Welcome to Day Seven of my Halloween Week!
Today I showcase a delightful book of Edwardian style murder and tragedy with a spotlight for A Persistence of Geraniums and Other Worrying Tales by John Linwood Grant. Plus there's the Instafreebie Halloween Horror Group Giveaway. Enjoy!
A Persistence of Geraniums and Other Worrying Tales
by John Linwood Grant
Illustrated by Paul Boswell
Enter a world where the psychic, the
alienist and the assassin carry out their strange duties as quiet tragedies
unfold around them. These are tales of murder, madness and the supernatural in
an Edwardian England which is never quite what it seems. From rural Yorkshire
to the heart of the City of London, death is on the air, and no one can sense
it better than Mr Dry, the lethal Deptford Assassin...
A PERSISTENCE OF GERANIUMS AND OTHER WORRYING TALES is available in paperback.
(With a forthcoming ebook).
“HIS HEART SHALL SPEAK NO MORE”
An extract from the collection ‘A
Persistence of Geraniums and Other Worrying Tales.’
We
spent some hours exploring the lower beach, popping anything to which we took a
fancy into Emilia’s sacks, and the sea was coloured with the first pink tinges
of sunset by the time we abandoned our beach-combing to return home. Even
Philip seemed more animated than usual.
At
Bitterns we washed, ate a cold collation (Isaiah was in Ipswich on business),
and examined our finds. Most were akin to Emilia’s existing collection, but she
had found a large tellin, the two halves of its shell spread in the manner of a
perfect rose-coloured butterfly. Some of the urchin tests were broken, the
material like fine porcelain. She discarded those as Philip went though his own
sack.
‘Mrs Rawkins…’ He stared at the
rounded object in his hand. It was crusted with sand, the crude shape of a
heart and some three and a half inches across.
She
took it from him gently, and frowned. Her hand-brush took the sand away, to
reveal something which was clearly not an urchin.
‘Wood,’ she said, peering
through an eyepiece she had been using to identify crustacea. ‘It appears to be
a wooden carving.’
‘Of a heart urchin?’ he asked,
though I thought that one would hardly need to make an effigy of these common
animals.
‘No, of an actual heart I think, Philip. Quite a curio. A
sailor’s carving, perhaps, from a dull voyage.’
She
threw it back to him, and went about her work.
‘I shall keep it as a memento of
this afternoon.’
He
cradled it oddly in his hands, as if it were delicate, then slid it into his
jacket pocket. I forbore from saying the cloth might stain – at least his
attention had been dragged from his own unhappiness.
Isaiah
returned not long after, and a pleasant late supper ensued, punctuated by
Isaiah’s tales of dim-witted shipping agents and watered whisky. Emilia and I
laughed or nodded as appropriate, used to his stories. Philip picked at his
food, saying little but offering the occasional faint smile.
‘Emilia tells me you found a
rather unusual “urchin”,’ said Isaiah, wiping his fingers on a napkin. ‘Might I
have a look?’
My
nephew took the carving out of his pocket, though at first he seemed reluctant
to hand it over. Isaiah turned the object in his thick fingers, examining it.
‘Amazing what gets washed up around here. Emilia found, um,
part of a figurehead once, half buried in the sands after a storm.’
‘A shipwreck?’ I asked.
‘Or an incompetent carpenter.’
Isaiah laughed. ‘This wooden thing, however, reminds me of something I once
read, long ago. A local bit of, um, nonsense. You could try my library, young
man.’
‘Thank you, Mr Rawkins.’ Philip
took the carving back, slipping it into his pocket once more. I had to wonder
why the boy was still carrying it around. There was something about it which
was not to my taste…
Author Bio:
John Linwood Grant is a professional author/editor who lives in Yorkshire with a pack of lurchers and a beard. He writes dark historical horror and weird fiction, including the Mamma Lucy tales of 1920s hoodoo and the Last Edwardian series. With some thirty stories published, he is also editor of Occult Detective Quarterly, plus forthcoming anthologies. His 2017 collection 'A Persistence of Geraniums' – stories of Edwardian murder, madness and the supernatural – has been widely praised, whilst his popular website greydogtales.com explores weird fiction and weird art.
🎃
And here's the giveaway...
Over 30 Free Books and Stories in this horror giveaway!
Check it all out here!
And please return tomorrow for the last day and a look at the Twist Fairy Tale Anthology, Mirror and Thorns.
