My Lovecratian crime noir novel The Return on special offer from my publisher, Blood Bound Books

Blood Bound Books shared a link to the event: Free Books - Annual Loyalty Program:

Next up it's gritty noir combined with Lovecraftian horror.
THE RETURN by David A. Riley is only .99 cents until next Friday August 11th. Leave a review send us the link, and we'll send you a FREE book.

The Return

It was never going to be easy to return for one last look at the streets where he spent his childhood years. Even knowing this, Gary still felt he had to make the effort, just this once, to see if they were really as bad as he remembered. In a…

amazon.com

My Lovecraftian crime noir novel The Return on special offer by Blood Bound Books

The publishers of my Lovecraftian crime nopir novel The Return, Blood Bound Books, are making this great offer:

"Next up it's gritty noir combined with Lovecraftian horror.
THE RETURN by David A. Riley is only .99 cents until next Friday August 11th. Leave a review send us the link, and we'll send you a FREE book.

The Return

It was never going to be easy to return for one last look at the streets where he spent his childhood years. Even knowing this, Gary still felt he had to make the effort, just this once, to see if they were really as bad as he remembered. In a…

amazon.com"

Great Review for The Return on Hellnotes

There was a great review for my horror novel The Return on Hellnotes.

The Return
David A. Riley
Blood Bound Books (November, 2013)
ISBN 978-1940250052
$12.99 PB; $2.99 Kindle
272 pp
Reviewed by David T. Wilbanks
Gary Morgan is a tough-as-nails London gangster as well as the lead character in David A. Riley’s novel The Return. After participating in a gangland shooting, with plans to hide out in his long-neglected hometown of Edgebottom, Gary soon discovers that the mill town’s bad reputation hasn’t improved at all over the years; in fact, strange occurrences are on the rise and he finds himself caught in a situation that gets more bizarre the longer he hangs around. So, with full intentions of leaving town and lying low somewhere less threatening, he instead finds himself slipping further and further toward the dreary town’s evil heart.
The creepy artwork by Andrej Bartulovic on the book’s cover broadcasts where this one is heading. Anyone with a craving for bleak crime fiction crossed with the Lovecraftian/occult should enjoy this well-crafted work of looming darkness. Compellingly, the novel follows Gary and the local police as they experience what turns out to be otherworldly mayhem. Pure malevolence, revealed slowly with hair-raising detail, will keep horror fans riveted as they turn pages toward the chilling and merciless conclusion. Celebrated British author David A. Riley has been in the business of writing horror, fantasy and science fiction for several decades now and this storytelling experience is reflected in his work.  The Return is a grim, bloody book set firmly in the UK horror tradition, and will make a fine addition to any collection.

Interview for Blood Bound Books about The Return

I have just completed an interview for Blood Bound Books about my novel The Return as part of their promotional campaign.

***INTERVIEW with David A. Riley*** Details on the RETURN while we chat about gangsters and Lovecraft.

1)BBB: Tell us a little about The Return.

RILEY: The Return is the culmination of a number of stories I have written over recent years about Edgebottom and its notorious area of Grudge End (Lock-In, The Fragile Mask on his Face, Old Grudge Ender, The True Spirit, The Worst of all Possible Places). For a long time I had also been interested in the idea of merging the crime genre with Lovecraftian horror. I didn't want to write another pastiche of the Cthulhu Mythos. With Gary Morgan I had a protagonist who is the antithesis of the normal Lovecraftian hero, a tough, no nonsense professional hitman on the run after carrying out a gangland murder in London, who makes the one mistake of returning for what he thinks will be a last, almost nostalgic look at his old hometown. To his increasing horror he soon finds that its violent, diabolical past is even more dangerous than the criminal world in which he has lived for the past few decades.

I wanted to blend the dark atmosphere of crime noir with the even darker atmosphere of a Lovecraftian horror story, whilst making the novel as grittily realistic as possible in an almost kitchen sink kind of way.

2) BBB: The Return is a story about coming home. Is there anything mysterious or diabolical about your hometown? Any reasons you may not want to go back?

RILEY: I have never lived all that far from my home town of Accrington, other than when I moved to Blackburn after I got married, five miles away. I lived there for seven years.

