The Hand
   of the Devil          
  
          author: Dean Vincent Carter
   published: February 2006
    publisher: Random House
                        288 pages
                        

     
       "I have in my possession, a specimen
        known as the 'GANGES RED'..."

     

        Ashley Reeves is a keen young journalist, working for "Missing Link"
        magazine. When he receives an intriguing letter from Reginald Mather
        he heads out of London to the Lake District and Mather's island home
        in the hope of photographing a most mysterious insect. The Ganges
        Red is a legendary mosquito of dinnerplate proportions. But does it
        really exist?

        The portents aren't good. The trip north just seems to go from
        bad to worse, and once he finally lands upon Mather's island, Ashley
        finds himself at the mercy of a madman. His host has a grisly secret
        up his sleeve. And there's worse still to be unearthed on the far side
        of the island, in the rundown research facility. But most hideous of
        all is Mather's mistress. The Lady. The Ganges Red controlling his
        every move, his every breathe. And now she has her sights on
        Mr Reeves....
        
   

        » Dean Vincent Carter used to work for Transworld/Random House.
            In his author biography he tells us that he used to add various
            light-hearted additions to his inhouse emails, and his notes caught
            the attention of one of the editors. When they bumped into each
            other at an office Christmas party, she asked if he'd actually
            written anything...

   

       The Gnome says

       This creepy little number has a fabulous monster at its beating heart.
       The first-time author blends Lovecraft and Poe in with the bloodletting,
       to really get under the reader's skin, and into the head. The island
       setting is grand, with Mather's neglected home, and its abandoned
       facility beyond in the tangle of trees and foliage. Who knows what
       secrets they harbor?  As soon as our hero sets out for this unsettling
       place, you know he's in for trouble with a captail "T". Hells bells,
       even the journey there is frought with doom and danger.

       Some may say the story meanders from the path a little, after the
       first night in Mather's cottage. Instead of focusing on the Ganges Red,
       we're led a merry dance through Mather's madness and decay, and
       the Vietnamese legend behind the mayhem doesn't quite come together.
       The appearance of the insect's nemesis threatens to derail the
       tale all together, and our hero flees and gets recaptured just a
       little too often...

       ...But when the writing's so good, who cares? When the Ganges
       Red burrows into your mindset so completely, who's worrying?
       "The Hand of the Devil" welcomes a great new horror writer to our
       bookshelf. Just like Darren Shan, he's been pigeonholed as a
       kids horror writer, but this first story sits just as well in an adult
       collection. There's blood here. There's death, and our hero is
       tossed into an unmentionable pit of despair that will chill readers
       of any age. Oh, and let's applaud the presentation too. Songe
       Riddle's cover art on the hardback edition is bloody fabulous.

       "The Hand of the Devil" is a very good beginning. What other horrors
       does Mr Carter have, lurking up his sleeve...?

    

       Collectors

       Take your pick of three:

       There are signed copies out there, with a big red Ganges Red
       stamped on the title page.

        

       Then there are 300 numbered editions with the Ganges Red in
       purple, signed and lined too, with famous quotes from Poe,
       Housman and Lovecraft.

       And even better still, if you've got the cash, there are 100 extra
       special copies with that original red stamp of the Ganges Red,
       plus the author's signature and a line of famous text. But these
       were all snapped up very quickly indeed...


    

      Buy this book

   
      The Hand of the Devil       The Hand of the Devil
      UK Hardback edition....            UK Paperback edition...


    

      On the web


      Dean Vincent Carter
      The author's home on the web, with more on his books
      and a link to his Livejournal...

      Random House
      The publisher's site...



   
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