One couldn't help but feel sorry for Freddie and his long struggle to come to terms with his brother's disappearance during WWI, and how his family shut him out of the grieving process. When Fabrissa was introduced it didn't take long to realize she was a ghost, the surprise was how long ago sh...
LABYRINTH BY KATE MOSSE: If only Kate Mosse had published her novel not in 2006, but shortly after the astonishing success of the Da Vinci Code, it perhaps would’ve received the literary respect it deserves, instead of coming last in a slew of novels involving the subjects of the Holy Grail, the ...
After the brilliance of the early morning, the day was now overcast. Everything was still and damp beneath the ineffective rays of the weak sun. An autumn fog was floating over the lawns and gardens, shrouding the world in a deceptive calm. Tomorrow at dusk. She looked at her reflection in the ta...
Scrambling to his feet, still holding his arms in front of him to keep the demons away. Striking the air with his hands in an attempt to drive out the images of skull and bone. Empty sockets and unfleshed limbs, the tendrils of skin trailing like weed. Blood and fire and glass. He fell to his kne...
Every step was careful, deliberate. Every step to be relished. He was tall and clean-shaven, a little thin perhaps. Dressed by Savile Row. A light woollen suit of herringbone weave, the jacket wide on the shoulders and narrow at the waist. His fawn gloves matched his trilby. He looked like an Eng...
Each author in the collection was invited to choose one – significant – opera as their inspiration and I chose Pelléas et Mélisande by Claude Debussy. Debussy is an off-stage character in the second of my Languedoc Trilogy, Sepulchre, which is partly set during the 1890s, so I had been listening ...
Connie was sitting in the same armchair, listening to the rain battering against the window. Heavy and relentless and steady. The wind howled and gusted, chased down the chimney, bringing cold, damp air into the drawing room. A half-moon, silver, cast its ghostly light over the rough waters surgi...
Candles set in black iron holders on the walls flickered as they passed. The movement sent strange shadows dancing up to the ceiling. It was very quiet for a boarding house. There was no sound of conversation, not even any sound of the servants going about their duties. ‘Are there other guests?’ ...