Of course the most notorious event in the history of this area concerns Pendle Hill, which rises ominously to the west of Accrington only a few feet shy from being a mountain. It was the home of the infamous Lancashire Witches who were tried and hanged at Lancaster in 1612. Their story has been featured in several books, from Harrison Ainsworth's The LANCASHIRE WITCHES, Robert Neill's MIST OVER PENDLE and, more recently, Jeanette Winterson's THE DAYLIGHT GATE, soon to be filmed by Hammer (http://www.pendlewitches.co.uk/). Many of the descriptions for Edgebottom are based on my hometown—and on other Lancashire towns as well; I've cherrypicked the features that suit my vision of Edgebottom the most. If you look at the history of many places in Lancashire most are filled with violence, especially in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, when rioters, like the Luddites, were fired on by troops and the surrounding moorlands were plagued with footpads and highwaymen.

Although most were shut down years ago, it's an area that was once justifiably stigmatized for its "dark satanic mills", which dominated most towns in the industrial parts of Lancashire, something I have highlighted with Malleson's Mill in my novel.

3) BBB: The Return focuses on Gary Morgan who is a gangster. In America we tend to think about New York's Five families, Chicago's Al Capone, etc.Who are a few of your favorite historical gangsters? Are there UK equivalents to these US gangsters?


RILEY: The UK has certainly had more than its fair share of real life gangsters—and still has! In writing The Return, the ones that were influential on me were two of the most notorious: the Kray twins in East London and, more particularly, the Richardson brothers, who were malignantly powerful in South London in the 1960s. The Richardsons were infamous for holding mock trials during which victims were tortured and sometimes killed. Though both the Krays and Richardsons are long gone, gangs in the UK still exist, possibly even more violent than they used to be. They certainly use guns more often than in the past even though they are illegal here.

Fictionally, Ted Lewis's outstanding novel JACK'S RETURN HOME, more well known as GET CARTER from the classic crime thriller starring Michael Caine, was influential when completing THE RETURN. One reviewer actually described it as Get Carter Meets Cthulhu!

The Pendle Witches | Lancashire Witch Trials | English Witchcraft

www.pendlewitches.co.uk

The true story of England's most famous Witch Trial, the confessions of the alleged Witches & how fear of Witchcraft...

The Return included in Robert Essig's "Killer Reads in 2013"

Nice to see my horror novel The Return is included in Robert Essig's Killer Reads in 2013. Thanks Robert!

"The Return by David A. Riley is a dark, depressing tale of Lovecraftian mystery and plenty of horror. If you haven't read David A. Riley then you need to pick up one of his 2013 releases and rectify that. He's been publishing short stories professionally for decades and I'm glad he has finally given us such a fantastic novel."

Killer Reads in 2013

Copies of The Return arrive via UPS

My author's copies of my novel The Return arrived via UPS today from my publisher Blood Bound Books. My first copies were lost en route so Marc Ciccarone kindly arranged for a second batch to be shipped to me.

Blood Bound Books Fourth Anniversary Sale

Blood Bound Books are having a Fourth Anniversary Sale on their ebooks, including copies of my novel The Return.

Check these out on Amazon.co.uk where it's available for £1.27 and Amazon.com where it's priced at $2.05.

First Review of The Return

Horror writer Craig Herbertson has provided the first review of my Lovecraftian horror novel The Return on his Heavemakers blog, Amazon.com, Goodreads and the Vault of Evil.

"Mr. Fosset, making a brief appearance in this work by David A. Riley says “Dark, bleak, nihilistic stuff. Not the kind of thing to take to bed for a good night’s sleep.” Admirably summarizing this new work by a veteran author who many horror aficionados will have encountered in the legendary Pan Horror series and subsequent ‘best of’ collections."

"Fans of Grudge End, a horrible place full of horrible places, will lap this up. “Even in bright daylight the five-storey building looked dark, forbidding, and sordidly utilitarian.” – a good description of Riley’s bleak uncompromising prose – sparse, economical and clinically scary."

The Return

My Lovecraftian horror novel, The Return, was withdrawn by Blood Bound Books because the first copies had been printed at the wrong size. It's now available again, priced at £8.06 on Amazon.co.uk and $12.99 on Amazon.com. Kindle copies are also available on both sites, £2.54 and $4.11 respectively.

Reviewers can still get mobi copies from me by emailing me on rileybooks@ntlworld.com. If you prefer hard copies that too can be arranged. 

