SACRIFICE by Paul Finch

[David A. Riley]

This is a great follow up to Paul's debut DS Heckenburg novel, Stalkers.

"Heck" is back along with the rest of the Serial Crimes Unit, this time facing a series of even more grisly murders than in the previous book. Timing the deaths to annual festivals, the killer - or killers - goes to extremes in sadistic torture to highlight what they see as the true nature of them, from a man in a Santa outfit, bricked up and left to starve to death on Christmas Eve) to a young couple impaled on an arrow to celebrate St Valentine's Day. Worse is to come. Ranging from a zoo whose inhabitants are used in one horrific enactment, to the fiery pyre of Bonfire Night, it becomes a race against time to catch the killer before more meet a violent, sometimes prolonged death - or the Serial Crimes Unit, under fire from the press, is itself disbanded as not fit for purpose.

Paul's writing is vividly descriptive and smooth flowing, drawing the reader along at a hectic pace to the book's violent climax. It's a tour de force blend of crime and horror, which should suit enthusiasts of both genres. It did me.

[dem bones]

Blurb:
When a man is burnt alive on a bonfire, it seems like a tragic Guy Fawkes Night accident.

But with the discovery of a young couple on Valentine's Day — each with an arrow through the heart — something far more sinister becomes clear.

A 'calendar killer' is on the loose.

Detective Sergeant Mark 'Heck' Heckenburg is up against it. With a rising body count and the public's eyes on him, Heck must find the killer before he murders more victims. Because this killer has a plan.
And nothing will stop him completing it.

A HEART-STOPPING AND GRISLY THRILLER THAT WILL ENTHRAL FANS OF STUART MACBRIDE AND KATIA LIEF.

There's a nifty little 'contents guide' on the back cover with the 'Terror', 'Thrills' 'Drama', and 'Law & Order' boxes all ticked, but if Sacrifice is anything like illustrious predecessor, Stalkers, then there really should be a little skewered eyeball or similar icon indicating 'proper, horrible horror', too. Have just hoovered up the first fifty pages (of 421) and it's fair to say Mr. Finch has hit the ground running.

We join pissed off police officers Rodwell and Ernshaw on patrol in the industrial wasteland of Holbeck, Leeds, shortly before 9am on Christmas morning. An anonymous caller has tipped off the desk sarge that something "interesting" awaits discovery in the tower of long- derelict Kemp Mill. He isn't fooling. Some fiend has manacled an old guy dressed up as Santa Claus and walled him up alive.

Heck has been assigned to Milton Keynes as part of the specialist unit hunting the 'M1 Killer' and tonight he gets lucky. The masked maniac, who targets teenage boys, has struck nine times in six months, abducting, raping and shooting his victims before dumping their bodies in a lay-by. One lad had a lucky escape in that the bullet lodged in his skull rather than penetrate his brain. From the survivor's description, Heck has a hunch that identical twins Jason and Jordan Savage are responsible. In the ensuing car chase, Heck writes off his Fiat and the bothers write off half of Buckinghamshire before their vehicle is accordioned in a collision with a concrete block. But were the twins the M1 killer or merely trigger-happy cop haters?

Valentines Eve. Young lovers Todd and Cheryl leave the pub and drive out onto the West Pennine Moors for some serious back-seat hanky panky. They are being watched, and the killer concealed in the shadows of the bogshed has more on his mind than a quick perve. The blurb will give you a sound idea of what happens next.

.....more to follow ....

Thank you, Paul

[dem bones]

Right. Back in the thick of it with Bloody Heck and the team, still smarting over their humiliation over the 'M1 killer' fiasco.

Kate is a voluntary worker, devoting her time to helping Toxteth's destitute and drug addled through the bitter winter months. Comes the night when she is assaulted, bound and spirited away in her own Fiesta by a wrecked specimen slumped in a shop doorway she took to be one of the needy. Thrown into an underground cell, Kate joins two pathetic petty thieves, one a junkie in withdrawal, wasting away in their own filth. The Calendar Killer(s) intend to stage a re-enactment of the Crucifixion to mark Easter .....

A baptism of fire for rookie media liaison officer, Claire, transferred to the Serial Crimes just in time to face a hostile press conference over this latest grisly atrocity. Heck, who wonders if she's really cut out for this soul-destroying work, has taken a shine to her, which, if Stalkers is anything to go by, augers badly for a long and happy life.

Two prostitutes are lured into a Limo by a strikingly pretty young woman under the guise of appearing with she and her boyfriend in a home made sex video. The moment the car is out of sight, the solitary witness to the transaction, a hapless tramp, is crushed in his cardboard bus by slab-wielding a man monster. The Calender Killer, it seems, is no solo act. Halloween is still a way off, but perhaps they have something planned for May Day Eve?

[dem bones]

Longsight and Rushden, Manchester. Heck is paired with young local DC Gregson to tail their flimsy leads in what the tabloids have now christened the 'Desecrator' investigation. Cameron Boyd and his sidekick Terry Mullany are violent, habitual criminals of the most unsavoury stripe, but neither has anything to do with the recent murder spree. For some reason, the pair have been royally fitted up by the perpetrators. As is the way of all decent honest rookies, poor Gregson accidentally sustains a skull fracture in his pursuit of Boyd and will play no further part in the hunt. Heck is very cut up about this - the kid cop really looked up to him - and even Gemma is sympathetic enough to allow her ex a goodnight snog.

The killer strikes again on St. George's day, this time in the Reptile House at Horwich Zoo. The results are not pretty. It seems likely that we've lost one or both of our likeable, strung out hookers, Chantelle and Gracie.

****

After fruitless investigations centring around supremely decrepit Manc pub, The Moorside, and a porn fiend's squalid bedsit, finally, a breakthrough - or so it seems. As a direct result of Claire's latest disastrous press conference, the police are contacted by horror magazine editor Tabby Touchstone who claims the murders bear a striking similarity to those perpetrated by a Pagan cult in Dan Tubbs' self-published masterpiece, Blood Feast. Tubbs sent her the manuscript some months previous and grew hostile when she dismissed it as "implausible". As Heck and his superior or soon to find out, Tubbs suffers from rage issues, his guard dog similar, he's not their man. Tabby' was not alone in her verdict, and Tubbs was reduced to handing out copies of Blood Feast for free at some awful Convention or other.

In perhaps the most horrific murder to date, The Desecrator(s) commemorate May Day with a re-enactment of a Vlad The Impaler's greatest hit involving a maypole, a white hot crown of iron and a prostitute. Even hardened cops are reduced to tears.

Claire has had enough. Out of her depth before the baying press pack, she bumbles through a dreadful performance at a hastily convened conference and promptly resigns. Heck gallantly spurns the opportunity of a parting, no strings grapple, on account of it wouldn't be right to take advantage of her drunken condition. The worst of it is, the press conference was his idea. By bigging up the not especially significant arrests in connection with the Desecrator inquiry, he hoped to panic the culprits into revealing their hand.

They have.

They've got Claire ....

Ninety pages to go and, as with Sacrifice, so too, Stalkers. It's marketed as crime fiction, but this is where the police procedural meets the full-on horror novel.

[dem bones]

May contain semi-spoiler: look away now if you don't want to know a little about the climax

"Bloody thick policemen! You dare complain that these festive occasions are being ruined, but what have we got at present? Vomit-inducing materialism all December! Piss-heads falling out of pubs on St. Patrick's Day! Supermarkets selling corsets and fishnet stockings in time for Halloween! We're going to save the soul of this sterile, chav-ridden country and remind them what made it great!"

The focus of the investigation now switches to Staffordshire and St. St. Bardolph's Boarding School, where Dr. Leo Enwright, sainted Head of History, has recruited several of the elder pupils for an extra-curricular History Society, studying and re-enacting bloodthirsty religious festivals of old. His acolytes include Gareth Holker, Head boy and school sports captain; Jasmine Sinclair, a singularly pretty blonde haunted by her traumatic childhood; and Doug Latimer, the regional archery champion. Posing as proud parents looking to enrol their twelve year old at so worthy an institution, Heck and Gemma are given the guided tour by gushing deputy head, Miss Clayley, who lives and breathes the school yet somehow remains blissfully oblivious to the despicable crimes committed by her model pupils - and all under the mentoring of lovely Dr. Enwright! The twisted traditionalists immediately catch on to the true nature of the Heckenburgs' business and, determined to go out at the very top, reschedule their most barbaric torture murder to date for as soon as they can reach Worcester. While Enwright and four devoted disciples make away with Claire in an articulated lorry, the remainder of the deluded cult remain behind to fight it out with the police. An already violent novel is about to get even bloodier. We think back to the previous book and Heck's ultimate inability to save the spiky heroine. What are the all-too vulnerable Claire's chances of surviving the horrific Royal Oak Day commemoration?

"A HEART-STOPPING AND GRISLY THRILLER THAT WILL ENTHRAL FANS OF STUART MACBRIDE AND KATIA LIEF" reads the blurb; having never sampled either author, I've no idea how accurate that is, but Heck's adventures greatly appeal to the sadomasochistic 'Michael Slade' enthusiast in me. If you enjoy Mr. Finch's ghost and macabre fiction, Sacrifice will be as from home to home.

[benedictjjones]

I really do need to get into the Heck books - this sounds great

[franklinmarsh]

Just started Dead Man Walking - great stuff. The Shining (presumably the Kubrick version) has been mentioned, as has Frank Sinatra and Strangers In The Night.

[franklinmarsh]

In addition to the Bloch stuff, have just begun The Killing Club. It's a big book, but off to an easy to read start. An old 1970s pulp novel has virtually been covered in the first four chapters. Blimey!

[franklinmarsh]

Wa-hey! Currently immersed in Sacrifice. My favourite Heck so far. The feast day atrocities are amazing in a ghastly way. Also enjoyed the would-be horror author (with the savage doberman and baseball bat) who kind of predicted what could happen.

[franklinmarsh]

Just finished Hunted. More crime with a dash of horror from the good Mr Finch.Two dodgy teen TDA yobs nick a rusting old Volvo and are joying riding to the max. One gets out his phone to film but drops it in the boneshaking ride. He reaches under the seat to retrieve it and feeling something else moving down there. Needless to say, our hoolies are wiped out - as is a local millionaire, totalled by a speeding Porsche as he attempts to leave his driveway. Heck's boss's mum knew the rich boy and thinks there's something a bit iffy about the circumstances. Heck is dispatched to leafy Surrey (Surrey is always 'leafy' - and just over the Hants border from me - nicely weird to read a book which features Guildford, Dorking and even Aldershot gets a mention.)to look into this case, and it's not long before he's linking a number of strange 'accidents' and things begin to come together. Never have Laurel and Hardy been so sinister, and there's a mini-war between Old Bill and a criminal gang known as the Snake Eyes in Sarf Lahndahn to spice things up. Every Heck thriller seems to be the best one, and this is no exception.