugged me for years as I hadn’t been able to find it ANYWHERE! Seriously, I have searched & searched the internet & libraries and only just discovered I was right all along! It is called Wild Child  and I am pleased to share I finally know the Author’s name – Monica Furlong! (Thanks to Goodreads!) I remember being completely enchanted by this book and re-reading it several times.

In a remote Scottish village, nine-year-old Wise Child is taken in by Juniper, a healer and sorceress. Then Wise Child’s mother, Maeve, a black witch, reappears. In choosing between Maeve and Juniper, Wise Child discovers the extent of her supernatural powers—and her true loyalties.

Patricia cornwell’s Kay Scarpetta series was another favourite throughout my teens, I began at the start with Post-mortem and read every book up to The Book of the dead which is still sat on my bookshelf waiting to be read!
I’m definitely going to start working through my book shelf again and then go on a hunt for some new ones, so help me out! Who’s your favourite author? What book’s would you recommend reading? What books are laying unread on your bookshelf?