R E V I
E W S
"Tell me about your devil..."
Hell's Secrets - Spinetinglers Review
- APRIL 2012
Mark Anthony hates his life. He hates his job, he’s not overly keen on his flat and he’s not even sure he likes his friends anymore. Then out of the blue he receives an email that changes everything.
It sounds simple enough – all he has to do is take credit for a book that someone else has written. The only fly in the ointment is that the book was actually written by Giles White, a somewhat strange individual Mark knew from university. The two had a tense acquaintanceship in those days, which had ended with Giles spitting in Mark’s face and taking off into the night. Surely there had to be an ulterior motive for such an offer? Why, of all the people, in all world, did Giles want Mark to get the glory for his work?
Despite his better judgement Mark agrees to Giles’ offer and takes on the identity of M.J Anthony, author of Hell’s Secrets. To begin with everything goes swimmingly, the book is a massive hit, he bags himself a new girlfriend and he has movie producers practically beating down his door to buy the rights to his bestseller. And then the shit rather spectacularly hits the fan, as Mark’s life, and the lives of those closest to him begin to spiral out of control…
Hell’s Secrets had me hooked right from the get-go. The chapters are short and snappy, which is perfect for the tale being told, and helps to create the uneasy tension which is woven so brilliantly throughout the story. Giles White is so fabulously creepy that you can’t wait to get to bottom of what is driving him, and you can’t help but feel sorry for Mark, who seems to be descending further and further into madness with the turn of every page.
Hell’s Secrets is another wonderful offering from F.R Jameson, which firmly cements him as one of horror’s most exciting authors.
REVIEW: The Wannabes by F.R. Jameson
Published: Twisted Tongue magazine, issue 16.
The Wannabes is F R Jameson’s debut novel. And what a debut novel it is! Okay, so the book was published in 2008, and I only got my hands on it this year, but from what I can gather the book is still going very strong. The publishers should be proud of this book. The quality of the book is very good.. As for the cover work, it has a simple but attractive style
that catches the eye.
There’s nothing better than reading a good mystery that is surrounded by sex, murder and ruthless ambition and of course blood splattered horror that makes your skin crawl. I found it very hard to put this book down. I couldn’t wait to read the next chapter. What made this even more special to me is the supernatural twist—I don’t want to say too much about that, I do hate spoilers. Jameson has created strong believable characters, some of them you will detest with a passion—there are a couple I would enjoy killing...
So, you’re wondering what this book is about? Where shall I start ... John Clay, the main character, returns to London after an absence of two years. Clay ends up having a passionate night, maybe passionate is not the correct word ... raunchy, with his beautiful ex, she’s a little on the naughty, wild side—okay so she’s ‘bad news’. That night Clay has a very vivid, violent dream about an old friend of his, Raymond. He dreams that he has murdered Raymond. The following morning Clay learns that all that is left of Raymond is his burnt, bloody carcass.
Could Clay be having pre-cognitive dreams? Is Clay the Killer? Desperate to find the answers that his dream has caused he investigates Raymond’s death; however he learns that his old friends hold many, many secrets. The secrets evolve around resentments and murderous motives. The trouble is, these friends seem to have lost touch with each other,
however due to the horrific murder they are forced to meet. Tension and rivalry boils. They are simply a group of actors, musicians and also artists in their thirties with dreams of making it big in Hollywood—they are the Wannabes. It becomes apparent that their dreams are fading fast and they are unhappy with their decaying London flats as well as their own
old looking bodies. The murders continue and Clay continues to dream that he is the killer.
Clay gets deeper and deeper into his friends mysterious lives. Will Clay ever find the truth behind his dreams? What is the motive behind the
murders? You’ll have to read the book to find out.
Literary Magic
13th January 2009
The Wannabes by FR Jameson
Reviewed by Heidi Hirner
When someone offers to take
you – Constant Reader – by the hand, and lead
you into a space of horrors … make sure that your
guide is a good one.
If you’re like me,
then you probably check the end of horror books first,
just to make sure that it’s safe to dip in your
toe. Because you don’t wanna dip in your favourite
tootsie and lift out a bloody stump – nobody does
a decent pirouette on a missing main piggy. So we gingerly
test the water, you and me, and if nothing in the dark
deep end lops off our tootsies, then we wade in.
We probably like Stephen
King the most, because we feel safe with him. We’re
happy to let him take us by the hand and lead us down
those dark paths because he knows where the monsters lurk,
he’s dealt with them before, he knows how to twist
them into knots before they get ya. Stephen – we
both know - is a good guide.
And so is FR Jameson. We
have a new good guide.
When John Clay returns to
London after a two year absence, he is drawn to the flat
of three beautiful actresses, and into the boudoir of
one of those actresses – Belinda, his flame-haired
ex, a beautiful but self-absorbed woman who is nothing
but “bad news.”
After a night spent indulging
in various sins of the flesh with his recovered ex-love,
Clay dreams an exceptionally vivid and violent dream,
a dream that involves his old friend Raymond.
The next morning he discovers
all that now remains of Raymond is his burned and bloody
carcass.
Is Clay having pre-cognitive
dreams? And what motive could anyone have for wanting
Raymond dead? As Clay investigates the death, he discovers
that a lot has happened to his group of friends during
his two years away from London; secrets and resentments
and murderous motives have knotted and clotted the relationships
of the group he calls the Wannabes, a group of actors,
musicians and artists drifting perilously on the wrong
side of thirty, their naïve dreams of Hollywood morphing
slowly into nightmares of garish reality, the truth of
decaying London flats and unglamorous sagging flesh.
As the murders continue,
Clay travels deeper into understanding the mysteries of
his friends, the enmeshment that characterizes their unhealthy
relationships. And as he comes to understand them, he
comes to understand himself.
A book that is like a magnet
– absolutely unputdownable from the moment you pick
it up. Puzzle pieces that are electrical, characters with
their own unique attractions, charged tension. A fantastically
magnetic read.
FR Jameson is an excellent
guide through the land of horrors, the kind of guide that
we can stick with.
Spentinglers
12th January 2009
Well
I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas and New Year
and aren't experiencing any post Christmas blues.
However if you are we have something which will hopefully
cheer you up. A review of The Wannabes by F R
Jameson. This is Jameson's debut novel and it
proves what all of us here at Spiney already knew that
F R Jameson is a world class story teller.
The Wannabes so impressed the reviewer that it
has been shortlisted for the Spinetinglers Book
of the Year Award 2009.
F R Jameson is one of Spiney's most elusive
authors and we hope in a few weeks to have an exclusive
interview with the elusive author. Jameson's first story
Adultery made it into the winners circle as far back as
October 2006, and left us all wondering about the actual
author when the only information we were given was that
F R Jameson lives and works in London. Jameson followed
this up the very next month with Wilderness which was
the overall monthly winner in November 2006. Then in early
2007 came back with another Jameson classic Snowbridge.
If you haven't already read these then give yourselves
a treat some wintry night and curl up beside a roaring
fire with a warm glass of your chosen beverage.
However before we get to the review of The Wannabes
I am delighted to announce that the website for the Spinetinglers
Anthology 2008 is live you can check it out at http://www.thespinetinglersanthology2008.com/
don't forget to let me know what you think of the
website by emailing me (Jodi) at spinetinglers@btinternet.com
