Paul Finch

It’s 1070 in England, and the Harrying of the North is still underway by William the Conqueror four years after he took England. He called it suppressing rebellion. Some modern historians call it genocide. “Twilight in the Orm-Garth” starts with Eric, a destitute man, making his way to Wilbury Castle. It’s the home of the Dagoberts, a family that came over with William, and on a strategic and anciently fortified site on the eastern shore of England.

It turns out Eric isn’t a nobody. show more Or, at least, he wasn’t always. He’s the third son of Count Dagobert. The reunion is not a joyous affair, and his father and older brothers Rolf and Anselm want to know why he is no longer the knight he was when he left the castle to join Hugh the Red, William’s chief lieutenant in the Harrying.

Normans, of course, followed the law of primogeniture. The oldest brother, here Rolf, will inherit everything when the count dies. The other brothers must make their own way in the world. Anselm became a bishop. And Eric, once betrothed to Ella, a woman of noble Saxon birth whom he loved, is in no position to marry.

The secret of Eric is forced out when Reynaud shows up with a small force at the castle. He’s William’s chief enforcer, and he arrives with a hideous and enormous caged man called the Korred. William is not too trusting of his old friend Count Dagobert – perhaps because he knows William’s treacherous and brutal nature – but also because of Dagobert’s Danish heritage. Is Dagobert going to aid the forces of Sveine Estrithson who threatens to invade England again and aid the rebels?

But what Reynaud really wants to know – and he’s prepared to ruin or kill the Dagoberts and unleash the Korred on them – is names and places of rebels. Eric, it seems, has now allied himself with the Saxons.

There will be many family secrets revealed before the bloody climax. Throughout the novel are interspersed bits of real and legendary history about the many invaders of England, and they are surprisingly linked to the Korred at the end.

I was a bit disbelieving of the sympathy some of the Normans showed for the nearly subdued English, but that was nicely offset by Ella telling her fomer love that he has a too romantic view of what life was like before the Normans arrived.

This is tale nicely blending bloody history, legend, and family strife.

We’re deep into William Hope Hodgson territory with “The Amphibians”, specifically the Sargasso Sea, and I suspect Finch may have taken direct inspiration from Hodgson’s “The Call in the Dawn”.

The story opens with a ship captain’s log from May 21, 1879. It mentions a rich, one-armed man who frequently is a passenger on vessels going through the “desolate region between the Indies and the Azores”.

We then go back to 1823 to learn the man’s story. He’s Harry, an apprentice gunsmith (his master is dead) commissioned to make a volley gun, a multi-barrelled (ten here) shotgun whose barrels can all be discharged at once.

The customer is Joseph Kaplain, and, though seemingly a former sailor, he’s willing to pay very well. But the commission doesn’t come without risk when burglaries and attacks start at the gunsmith shop and its owner, the widow Martha Coxton. And things only escalate when Harry delivers the gun to Kaplain.

Finch wraps up this story very nicely though not very happily. Indeed, neither this nor the preceding story end on triumphant notes of riches, safety, and love gained.
And a happy ending is present – maybe – only in a spiritual and moral sense with “For We Are Many”.

It’s Roman Briton during the reign of the Emperor Valerian (253-260) and the widow Flavia Juliana Ursus is hauled before a Roman magistrate. Once rich and now imprisoned, Flavia is a Christian. And the magistrate only demands one thing from her: she needs to make a sacrifice before the statue of the Emperor.

In typical Roman fashion, he really doesn’t care how sincere the act is. She can even pray to her own god while she does it and ask his forgiveness afterwards. It’s the form that counts.

But Flavia takes the commandment against idolatry seriously, and it’s back to jail with her.

But possible salvation shows up with one Tribune Maximion. He makes her an offer. She doesn’t have to sacrifice to the Emperor. He’ll swear she did. But, of course, he wants something in return.

He has a villa on the Usk River intended for his and his wife’s retirement. But it’s uninhabitable. No one can spend a night there. He tried, and now his hair is entirely white. The villa has evil spirits.

Surely, she has such a relationship with her god (who, after all, said his apostles would cast out demons in his name) that she can drive those spirits out. He might even convert to Christianity if she succeeds.

Given it’s her only chance to avoid execution, she agrees to the task, and she’s taken to the house and given the night to perform an exorcism.

