BOOK REVIEW | ALL THE DEVILS ARE HERE | PAUL FINCH

 

A bit of a quick review this morning. This is a new book that has been released by PS Publishing called 

All the Devils Are Here by Paul Finch

Cynical London cop, Dora “Mac” McDougal, of the Metropolitan Police’s elite Organised Crime Command, has a strike-rate that is second-to-none, mainly because of her cavalier approach to rules and regulations. However, when Mac discovers the whereabouts of a cop-killer whom she has a personal beef with, she literally throws caution to the wind.

.This animal in human form took out the only guy she ever cared about. And only one response is possible to that.

However, when Mac’s off-the-books revenge mission takes her north, she finds herself in a woe-begotten town, itself in the grip of supernatural evil. And uncovers a devilish plot to unleash torturous death on an epic scale.

Throughout her twenty-year war against the nation’s deadliest criminals, Mac could never have dreamed how many lower levels of darkness there still are, all just waiting to unleash their malevolent forces.

Sunday Times bestseller, Paul Finch, cranks up the terror to max in this all-new horror story of mass murder and urban diabolism.

A NOVELLA by Paul Finch
CATEGORY Supernatural / Horror
PUBLICATION DATE August 2024
COVER ART Greg Chapman.
PAGES 149

After an informant that is known to hard nosed cop Dora ‘Mac’ McDougall and her partner Danny Sullivan, is viciously murdered, the two are called to the scene. After examining the scene, they head to the lockup where the snitch kept his records.

They discover that the informant has kept information on a significant number of the criminal underworld, but as they are doing some off the books snooping, they discover that a known cop killer who murdered the man that Dora was having an affair with many years ago has turn.ed up in a town up north.

After they leave the lock up, strange events begin to occur. Danny is attacked by an unknown assailant that resembles a creepy mannequin that was in the informant’s lock up.

Following the attack, Dora tells Danny that she has decided to take matters into her own hands and head up north to try to find her lover’s murderer, where she encounters strange priests and diabolical happenings.

Mixing police procedural with supernatural horror, All The Devils Are Here is a horror tale set in the north of England.

Going in blind to the story, I had no idea where this was going. In one instance, it starts as a regular crime thriller, then moves into a Get Carteresque revenge thriller, before finally heading into horror territory, and much to my surprise it works really well.

I found that Paul Finch’s writing slipped easily from one genre to another quite seamlessly. In some instances, it did remind me of the fantastical elements of things like Dr Who (particularly The Autons), and I wasn’t surprised to see that Paul Finch had previously written scripts for Big Finish’ Dr Who range (which was adapted from his father’s unfinished script called Leviathon, which featured the Sixth Doctor).

The main characters of the books are your pretty typical maverick coppers who are a little bit ‘wise to the world’ and like to do things their own way, but they are quite likeable, particularly ‘Dora’. Danny is the typical sidekick.

One of the problems with a book like this is how do you mix gritty crime drama and introduce an element of horror, and make it believable? Finch manages to do this and at no point did I think the horror elements did not fit as Finch introduced the weird goings on quite early in the book, and building up the levels of horror flawlessly.

All in all, All The Devils Are Here is an enjoyable multi genre read, and if more books of these two characters came out, I would definitely read them.