Amazon.co.uk Review
A book that starts in Hell has got to be expertly paced, and no-one has ever accused British King of Horror James Herbert of lacking any of those skills. Hardly has a damned soul agreed to an angelic offer he cannot refuse than Nicholas Dismas is limping down the mean streets of contemporary Brighton searching for a child who may not even exist. Nicholas has only one eye and is short, lame and hunchbacked; he finds himself living daily with the hatred a society obsessed with normality dishes out to those who cannot conform. This is a book about exploitation and prejudice which touches some raw nerves; it makes you think as well as making you shudder. Dismas--who feels sorry for himself but not too much of the time--is one of the more three-dimensional characters in Herbert's work, and his love for the tiny and beautiful Constance is genuinely touching while not entirely avoiding sentimentality. There is horror of a classic visceral kind here--one of Dismas's colleagues dies in a peculiarly vile fashion--and a nursing home turns out to contain a real heart of darkness, but the real horror is the shabby ways in which people treat each other. --Roz Kaveney
Product Description
'It sounded easy. Find a missing kid. Eighteen years old. Only he was dead. Died at birth. So why was his mother so sure he was still alive? Alive and calling for help. The assignment took me to Hell. And that's where I'd come from, only I didn't know it at the time. Matter of fact, there were a lot of things I didn't know about myself. I just thought I was different, not the kind you'd expect to be a private investigator. But I was wrong. Like I'd been wrong for most of my uncharmed life. Because I was more than that. And the answers were coming, coming fast and they scared me shitless. Murder, mutilation, depravity and horrors that almost OTHERS at Perfect Rest and every thought I had about life itself changed. It's a story you might hate. Because it's too close to the real truth. And it might frighten you so badly you will never sleep in an unlit room again. But it'll make you think. I promise you that. I only hope it won't make you think too much. Because that's when the nightmares will begin. Yeah, that's when everything will change. Your choice.'
