works

Whispers in the Dark (1992)
Our Review
Urged by her doctor, Charlotte is told to relay on paper her life story - so that she can come to terms with whatever has happened to her during her life. What then follows is her account: we read of the deaths of her mother's family before Charlotte was born, of when her mother meets her future husband - Charlotte's father, and then hear of the death of her father and how Charlotte, her mother and her brother Arthur have to go into the workhouse, when all her other family turn them away. The workhouse is a horrific place in itself, and it quite amazes that this was going on only a hundred years ago.
Soon after, Charlotte's mother dies in the workhouse and she is separated from her bother Arthur, hardly ever seeing him again. Years pass until she is told she has an appointment at a doctor's house as a scullery maid. At the doctor's house she is treated like an animal and has to rely on scraps for food. Then when she learns that her brother has gone in search of his relatives in Northumberland, rich relatives who turned them away those years ago, she goes to Barras Hall in the hope of following him there.
She arrives at the hall, greeted by her cousins Anthony and Antonia, only to discover that Arthur has not arrived there. She also learns that her cousins knew nothing of her father's death and their slump into poverty. That they never turned them away, just did not know of their plight. They take her in and look after her, just as though she is a sister.
She is given a room in the west wing of the house and months pass. During this time, Anthony instructs solicitors in London to go and search for Arthur, and Charlotte starts to enjoy life again. But there is something strange about her cousins… and during the night time, she can hear noises, whispering and the sound of a child crying, when no child lives there… Very soon she learns why she is there and all about her destiny…
Aycliffe had picked out all the ingredients that go into making a classic ghost story: The haunted house, the bumps in the night, the gothic undertones and he has strategically placed them within this novel. It made me shiver… and trips downstairs during the night were accompanied by bits of uneasiness, as I looked out into the darkened night for faces at the window…
Classic stuff.
(Paul McAvoy)

The Matrix (1994)
Our Review
In the Matrix, Jonathan Aycliffe has sculptured a wonderful book of deception and horror. The plot slowly turns like a vice and you are engrossed as each twist and turn takes you deeper into the story line.
Andrew Macleod, the lead character has recently been widowed. Unable to come to terms with his wife's death, he seeks solace in his research into the works of black magic and the occult.
Taken under the wing of the devious Duncan Mylne, Andrew is drawn unwittingly into the world of the arcane and the terrible. The more he learns from this man, the more dangerous things are becoming. People, close to him are trying to get him to stop this learning and telling him that Mylne is evil, but Andrew won't listen to them, not until it is too late and people are killed.
We have ghostly characters here, we have sinister happening and bumps in the night. As Andrew is more learned in the works of the occult, and so he discovers the true meaning of the Matrix and its key to everlasting life…
Very cleverly written, it's a frightener too. Classic horror, a tale of the darkened world of the supernatural told by the only man who can tell such a tale.
(Paul McAvoy)

The Lost (1996)
Our Review
School teacher Michael Feraru leaves England to post-communist Romania to re-claim his inheritance, a Draculian castle deep in the heart of Transylvania. He leaves behind his English mother, his friends and, most of all, his girlfriend in the hope of setting up an orphanage at the Castle. His early attempts to regain his inheritance appear thwarted with red tape, but he enlists the help of a young female lawyer and things start to get moving. The more time he spends in Romania, the more he starts to feel at home in the country. He changes his name to the original family name and feels more Romanian every day.
Meanwhile, the female lawyer, Liliana, is hoodwinking him behind his back. She thinks of him as an easy to manipulate Englishman playing Count and has other ideas as to what he should do with the Castle and this is to make it into a hotel. Back home, his mother and his girlfriend are having strange dreams, dreams that might be portents however Michael discards these theories. Other people are having them too, and at his old school people are hearing strange whispering noises.
Michaels early days in Romania are spent getting to know the feel of the country, however he has a few unnerving experiences, such as hearing the sound of a baby crying when no baby is there. He has the odd hallucination too, but wonders if they are actual visions or if they are real.
He sets off for the castle nonetheless with Liliana. His feeling for this woman change drastically from friendship to something more and he feels guilty because of his girlfriend back home. Her opinion of him changes too and they become lovers. Their trip to the castle takes them through treacherous mountainside and large forests; the deeper they travel into the heart of these mountains, the more at risk they come. The weather is very cold and they are unprepared.
And any villagers they meet, treat Michael with concern and fear… why he does not know. They travel on, risking their lives because of the weather, and of something or things that seem to be trailing them, until they finally reach the castle, and Michael's gruesome destiny...
The book is told in journals and letters and has a very Bram Stoker's Dracula feel to it all. We are drawn into the plot quickly, but the actual start of the book is somewhat slow. The tension mounts though and we find the page turning quickens as the novel progresses…
(Paul McAvoy)
'Sends chills down your spine. Read him and you'll never forget him.' Yorkshire Gazette.

A Garden Lost In Time (2004)
The Blurb (according to Alison & Busby)
Cornwall, 1917. Fifteen-year-old Simon Lysaght is sent after the death of his father to live with his uncle Sir David Trevelyan at their estate house, Trevelyan Priors. His uncle is a formidable man and Simon feels ill at ease in this large and forbidding house. On his first day he discovers there have been a number of family suicides and his cousin William, who is crippled and bed-ridden, warns him never to wander the corridors after dark. Exploring after a day of heavy snow, Simon discovers a track of fresh footprints in an enclosed garden, long abandoned and overgrown. Who do they belong to, and how did they get there? Simon can see no answer, until he encounters a girl of his own age, who tells him her name is Emily. Doubts remain in his mind. Soon Simon will discover that Trevelyan Priors and its inhabitants have much to hide…