Interview: Luke Walker talks to the Grim Reader

On June 3rd, Luke Walker releases his latest novel, Ascent, published by Crowded Quarantine Publications. I am a big fan of this publisher, owned and operated by Adam and Zoe Millard. They have put out some wonderful books by Rich Hawkins in the form of his Plague trilogy and also one of my favourite books…

2016 best of the best…according to The Grim Reader.

I’m sure you have all been hanging on the edge of your seat just waiting to see what novels would feature in my top 20 for 2016. It has been another bumper book year. My Goodreads challenge was met in September, and I anticipate cracking 200 books for this year (including novellas, anthologies and novels)….

BTB Storytellers episode 5: Chris Kelso talks UNGER HOUSE RADICALS

Hi there, and welcome back to another guest piece for Storytellers. Last week we had Betty Rocksteady talk ‘Arachnophile’ and a special midweek post by Rich Hawkins about ‘The Last Outpost’. This week the focus is on Chris Kelso and his excellent book ‘Unger House Radicals’ which came out earlier this year by the wonderful Crowded…

BtB Storytellers ‘Bleak Week’ special with Rich Hawkins

You may be aware that I am currently running a feature every Sunday here at the blog that allows writers to tell the story behind the story. So far there has been great pieces by Andrew David Barker, Stephen Kozeniewski, Alan Baxter and more recently Betty Rocksteady. With the ‘Bleak Week’ running all through the…

Interview: Rich Hawkins

If you’re a follower of this blog then you will probably be aware of my huge admiration of writer Rich Hawkins. Spitting out some desperately bleak horror from a home deep within the bowels of England, Hawkins writes the sort of horror that I really enjoy reading. The sort of horror where all hope seems…

Book review: The Last Soldier – Rich Hawkins

It’s been a long journey to ‘ The Last Soldier’. I have had this book on my Kindle since release day but have only just got around to reading it. There are, I think, two reasons for this: Number one is that I have taken on way too many reviews (hence why I closed my…

5 of the best from 2016…

2016 has been another great year for this reader and whilst it is far from being over I thought I would share with you some of the highlights. In no particular order, here are 5 of my favourite books so far. If you wish to find out more about these books then follow the links…

Book Review: Unger House Radicals – Chris Kelso

I am going to make a rather odd comparison here between the writing of Chris Kelso and Swedish tech-metal pioneers Meshuggah. Firstly, Meshuggah are known for their extreme stylings, complex polymetered song structures and polyrhythms. Meshuggah aren’t everybody’s cup of tea. A whole album of listening is a little too much for me, though I…