There are evil spirits there, and, yes, they may be connected to the famous demon the title alludes to. But Flavia will find her faith tested and discover that she doesn’t have the power of Christ.

The ending is much more mysterious than that of the other two stories.

This is quite an enjoyable collection of stories, and I definitely plan on reading the last in the series, Medi-Evil 3. show less

There are three tales in this book.

The best, in terms of its inventiveness and plot twists, is “The Blood Month”. It opens in 1030 at the Battle of Stiklestad in which the forces of Christian King Olaf are defeated by pagan Vikings under King Sveyn. Two brothers, Radnar and Ljot, escape the slaughter of their fellow Christians, but there are bounties on their heads, so they find themselves going to remote Greenland where their Uncle Sigfurth has a holding. Radnar, the oldest, has doubts show more about the wisdom of his conversion to Christianity, but Ljot, having adopted the faith at an earlier age than his older brother, doesn’t.

When reaching Sigfurth’s lands, they find hostility to their faith. But it’s muted because Sigfurth needs every warrior he can get. Something is killing his warriors one by one. The brothers offer to help end the menace whatever it is.

Yes, it does sound rather like Beowulf which Finch freely acknowledges when one of Sigfurth’s men grumbles, as that poem is abouted to be recited, that he doesn’t want to hear some Christian poem from those English dogs. But Finch’s plotting is masterful, and this tale doesn’t end as you would expect whether it’s the nature of the killer stalking the land, the trajectory of a romance between Ljot and a Christian slave-girl, or the course of the brothers’ Christian faith. And Finch ends his tale on a dark joke.

It's London in the year 1581 in “Flibbertigibbet”. This one is sort of a Jack-the-Ripper story crossed with a spy-who-came-in-from-the-cold story. The story opens with the drawing and quartering of the Jesuit Edward Campion. Our hero, Robert Urmston, watches the event disgusted. Though born a Protestant, he is disgusted that his is a now a country where men can be tortured for their opinions. Subjected to strict military training after failing to meet the standards to become a laywer like his father, he used to work for Queen Elizabeth’s spymaster Francis Walsingham. But, sickening of his duties, he resigned from his job of hunting down Catholic subversives.

But Walsingham has other ideas, and Urmston finds himself back in the Queen’s employ with a job a little more agreeable to his conscience. Walsingham wants him to track down a killer who has tortured and killed six women in the Southwark section of London. These are divisive times, and Walsingham doesn’t want these crimes to be the spark that ignites the powder keg of the capital city.

Urmston comes to realize there are more than six victims, that their deaths bear a connection to the feast days of Catholic saints, and that a former Tower of London torturer under Catholic Queen Mary may be responsible.

This one is a nice detective story set in a time when official state brutality isn’t that much different than that shown by a homicidal maniac.

It’s the reign of Emperor Hadrian in “The Gods of Green and Grey”, and the Emperor has decided that the soldiers already on his payroll need another job besides building his famous wall. Hadrian wants the fen lands of eastern Britain drained. Livius is an officer desperate to prove himself and volunteers to oversee the job. Helping him will be the 58-year-old Ursus, an experienced engineer and Drusus, a tesserari who, unlike his superior, has plenty of military experience running through his family’s histories – including some of Rome’s biggest defeats. And there’s a local guide from the Isceni tribe that participated in Boudica’s notorious rebellion 70 years ago.

But it’s not going to be an easy task when the troops in a base camp are found slaughtered in grotesque ways, and Livius responds with typical Roman brutality and his own glory-seeking agenda.

It’s the classic setup of an isolated group of soldiers being stalked. Shorter than the other tales, this one is still an effective story of terror in an historical setting.

