Release Date: 29/01/15
Publisher: Hammer/Cornerstone Publishing
SYNOPSIS:
This is the final book in the enthralling Engelsfor's trilogy. After the terrible events in Fire, the Chosen Ones are reduced from seven to six. Will they be strong enough to face the final showdown with terrifying the demons? In The Key questions are answered. Secrets are revealed. Loyalties are tested. Only one thing is certain: Everything will change.
REVIEW:
Ah a satisfying conclusion to the Engelsfors Trilogy, a series that blends elements of Buffy with more witchcraft and one that works very well. The characters are realistic, have real world worries and when added to their ability to grow through the series, not just in power but emotional aspects all round gives the reader a book that more than hits the spot.
Back this up with solid prose and of course dialogue that just buzzes through your imagination, for me generates a book that I had not only plenty of fun with but thoroughly enjoyed. Top Notch.
Release Date: 03/07/14
Publisher: Hammer
SYNOPSIS:
1963: Rowena Crale and her family have recently moved into an old house in a small English village. But the house appears to be resisting all attempts at renovation. Walls ooze damp. Stains come through layers of wallpaper. Ceilings sag. And strange noises - voices - emanate from empty rooms.
As Rowena struggles with the upheaval of builders while trying to be a dutiful wife to her husband and a good mother to her five small children, her life starts to disintegrate. And then her eldest and prettiest daughter goes missing. Out in the village, a frantic search is mounted - while inside the house reveals its darkest secret: a hidden room with no windows and no obvious entrance. Boarded up, it smells of old food, disinfectant - and death...
Set in a world where appearances are everything, and nothing is as it seems, Touched is unsettling, claustrophobic, and utterly gripping.
REVIEW:
OK this is a novella rather than a full blown novel and to be blunt, its one that sadly doesn’t work for me. It’s convoluted, the plotline a little all over the place with elements that seem to have been added to extend rather than add anything to the tale. Back this up with a slow pace and characters that didn’t become fully realised which left me feeling cold.
Sadly not a book I’ll be rereading again anytime soon and whilst I will give the author another try if the next one leaves me feeling like this I won’t be reading any other titles in the future.
Release Date: 24/10/13
Publisher: Hammer
SYNOPSIS:
Autumn 1940, World War Two, the Blitz. Bombs are raining down, destroying the cities of Britain. In London, children are being removed from their families and taken to the country for safety. Teacher Eve Parkins is in charge of one such group, and her destination is an empty and desolate house that appears to be sinking into the treacherous tidal marshes that surround it. EEL Marsh House - Far from home and with no alternative, Eve and the children move in. But soon it becomes apparent that there is someone else in the house; someone who is far deadlier than any number of German bombs...The Woman in Black.
REVIEW:
OK, I had high hopes for this book, after all I’ve had friends rave for years about the much loved Woman in Black by Susan Hill and as such hearing that there was an authorised sequel released gave me the chance to sit back and get that wonderful chill up the spine during the dark winter night reads that I had planned.
Unfortunately what I got was a title that fell far short of what I was expecting, it felt weak, the chill factor was missing and to be honest there weren’t any real twists that you couldn’t see coming from a mile off. It also felt poorly written when you compare against the original and to be honest I am left wondering if it was just a quick way to cash in on the success of what has gone before. A great shame to be honest.
Release Date: 07/02/13
Publisher: Hammer
SYNOPSIS:
There is a fine line between obsession and madness and Frankenstein just stepped across it. Escaping the guillotine Victor Frankenstein is now posing as Doctor. Stein, altruistic patron of the hospital for the poor. But in a secret basement laboratory he is harvesting body parts from his helpless patients, using them in his twisted experiments in a bid to create the perfect man. And this time he has help from a would-be pupil. His pupil seeks knowledge, but Frankenstein desires vengeance against all those who have tried to stop his terrifying work. The first time he tried, it ended in bloody mayhem, but now he is determined that nothing will go wrong. He wants revenge and God help anyone who gets in his way.
REVIEW:
Whilst I’m not always enamoured of the Hammer titles, when an author gets a tale to recreate for the modern reader that they clearly love you know that its going to be something special. Here in his retelling of this Hammer classic, the reader is given a story that they’ll really get behind as Victor returns to doing what he does best. Its definitely a story that will have you clutching the covers, back that up with a sympathetic take on the Baron’s own motives and all round make this a book that I sat back enjoying until sunrise the following morning with the light of day bringing a close to this chilling story.
