Dawn in Damnation

When a bad man get killed he goes to the town of Damnation - a kind of purgatoy; not exactly hell, certainly not heaven. The inhabitants are left to lurk until their eternal fate has been decided for them.

I've not read the book yet but it's causing quite a stir among weird western fans.

“Why the hell does God need to use signs?", asks one character. " Don’t he speak American?” 

The novella, the first in a series is currently available as an eBook.

The Mexican drug lords are so fucked - Rambo's coming

You can't keep the killing machine down and this week it was confirmed that Sylvester Stallone is working on yet another Rambo movie - "When the daughter of one of his friends is kidnapped, Rambo, who has been working on a ranch, crosses the U.S.-Mexican border and quickly finds himself up against the full might of one of Mexico’s most violent cartels."


The film starts shooting in September for an early 2020 release.

Book Review: The Rats by James Herbert

It had been an age since I last read this book - in fact I'd almost forgotten about it. It was one of those books I loved during my teenage years, and must have read several times. It had started my love affair with the much missed James Herbert; a love that still burns to this day.

I was reminded of  it after finding a battered old paperback copy amongst a box full of old paperbacks I bought from a local boot sale - A kind of lucky dip. The box was stuffed full of old books. handwritten, in thick black marker pen,  upon the side of the box was '50 paperbacks, mixed titles, £5 the lot'

Well how could I refuse such an offer! There were several Louis Lamour titles visible towards the top of the box, a couple of Guy N. Smiths and several Edge westerns. There was no way of telling what goodies would be waiting  when I dug into this box of ancient delights. It was exciting picking up the box and taking it to my own car boot.

When I got the box home I found it actually contained 58 paperbacks, making it even more of a bargain - twenty of these books were Louis Lamour titles, there were ten Executioner books, three James Herberts (the Rats being one of them), five Edge westerns, ten Guy N. Smith titles, the rest were madeup of books from the Keyhole Crime series, two of these were by Simon Brett - I do like Simon Brett.

Anyway, I picked up the ancient copy of the Rats, taking in the aroma of its aged pages and started to read - three hours later I'd read the entire book.

In one sitting I'd lost myself in the grim world of 1970's London as the city suffered an onslaught of mutated rodents. When I'd last read this book I would have been a teenager, or in my early Twenties at the oldest. Back then I would have been a book obsessed reader who looked at authors as almost God like creatures, men and women who were set apart from the rest of us by their talent and brilliance. Now I'm in my early Fifties, a professional writer with several titles to my name in the bookshops, and I realise that published writers are not Gods, but merely people compelled by a need to tell stories. And you know reading the book now, coming at it not as a gore obsessed youngster but as someone who can understand the craft,  I think I really appreciated the brilliance of what Herbert did in this his debut book.

The story is told in a five act structure, superbly well paced with several interludes in which the reader gets to catch his/her breath before the mayhem starts again. There also a lot of metaphor that I likely missed as a younger reader - there is for instance a working class, semi-socialist subtext hidden amongst the horrific tale. It is true that the book has aged somewhat and some of it would fall foul to political correctness - blacks are described as coloureds (which was then the accepted term), women are not exactly passive but definitely second fiddle to the men, and homosexuality although treated with surprising sensitivity given the era, comes across as an abnormality. But then this was the early 1970's and the author is only describing the world he lived in at the time of writing. The London of this book for instance is very different to the city of today - The docks, which feature so prominently in the book as an industrial zone on its last legs has since been redeveloped into a gleaming and characterless ediface of neo-liberal greed. The now long demolished inner city slums are a breeding ground for the vermin who drive the story, and although these slums may now be consigned to the history books the city today suffers from a different kind of vermin, but don't get me started on that subject.

Back to the book.

The main character is Harris, an art teacher in an inner city school populated by tough as nails children. And after an opening in which an homeless homosexual is consumed by the rats we find our hero drawn into the story when one of his students turns up at school complaining that he has been bitten by rats. From there we are dragged through several set pieces - the underground scene is particularly effective as is the section in which the school is under siege from the killer rats. And the climax of the book is a masterclass in suspenseful pacing.

The Rats then is a far better book than I remember - yes it has all the gore that satisfied the teenage me, but there was a skilled writer at work here, and he delivered his story with panache and class. In fact for a book I must have read several times already, this reading was actually the most rewarding. It's quite brilliant.

Book Review: Where the Dead Walk by John Bowen

This book was independently published by the author, using Amazon's self-publishing system, and it shows the strengths of Amazon's opening up the road to publication for those without the support of a major publisher behind them - Where the Dead Walk is a truly captivating horror/supernatural thriller that holds the reader, vice like in a grip of pure suspense. It would be a terrible shame if a book as good as this was denied an audience on the whims of the publishing industry. As it turns out their loss is the reader's gain and I urge anyone who fancies a supernatural novel, that is well done, stays just the right side of ridiculous and will keep you guessing until the final page to give this book a try. It's reminiscent of James Herbert at his best, and the author is most certainly a name to watch.