Review Copies Available of The Return

Kindle review copies of my Lovecraftian horror novel, The Return, are still available. If you do reviews on your blog, on a website or a magazine please contact me on rileybooks@ntlworld.com and I'll email a copy to you to upload on your kindle, etc.

If you would prefer a hard copy that too can be arranged. Just let me know which would be preferable by you.

amazon.co.uk

amazon.com
 

Free Copies of The Return Won On Lovecraft eZine Last Night

Three free ebook copies of The Return were won last night during the Lovecraft eZine's online playing of The Call of Cthulhu. Congratulations to all those who won copies - and I hope you enjoy reading it!

If there are any reviewers who would like copies of the ebook version of this Lovecraftian horror novel, please contact me on rileybooks@ntlworld.com.

Blood Bound Books on Amazon

Blood Bounds Books now have their own page on Amazon.

Weird Tales Interview

I have just had an interview posted on the Weird Tales website, in which I get the chance to discuss my short story collections and my novel, The Return.

Kindle versions of The Return now available

Kindle versions of my novel are available for £1.99 at Amazon.co.uk and for $3.19 at Amazon.com.

The Return

More details about my Lovecraftian horror novel, The Return, have been released by my publisher, Blood Bound Books:

When Gary Morgan travels north to lie low after a gangland shooting in London, a childhood friend is violently maimed within hours of his arrival. Decades after escaping the blight of his hometown, he finds himself ensnared in the place he hates more than any other.

Feuding families, bloodthirsty syndicates, and hostile forces older than mankind all play a role in the escalating chaos surrounding Gary Morgan. Now he must unravel the mysteries of Grudge End and his own past or meet his doom in the grip of an ancient, unimaginable evil.

COMING SEPTEMBER 30

Proof reading finished!

Finally finished my second bout of proof reading in the last month. The first was for my novel, The Return (Blood Bound Books). The second was for my much longer collection of short stories, The Lurkers in the Abyss & other Tales of Terror (Shadow Publishing). It feels like a marathon stint. All I have to do now is email Dave Sutton at Shadow Publishing with all the typos, etc., that I've found and I can go on holiday at the end of next week with a clean slate. May even find time to start writing something new!

The Return

Just received a pdf copy of the galley proofs for my Lovecraftian novel The Return from Geoff Hyatt at Blood Bound Books. It's due for publication next month. Things are moving quickly now. The rest of the year is going to be quite exciting, what with my novel out in September and my collection of short stories from Shadow Publishing, The Lurkers in the Abyss and other Tales of Terror to be launched in October at the World Fantasy Convention.

I'm printing out a copy of the pdf of The Return so I can give it a thorough going over for typos, etc before it goes to print.

The Adventures of Kyle McGertt: Hunt for the Ghoulish Bartender - review

My review of The Adventures of Kyle McGertt: Hunt for the Ghoulish Bartender is up on Hellnotes.

This is the first YA novel I have ever read. It’s also the first horror Western I’ve read too. In both instances I had a pleasant surprise – I enjoyed it far more than I expected.
Charles Day has a very readable style and the action moves rapidly, though not at the expense of character and some vivid descriptions. The Ghoulish Bartender himself, though completely evil in his actions, is far more than a two-dimensional villain. He has a back story every bit as tragic as any of his victims – and an awareness of what he has irretrievably lost to become what he is – a fate that not chosen by him, but forced on him as a curse.
Nevertheless he has grandiose plans to spread the curse of the ghouls on every community he comes across. In this, only Kyle McGertt, inheriting the crusade of his dead father, can hope to stop him. Robustly violent, yet with some subtle humour, this short novel is the story of how these two opponents finally come confront each other for a final showdown.

The Return

Latest news on my Lovecraftian horror novel, The Return, is that it is scheduled for publication in August by Blood Bound Books.

I have been told that I'll shortly be getting the galley proofs and that the cover artwork will be ready within the next week or so.

The Return is set in Edgebottom, which contains the district of Grudge End, both of which have featured in a number of my stories over the past few years, including Lock-In, The Fragile Mask on His Face, The Worst of all Possible Places, The True Spirit, Old Grudge Ender, and Scrap (out soon in Dark Visions 1 from Grey Matter Press). In his review of my collection, His Own Mad Demons, Jim Mcleod (Gingernuts of Horror) wrote: "Robert Rankin has his Brighton, Terry Pratchett has his Discworld, and so David A. Riley has his Edgebottom, and I for one know which of these worlds I would like to take a return trip to."