Dark Heart: The Purgatory of Leo Stamp [Paperback]

On Leo's sixteenth birthday. something bad happened. Something so traumatic his mind fractured, and darkness filled the crack. Twenty years on and the crack is a canyon. The schizophrenic hallucination that offered sympathy has taken to mocking him, and the memory of that long-ago birthday claws at his darkest fears, overshadowing even the murder of his younger brother Davey. But just when Leo thinks life can't get and worse... Leo dies.

A demon returns after twenty years.

An Angel follows close behind.

Leo is caught in an age-old conflict, his past lying at the dark heart of it all.

Leo Stamp is not a happy man. He has beautiful home, a thriving business and a car to die for but he is haunted by the ghosts of his childhood. The death of his sibling weighs heavy on his shoulders and has stayed with him for decades. Alone at night he voices his anxieties to a poster of James Bond on his wall. He is seeking answers to the horrors have plagued his life. His mental state continues to deteriorate and by page fifty Leo is dead. When he is given the opportunity at a second chance at life that is when his troubles really start.

Leo finds himself essentially a pawn between two opposing forces that he doesn't fully understand. His potential tormentors/saviors are two men called Reuben and Michael. Each vies for Leo's attention, making promises of help and support. They lead him this way and that, playing on his emotions and mental fragility, to the point where Leo is unsure whom to trust. Leo's best friend John and John's girlfriend, Sadie are also drawn into the escalating series of events and this eventually leads to a climactic confrontation.

Darren J Guest's first novel is character driven piece. Leo is a tortured soul and the reader gets the opportunity to follow him as he attempts to cope with various psychological traumas as his world falls apart.

I liked that there aren't many characters and few locations as this helped to convey the novel's intimate nature. This is a story of one man as he battles with himself as much as the forces that are attempting to control him. Everyone feels the effects of Leo's actions and every move that he makes has repercussions.

A word of warning the story does touch upon some particularly dark themes, the murder of Davey and a number of other children particularly so. Coupled with descriptions Leo mental issues this makes for a novel that can be quite harrowing at times. In fairness though these elements are entirely necessary for the plot evolve the way it does.

You may be forgiven for thinking that a novel with fewer than three hundred pages would be lacking in depth but Guest has crafted a truly compelling tale. Leo is an everyman character. Realistically he could be anyone. Though there are supernatural elements this is also as much about the human condition and how a person's actions always have consequences. Guest takes time to explore the different levels of light and dark that inhabits us all.

I should also mention how much I enjoyed the little coda at the novels end, it hints that there may be more of this story that needs to be told. It strikes me that there is not only a history but also a wider scope to some of the characters, which could be explored. Dark Heart is a strong debut and I look forward to Darren's next book.

I think it was February of this year when Anna Torborg, cover artist and editor extraordinaire at the small but might indie publisher Snowbooks, emailed me to see if I'd be interested in doing a cover blurb for a book she thought I'd really like. I didn't hesitate in my answer she'd already asked authors for blurbs for my books, so I thought to return the favor.

What I didn't expect was how rewarding a reading experience it was going to be. Dark Heart: The Purgatory of Leo Stamp is the first book for British author Darren J. Guest and to sum it up in a short sentence: it's a helluva read! I thoroughly enjoyed this book not because I'm a fan of horror or that I'm constantly looking for books that deal with our darker nature, and there's a lot of that in this book. Leo is a guy with a fair amount of wealth as the book starts out. He lives a relatively solitary life with few friends and there's this business of a James Bond poster on the wall that ... well... it talks to him. It analyzes him. It calls into question Leo's motivations and points out his flaws, and it does this using Sean Connery's voice. He's Jiminy Cricket on acid, seriously.

At first glance, you might think that Leo is mad - he does, after all have conversations with an old movie poster, but it doesn't take you long to realize that these conversations exist because Leo's heart is empty. He admittedly floats through life. He covets his best friend's girlfriend Sadie because of an almost moment years ago. He is a shadow of the person he could be and very early on in the book, he dies. That's when everything changes for Leo because he's going be engaged shortly in some heavy duty body swapping - and the real head spinner is the *other* body swapping that is about to happen. That's where things really start to take off because the person occupying Leo's body might just be a killer who is as old as time itself.

I truly can't reveal much more of the plot than what I've written because this book becomes a real page-turner and there are plot twists that will make your head spin. There's a shadowy character who forms an alliance of sorts with Leo. There's a race against time to stop further murders and there's this business of stopping the being that is currently residing in the mortal husk of dearly departed Leo.

This is a classic horror/suspense novel. It shines a light into the dark places that make up the human psyche. It challenges you to root for a hero who by all accounts isn't exactly someone with terribly redeeming qualities and it pushes you into wondering whether what Leo is experiencing might well be an out-of-control schizophrenic hallucination. This is the stuff of a great book, where the reader must suspend belief to reconcile fact from fantasy. Is Leo's purgatory in another body real or isn't it? Is this murderous person someone that deeply flawed Leo can stop?

I finished this book in a day, and that's rare for me because I'm a notoriously slow reader. It's a fresh take on horror because it doesn't lend itself to formulaic writing and predictable plot twists.

Give it a spin and buckle up. There's hair-pin turns in this one and you'll need your wits about you because the ending will make you wonder why the hell you didn't see it coming in the first place.

Every now and then I like to take a punt on new authors, sometimes it pays of sometimes it doesn't. Darren was giving away free copies of this book from his blog. Being a tight fisted Scotsman,my ears pricked up at the mere mention of free.

I had to read it, if someone is giving away free books and I ask for one I'll always read it, it's only fair. The question on everyone's lips though is "was it worth reading?" The short answer to this is Hell Yes!!!!

On Leo's sixteenth birthday, something bad happened. Something so traumatic his mind fractured, and darkness filled the crack. Twenty years on and the crack is a canyon. The schizophrenic hallucination that once offered sympathy has taken to mocking him, and the memory of that long-ago birthday claws at his darkest fears, overshadowing even the murder of his younger brother Davey. But just when life can't get any worse... Leo dies.
A demon returns after twenty years.
An angel follows close behind.
Leo is caught in an age-old conflict, his past lying at the dark heart of it all.

That's all I'm going to say about the plot, yes I know it's a clichéd thing to say, but I'm not going to spoil anything by giving away any more details, the twists and turns are a joy to discover as you read this novel.

Dark Heart is the début novel from Darren J Guest, and as début novels go, this is one of the best. Dark Heart, is an excellent read, it is complex, enthralling, thrilling, but most importantly it feels as though it was written by a much more experienced author. Darren's writing is both tight and stylish, with a nice line of dark humour running through it. This is a complex story that deals with complex themes, yet Darren's writing never gets bogged down, as the story unfolds you are rewarded with some great twist, and a couple of what the hell moments.

I've been putting off the review for a while, mainly because I've been trying to decide what genre this book falls into. Yes it has angels and a bit of magic, but it's not an Urban Fantasy, yes there are horrific moments, but it's not a horror book. So I came to the conclusion, don't try and pigeon hole this book, what matters is that Darren J guest has crafted one of my favourite début novels of recent years, hell one of my favourite novels of recent years full stop. If this is what Darren produced as a first attempt, then I can't wait to read what he brings out next.

Trust me folks this book is worth your time and money.