Rush of Blood

November 4, 2019
Set in London (“with its rain and its noise and the feeling that every breath has been through a million other lungs before it reaches your own”), this vivid and often witty gothic thriller from Mark (The Mausoleum) comes complete with all the trimmings: madness, death, a gloomy house that holds a terrifying secret, and echoes of a bloody past. Ten-year-old Hilda is the daughter of Molly, the manager of the Jolly Bonnet, “Whitechapel’s premier Victorian gin bar.” Decorated with antique medical equipment, the pub is “a must-see destination for anybody with an interest in the murky world of morbid anatomy.” When a schoolmate goes missing, Hilda seeks help in finding her from Molly and Lottie, “a well-respected pathologist and an excellent curator of the necro-museum she personally established,” who has her own YouTube channel. Lottie and her posse of followers soon discover that other young girls have gone missing. The blood-drenched finale and disturbingly creepy epilogue will long remain in the mind of the reader. Those with a taste for the macabre will be well satisfied. Agent: Oli Munson, A.M. Heath (U.K.).

November 15, 2019
A young girl's concern for a missing friend plunges her and her mother into a perilous situation in another of Mark's haunting psychological thrillers (The Mausoleum, 2019, etc.). Hilda leads an odd life with her mother, Molly, a former police officer who runs a pub in the heart of Jack the Ripper's London. The Jolly Bonnet's morbid exhibits draw people with similar interests. When Meda Stauskas, an awkward Lithuanian girl Hilda's befriended, doesn't turn up for their dance class, Hilda urges Molly to visit Meda's parents. A tough-looking man named Karol tells them nothing is wrong. Molly, who isn't buying it, enlists her best friend, Lottie, a pathologist and vlogger interested in the macabre, who remembers the police telling her that a local gang has targeted immigrants. When the pub is visited by three heavies who attack after accusing them all of snooping, Karol turns up and throws them out. He says that Meda's been gone three days and that her parents have called him instead of the police. Karol describes himself as a fixer of problems who expects to make a payment to get Meda back. As Molly grows more intimate with Karol, he admits that Meda may be dead, since only a fake call for money has ever come. Unknown to Molly's crew is the mysterious bibliophile Mr. Farkas, who has a special interest in the works of Jean Denys, best remembered for transfusing blood from animals to humans using goose quills as hypodermics. Farkas has a particular reason to learn more about Denys' work. So does Lottie after she recalls the case of a young girl, similar in appearance to Meda, who was found dead with a goose feather in a puncture wound. Farkas may be the key to Meda's whereabouts once they learn of his existence. Don't expect a happy ending in this twisty, chilling tale.

COPYRIGHT(2019) Kirkus Reviews, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.