Where the Dead Walk, is the name of one of those sensationalist reality TV shows that deal with the supernatural - think TV's Most Haunted and Ghost Hunters and you won't be far from the mark.  The show is hosted by Kate Bennett, a woman with a lot of personal tragedy hidden in her past.  When Kate and her producer, Henry are approached by the enigmatic Sabastian Dahl who had a property he claims is haunted, things take a turn for the weird.

There was a time when I read a lot of horror fiction, but over recent years I've not kept up with the genre and so I'm not sure why I decided to read, Where the Dead Walk. I'm glad I did though. I liked the idea of the reality TV show - it made it natural for the characters to stumble into a genuine case of the supernatural and helped the plot to avoid many of the cliches of the well worn haunted house story. In fact the cliches that are used here seem perfectly natural since the TV show at the heart of the plot relies on cliche, bumps and bangs and sudden changes in temperature.

It does everything a book like this should, and many is the time when I felt a shiver run down my spine while reading. To sum up then, Where the Dead Walk is bloody brilliant.


Find the author HERE

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Stephen King's The Long Walk sprints towards the big screen

I remember it as a remarkable novel so the news that The Long Walk, which Stephen King wrote under his Richard Bachman name, is to be turned into a movie is interesting. The novel concerns itself with a mammoth walk and the suffering endured by those taking part. If you walk too slow, you get a warning and too many warnings and the guards shoot you dead.

The book is set in “a future dystopian America ruled by an authoritarian. The country holds an annual walking contest in which 100 teens must journey, non-stop and under strict rules, until only one of them is still standing alive to receive the prize. The story told of a 16-year-old walker named Raymond Garraty and the teens — some good, some bad, some mysterious — in his orbit.”

Think The Hunger Games but It's much more intimate and deep, it's more human, and it's not nearly as ridiculous and over-the-top. 

James Vanderbilt (‘Trust,’ ‘Amazing Spider-Man’) has been set the job of adapting King’s 1979 novel ‘The Long Walk.’ for the screen.

Sounds of the Old West

It was actually my first book published - back in 2009 I took the step from amatuer to professional writer when Robert Hale published my novel,  Tarnished Star as part of their Black Horse Westerns series. The hardcover did really well, remaining their fastes selling title, selling out its first print run on pre-orders alone. Fast forward to the 2018 and the book, now retitled LawMaster has been optioned for a film (although it seems stuck in development hell) and is now available as an audiobook read by the talented Marcus Litch. The reader does a great job in bringing the title to life.

All Sheriff Cole Masters wants is to raise a family with the woman he loves. But upholding the law in an era when gunfire speaks louder than words can be a risky business. Cole makes an arrest for the brutal murder of a saloon girl but the killer is the son of a wealthy rancher and it’s clear the old man will do anything to see his son set free. Soon the peace of the small town is shattered with deadly force and Cole finds himself a lawman on the run for murder. The rancher wants Masters dead and the two deadly gunmen on his tail are sure they can do it. Soon blood will run as Cole Masters attempts to reclaim his tarnished star.

About the author: Gary Dobbs is the man behind the Jack Martin pen-name and had a string of popular westerns to his name. He also writes on criminal and military history. His debut western, The Tarnished Star (now known as LawMaster) remains the fastest selling Black Horse Western ever. Adventure fiction, and particularly westerns, holds a special place in the author's heart, and he intends to be produce western fiction for as long as there are readers who want it.

The book can be found at Audible  - 
In fact if you sign up for a trial with Audible you can get the audiobook of LawMaster for free.

 iTunes also carry the book. -

• Available on iPhone, iPad, iPod touch, and Mac.
• Category: Western
• Published: Jul 15, 2016
• Publisher: Piccadilly Publishing
• Seller: Smashwords
• Print Length: 157 Pages
• Language: English
• LawMaster by Jack Martin
• Requirements: To view this book, you must have an iOS device with iBooks 1.3.1 or later and iOS 4.3.3 or later, or a Mac with iBooks 1.0 or later and OS X 10.9 or later.
   
   
  And of course that powerhouse Amazon carry the title in both audiobook and eBook - you can even find the Tarnished Star hardcover on Amazon.
  
  
  I am of course immensely fond of this book - it started me on the writer's life of late nights at the keyboard, huge coffee consumption and perpetual poverty.
  
  
  Listen to a Sample of the audiobook below: