Craig Smith

The new thriller from master storyteller Craig Smith, shortlisted for the CWA Best Thriller Award in 2011.

I’ll say it was always dark. I never saw your face.’ ‘Is that a promise? Are you going to keep your word, if I trust you?’ ‘YES!’ Will Booker stood up. ‘You know, I think I believe you, Missy. Just so you believe me…’ The gunshot came as a surprise. Missy heard the echo crackling back from the trees as she was gasping at the incredible pain in her cheat. She tasted mud, her scream strangling in her throat. The next bullet jolted her, hitting below the ribs. She heard the second echo from the trees. She saw the smoke rising oddly from Will’s jacket pocket.

Ten years ago, sleepy Shiloh Springs was shaken as five teenagers were clubbed and shot to death and a sixth left for dead. But now the killer’s conviction has been overturned after allegations that his rights were violated on his arrest. Rick Trueblood is a careworn private investigator working for the Shiloh County prosecutor’s office; a veteran loner still grieving for a daughter murdered eight years ago – a crime he has never been able to solve. The judge has allowed just sixty days for the prosecutor’s office to find enough evidence to retry the case. But as Rick struggles to re-investigate a trail long gone cold he starts to uncover a rat’s nest of intrigue and duplicity with ramifications that lead closer to home than he could have possibly imagined. Booker in the meantime is out on bail. All he wants with his freedom is to kidnap and murder the two adolescent daughters of the minister who brought him to faith. When Booker finally snatches the girls, the local authorities follow procedures and file reports. Rick, on the other hand, has learned something about the way Booker thinks. In the desperate hours that follow, Rick recovers his instinct for the hunt, and with it, quite unexpectedly, a renewed passion for life.

Reviews 

‘An intelligent noir crime thriller in the mould of Smith’s previous novel Cold Rain. Will appeal to fans of John Grisham, Scott Smith, Harian Coben and James Lee Burke.’ Guardianbookshop

‘A dark and terrifying crime becomes the unlikely catalyst for one man’s redemption and another’s ruin in another stylish noir thriller from the author of Cold Rain.’ Goodreads.com

Toby Frost

The second instalment in the chronicles of Isambard Smith – Captain in the service of the British Space Empire.

Tea… a beverage brewed from the fermented dried leaves of the shrub Camellia sinensis and imbibed by all the great civilisations in the galaxy’s history; a source of refreshment, stimulation and, above all else, of moral fibre – without which the British Space Empire must surely crumble to leave Earth at the mercy of its enemies. Sixty per cent of the Empire’s tea is grown on one world – Urn, principal planet of the Didcot system. If Earth is to keep fighting, the tea must flow.

When a crazed cult leader overthrows the government of Urn, Isambard Smith and his vaguely competent crew find themselves saddled with new allies: a legion of tea-obsessed nomads, an overly-civilised alien horde and a commando unit so elite that it only has five members. Only together can they defeat the self-proclaimed God Emperor of Didcot and confront the true power behind the coup: the sinister legions of the Ghast Empire and Smith’s old enemy, Commander 462.

Reviews

‘Toby Frost writes books that seem to fill a specific niche: that is books for the commuter or the frequently interrupted (system administrators I’m looking at you). You can pick up his books, read a few pages and put them down again without losing the thread of the story and still enjoy an amusing diversion.’ Fantasybookreview

 ‘Set in a universe where the suns never set on a stiff upper lip, this warm-hearted and funny interstellar romp gives the sacred cows of sci-fi a good kicking before racing home in time for tea.’  Dirk Maggs, director of BBC Radio 4’s The Hitch Hiker’s Guide to the Galaxy

Toby Frost

The third instalment in the chronicles of Isambard Smith – Captain in the service of the British Space Empire.

From the depths of Space a new foe rises to do battle with mankind: the British Space Empire is threatened by the lemming-people of Yull, ruthless enemies who attack without mercy, fear or any concept of self preservation. At the call of their war god, the Yull have turned on the Empire, hell bent on conquest and destruction in their rush towards the cliffs of destiny.

When the Yullian army is forced to retreat at the battle of the River Tam, the disgraced Colonel Vock swears revenge on the clan of Suruk the Slayer, Isambard Smith’s homicidal alien friend. Now Smith and his crew must defend the Empire and civilise the stuffing out of a horde of bloodthirsty lemming men – which would be easy were it not for a sinister robotics company, a Ghast general with a fondness for genetic engineering and an ancient brotherhood of Morris Dancers – who may yet hold the key to victory. . .

Reviews

‘What I enjoyed most about Wrath of the Lemming Men was the fact that we’re now on the third novel and following the crew of the John Pym again through their adventures. I know this sounds simple – and it is – but I feel that when I start reading these characters I’m not only whole heartedly enjoying reading about them, but I’m also running through my mind just what they’ll say and do in the situation they’re in. I feel at home when they come on page – Smith, Carveth, Suruk, Rhianna, they all feel like old friends now.’ Walkerofworlds.com

Toby Frost

It’s the 25th Century and the British Space Empire faces the gathering menace of the evil ant-soldiers of the Ghast hive, hell bent on galactic domination and the extermination of all humanoid life forms.

Captain Isambard Smith is the square-jawed, courageous and somewhat asinine new commander of the clapped out freighter John Pym, destined to take on the alien threat because nobody else is available.

Together with his bold crew- a skull-collecting alien lunatic, an android pilot who is actually a fugitive sex toy and a hamster called Gerald-  he must collect new-age herbalist Rhianna Mitchell from the New Francisco orbiter and bring her back to the Empire in safety. Straightforward enough – except the Ghasts want her too and, in addition to a whole fleet of Ghast warships, Smith has to confront void sharks, a universe-weary android assassin and John Gilead, psychopathic naval officer from the fanatically religious Republic of Eden before facing his greatest enemy: a ruthless alien warlord with a very large behind… 

Reviews

‘Toby Frost has created a very entertaining sci-fi comedy romp that openly borrows and sends up some of the most well known science fiction films and TV shows. If you don’t mind poking fun at sci-fi classics, and your nose doesn’t get bent out of shape by that sort of thing, then this is a series for you.’ Walkerofworlds.com 

‘If you are in the mood for a light and funny space opera adventure, then you can’t do any better than Toby Frost’s Space Captain Smith. Very enjoyable and strongly recommended. . .’ fantasybookcritic

Sebastian Beaumont

Thirteen is not a number, it is a state of mind.

Thirteen is the story of Stephen Bardot, a taxi driver working on the night shift in Brighton.  He works such long shifts that he is often driving while exhausted, and it is then that he starts to experience major alterations to his perception of reality.  People start to take lifts in his cab who know things they shouldn’t, and who ultimately may not even be real, although the question of what constitutes reality forms one of the basic themes of the novel.

He regularly gives lifts to Valerie – beautiful, haunting, but terminal – from 13 Wish Road to her ‘positive thinking classes’ at the Cornerstone Community Centre on Palmeira Square.  When he is no longer asked to collect her, he fears that she is dead, and queries this with Sal, one of the night operators.  Her response turns Stephen’s world upside down.

‘But Stephen,’ she tells him, ‘there is no such address.  Wish Road doesn’t have a number thirteen.’

She’s right.  Wish Road’s odd numbers are 7, 9, 11, 11a, 15, 17…  And number 11a looks totally different from the house he thinks of as number Thirteen.  So where has he been collecting Valerie from all this time?  A house that doesn’t exist?

As time passes, the world gets weirder.  People appear (and disappear) who know far too much about Stephen and his past, and who lure him further and further into the twilight world of Thirteen.  But if he asks any questions, he gets hurt.  Ultimately, he decides, for the sake of both his safety and his sanity, he must walk away.

But Thirteen has no intention of letting him go.

Reviews

‘Sebastian Beaumont’s novel Thirteen is the best thing I have read this year and one of the two or three finest books I have come across since the new century kicked in.’
Scott Pack, The Friday Project and former Head Buyer at Waterstones

‘Sebastian Beaumont pulls off two impressive feats in his first novel. He writes a colloquial, first-person narrative that is consistently engaging; and he creates a dreamlike, alternate world without stretching the reader’s credulity or patience.’
Nicholas Clee, The Guardian

‘Stimulating and entertaining.’
Francis King

‘His writing style was crystal clear and effortless and the story was like nothing I’d read before… Well worth a read.’ 
Gary Davison, Paperbooks authors’ blog