I liked all three of these tales, and I will be seeking out the second and third book in Finch’s series. show less

This book should come with a caution: In case of pre-existing heart condition, please check with your physician before opening.
Heck is back. That would be DS Mark "Heck" Heckenburg, a man with a gift for attracting trouble even when posted to a sleepy rural village. After the fallout from his last case ("The Killing Club"), Heck was banished to the Lake District. Ostensibly it's as part of Scotland Yard's Anti Rural Crime Initiative. In reality it's as punishment meted out by Superintendent show more Gemma Piper, his old boss. They have a long history but Piper has finally had it with his tendency to colour outside the lines.
Now stationed in Craigwood Keld, Heck's days are spent covering miles of sparsely populated fens & mountains. The one bonus is the Witch's Kettle, a local pub popular for 2 reasons. It's the only one in town & it's run by the lovely Hazel Carter.
His "staff" consists of PC Mary-Ellen (ME) O'Rourke, a feisty young woman with limitless energy. She's eager to learn but with most of the calls being of the search & rescue variety, Heck fears for her education. That's about to change.
It begins with 2 missing hikers. The weather in early November is unpredictable & a thick fog has descended, reducing visibility to zero. Heck & ME's search is hampered by the treacherous conditions but they find one of the young women, battered & barely alive. She tells a chilling story of being stalked & attacked by a faceless stranger. One detail stands out...he was whistling "Strangers in the Night".
This gets Heck's attention. Ten years ago, Piper was part of a team that trapped a sadistic killer known as the Stranger. She shot him & barely escaped but his body was never found.
Heck hasn't spoken to Piper since his transfer & she's reluctant to believe there's a connection. It was the case that started her meteoric rise through the ranks. It was also the beginning of the end for her relationship with Heck. But privately she has always wondered if the Stranger is still out there.
It's an old ghost she can't shake & Piper surprises Heck by travelling to the area. She'll be one of the last to make it as the weather settle sin, cutting off cell service & closing the roads.
What happens next makes for a full on thriller. The tiny hamlet is soon at the mercy of a killer who is smart, cruel & always one step ahead. Heck & Co. have few resources & their isolation creates a plot similar to a closed room mystery.
This is a creepy, atmospheric read. The author's descriptions of rugged landscape shrouded in fog lend a claustrophobic feel to the setting. The sense a menace is pervasive & it's easy to relate to the paralyzing fear of the villagers. They're an odd assortment but the story belongs to Heck, ME & Piper.
This is book #4 & Heck is a well established character. He's a conscientious, likeable guy whose laid back manner belies a keen mind that never truly shuts down. His obsessive focus has led to great success professionally. His personal life is another matter. The lonely cop who bends the rules is hardly a revelation but in this case makes for an intriguing character. His blue collar background has left him comfortable in his own skin, with no aspirations to leave the street & become a paper pusher.
Just a heads up. The author spares no adjective describing the gory crime scenes & the killer's MO left me a tad squeably. But by then I was hooked & had to know how he was going to extract his characters from this seemingly hopeless situation.
It's a scary, fast paced read that keeps you turning the pages. If you're a fan of Stuart MacBride, Lee Child or Steve Berry, this is for you. show less

Ashes to Ashes – Heck Just Gets Better

Detective Sergeant Mark ‘Heck’ Heckenburg is back and is really facing death in the face, as he looks at the remnants of his family. Paul Finch gives us the another outing for Heck, moving the action from London, to his nemesis home town in Greater Manchester. Once again Finch delivers on all levels with Ashes to Ashes, keeping you guessing and involved from beginning to end.

Heck and his team from the Serious Crimes Unit are on the hunt for one of show more the most unremarkable, boring looking men in London. John Sagan is a forgettable man, you would never notice him. He does have a side line in torture and execution for hire for whoever has the most money. Nobody is quite sure how many he has killed.

When an operation goes wrong, and a colleague is killed, Sagan is on the run and headed north. They get a tip off that he is in the town of Bradburn part of the Greater Manchester conurbation. The problem for Heck is it means going home, to a town he fell out of love with, along with his family twenty years before. With those that remember him, he will not be popular.

What Heck at the SCU did not expect was to walk into the middle of an underworld war, and where someone is using a flamethrower to kill people. It looks like a young whippersnapper is trying to usurp Manchester kingpin Vic Ship with all the weapons he can muster. It is Heck that goes toe to toe with both sides and that may just backfire. To solve the case, he may endanger his life and that of his uncle, but at what cost?

You could see the symbolism of the flamethrower being a cleansing agent, but is it really? Bradburn is being cleansed but at what cost to the town? Finch’s prose brings light even in the darkest moments of this thriller, and with a pace that makes you turn the page. The worst part of this thriller is that it comes to a close eventually. show less