Release Date: 07/02/13
SYNOPSIS:
You can do anything in Hollywood and be forgiven, anything except grow old...It's the 1930s and cinema stands at the dawn of a new age, the silent era is all but dead, talkies are here and Technicolor is on its way. The whole world loves movie icons Frank Nayland and Elizabeth Sasdy, lapping up each new picture and following their romantic life story both on and off the screen. But all is not as perfect as it appears. Not only has the advent of talkies meant torturous sessions with a vocal coach to try and remove Sasdy's Hungarian accent but she's starting to spot the first few grey hairs, and the lines on her face get deeper every day. If she loses her looks she'll lose everything, but even a woman as powerful as Elizabeth Sasdy can't fight nature. Can she? A chance accident reveals the solution. But just how far is the Queen of Hollywood prepared to go to stay beautiful forever?
REVIEW:
To be honest I’m a reader that’s old enough to remember the BBC showing seasons of Late Night Hammer Horror that coincided with me coming home from my part time job of Waiter at a restaurant with something nice to eat in tow. So to be blunt I have very fond memories of those times, so much so that I definitely recall catching Countess Dracula (featuring the attractive buxom Ingrid Pitt.)
So when Hammer brings a new book out from a film that I enjoyed way back when, I tend to like to read to see what they’ve done to bring it not only bang up to date but also to bring a touch of the nostalgia back. Within this book Guy Adams, brings it to the modern reader by setting it in an idealised 30’s Hollywood, It has a lot of the same twists but to be honest with the story following the original pretty closely I could definitely see that it was more than a little dated and didn’t really add anything new to the genre.
Its clichéd, the characters were more than a little flat and for me, the story really didn’t travel or do anything other than produce a book that wouldn’t have taken much to tame it down enough for the YA market. It disappointed, didn’t take me anywhere in my imagination and to be brutal was sadly lacking in so many ways. If you have to read this book borrow it from the library or wait for it to hit a cheap book shop near you as sadly I suspect a great many will be upset at the cost and lack of pay off.
Release Date: 17/01/13
SYNOPSIS:
When Beth wakes up one morning covered in dirt, she puts it down to an extreme case of sleep-walking. But when reports of a desecrated grave start to circulate, her night-time wanderings take on a sinister air. Soon the city is being plagued by strange sightings and sudden disappearances. Beth knows that something is changing within her. Something that's filling her with an urgent, desperate hunger that demands to be satisfied - at any cost...
REVIEW:
If I were to sum up this book in one line I’d have to modify a line from the original Romero “Night of the Living Dead.” “They’re coming to get you Beth.”
All round this no hold barred Hammer title really gives the reader what they want, there’s gore, there’s otherworldly creatures and when you add to this solid prose, great twists and a nod of the head to one of the greats that have gone before, really makes this a book to sit down and devour. Back that up with a cracking plot, a reasonable cast and all round if you want some classic horror in your bedtime reading, this will more than hit that spot. Great stuff.
Release Date: 11/10/12
SYNOPSIS:
The world as we know it has changed forever. The reason is Coldbrook. The facility lay deep in Appalachian Mountains, a secret laboratory called Coldbrook. Its scientists had achieved the impossible: a gateway to a new world. Theirs was to be the greatest discovery in the history of mankind, but they had no idea what they were unleashing. With their breakthrough comes disease and now it is out and ravaging the human population. The only hope is a cure and the only cure and the only cure is genetic resistance: an uninfected person amongst the billions dead. In the chaos of destruction there is only one person that can save the human race. But will they find her in time?
REVIEW:
It’s time to turn on the nightlight and read long into the night with the latest offering from Tim Lebbon demonstrating why as a horror hound he’s one of the best to run you to ground and gnaw on your leg whilst the zombie horde approaches as here within this book is a story that has not only a lot of original elements but brings the best of the Zombie Genre to the reader with enough grotesquery to bring the most ardent horror fans retching to their knees.
Add to this top notch genre defying prose, some wonderful forward thinking and overall a book that feels cinematic throughout its pages as the revelations will have you glued to the final page. Back that up with an authorly style that’s identifiable alongside some cracking characters and all in I was more than sated. Great stuff.
Release Date: 04/10/12
SYNOPSIS:
'Your children will die. Your community will die. To give me back my life.' The small rural community of Shettle has fallen into a decline. It is rife with crime and its inhabitants plagued by ill-fortune. When the Circus of Nights arrives the people are drawn to it like moths to a flame: it's as though they are bewitched. Only four men realise that there is something terribly wrong. And as the town is enclosed in a barrier of 'sickness' through which no one can enter or leave, they must do their utmost to protect their loved ones, before it's too late...
REVIEW:
Having had a real hard time with some of the Hammer Horror book adaptations its come almost as a relief to have a book that’s based on one of the films that I’m not that familiar with, yes I know the name and who starred (Anthony Higgins (or Corlan as he was then) as well as the lovely Adrienne Corri) but that was about it.
So targeting this title with a clean slate was a wonderful blessing. It worked very well, the characters jumped off the pages into my imagination and the authors writing style in my opinion complimented a screenplay very well allowing it to skip off the pages.
Back that up with a few modern touches, some wonderfully evocative visuals within and all in this for me is perhaps the best Hammer film to book adaptation to date. Great stuff.
Release Date: 05/07/12
SYNOPSIS:
In a quiet field in Buckinghamshire, a huge crack has appeared in the earth's surface. And people are dying. Incinerated beyond recognition. At the same time, hospitals have noticed an increase in catastrophic deformities in foetuses, and cancer levels soaring. Dr Adam Royston, a scientist working at the nearby military base, thinks he knows what it is; a creature as old as the earth that slumbers for centuries, then wakes to feed on the energy and radiation produced by humans. But if he's right, and they can't find a way to destroy the creature roaming the countryside, then it's not just Buckinghamshire that could be in danger, but the whole world.
REVIEW:
Part of the problem when you bring a book up to date from an earlier time is that the things that scared the viewer back then is something that can be quite tame by todays standard. Such is the case with this adaptation of the Hammer 1956 film X: The Unknown where radiation is the fear of the day.
Sadly by bringing it forward to today’s setting a lot of what was assumed back then has sadly bitten the dust in not only theory but has been blasted into oblivion by fact. That alone took the book well out of the realms of believability which whilst you can suspend whilst watching the film sadly just niggles the reader.
Whilst Shaun’s writing is a highlight for the publisher, as a reader I was sadly hoping for a lot more than was actually presented as this book felt flat not only in the subject matter but also with the characters within that weren’t fleshed out enough for me to care for them as a reader. All in a great shame.
Release Date: 05/07/12
SYNOPSIS:
He is raising the poker again and Anna bites her lower lip so hard she chokes a little in the blood that runs down her throat...On a cold, wet night recently widowed psychology lecturer John Pritchard visits spiritualist Aida Golding with his son. Although wary something has driven him here. And he is drawn to a troubled young woman who is trying to contact her child. Something about her intrigues him and despite his doubts he continues to attend meetings. One night at an intimate seance in Aida's house the lights go out and one of the group is brutally murdered. John has his suspicions but he can't prove anything. He senses that Aida has some hold over the girl and he offers her a place of refuge in his home. But the past haunts Anna in the most chilling of ways. And all too soon John realises he's made a terrible mistake...
REVIEW:
I’m always a little dubious when a film is novelised, especially when the film is something of a British Classic from the Hammer studio’s whilst the book has been brought up to date to appeal to a modern audience part of the problem for the reader is the loss of the Victorian courtesies that allowed the film to feel organic, with the roles being carefully fleshed out Eric Porter and Angharad Rees.
Sadly this book fell short of what I would have expected not only on a title based on the film but of the talent to which we know he has as we’ve read quite a bit of his material. The characters were sadly 2d, the pace sadly lacking and all in the book really felt that it should have been left where it was to allow the film to stand on its own merit. Hopefully other Hammer books will do a better job of adaptation than this but with a well-known author falling flat, that does leave me wondering if it’s really going to be worth my time.
Release Date: 02/02/12
SYNOPSIS:
In the winter of 1952, Isabel Carey moves to the East Riding of Yorkshire with her husband Philip, a GP. With Philip spending long hours on call, Isabel finds herself isolated and lonely as she strives to adjust to the realities of married life.
Woken by intense cold one night, she discovers an old RAF greatcoat hidden in the back of a cupboard. Sleeping under it for warmth, she starts to dream. And not long afterwards, while her husband is out, she is startled by a knock at her window.
Outside is a young RAF pilot, waiting to come in.
His name is Alec, and his powerful presence both disturbs and excites her. Her initial alarm soon fades, and they begin an intense affair. But nothing has prepared her for the truth about Alec's life, nor the impact it will have on hers ...
REVIEW:
Hammer is a relatively new imprint and is setting the standard high with their releases. None perhaps more so than this release which is a cracking ghost story from well-known author Helen Dunmore. The story centres around the character of Isabel who develops as the story wends it merry way with a touch of the macabre, solid atmosphere and of course well developed plot line. Add to solid world building, character development that works well for the reader and of course the authors renowned ability to give the reader multiple hooks which also allows you suspend some of your doubts.
All in a wonderful read and one that I had a lot of fun with. I’ll definitely be looking at reading more of Hammer’s offerings.
