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The Ancient [Paperback]

Muriel Gray (Author)
4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)

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Book Description

Publication Date: 21 May 2001

Alien, on a container ship.
‘Scary and unputdownable. ‘ Stephen King

Amongst towering mountains of trash in the backstreets of Lima, three young boys are trying to raise an ancient demon. They don't think their incantation has worked; but that night a teenage drugrunner is gunned down across their makeshift altar. As his killers walk away, his body stirs. Not because it still contains a spark of life. But because something is stirring beneath it…

Port Callao. The MV Lysicrates, a three-quarter-mile long supertanker, is being loaded with hundreds of tonnes of trash. Watching from the bridge, in a bleary state of hungover gloom, is second-in-command Matthew Cotton; more interesting is the arrival of a young American student who has missed the boat she should have been on.

They should have paid more attention to the trash.

With its powerful blend of superb characterisation and demonic horror, Muriel Gray's new novel is her best yet.

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Product details

  • Paperback: 368 pages
  • Publisher: HarperCollins (21 May 2001)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 0002253143
  • ISBN-13: 978-0002253147
  • Product Dimensions: 22.8 x 15.2 x 3.4 cm
  • Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
  • Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 916,555 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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More About the Author

› Visit Amazon's Muriel Gray Page
Muriel Gray
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Product Description

Amazon Review

When an author is equally well known as a broadcaster, it can certainly help in promoting their books. But in the author of The Ancient, Muriel Gray's case, it could be said to be something of a liability. Gray is best known as a highly intelligent, energetic and cheerful TV presenter--and certainly the last person one might think capable of producing such an effectively chilling supernatural outing as The Ancient. But that's just what she's done.

This highly atmospheric tale combines the subtle, allusive prose style of such masters of the past as MR James with a more contemporary emphasis that suggests Clive Barker. In the grim, rubbish-strewn back streets of Lima, three boys are attempting to raise an ancient demon. Their incantations fail (so they think), but on the same night a drug dealer is killed over their impromptu altar. And anyone who has ever watched a Hammer film will know what effect the shedding of blood has on dormant monsters. Gray then relocates her narrative to the massive supertanker, Lysicrates, where the beleaguered second-in-command Matthew Cotton is intrigued by the arrival of a young American student. Soon, both are involved in the horror that came aboard with the hundreds of pounds of rubbish that the ship is carrying. Much carnage ensues before a decisive final confrontation.

Muriel Gray's particular achievement in The Ancient is to reinvigorate a genre suffering from chronic overload. Her supernatural menace may be nothing out of the ordinary, but she surrounds it with such a world of persuasively grim detail and (most importantly) well-rounded characters that the reader is comprehensively gripped.--Barry Forshaw

Review

From the reviews of The Trickster and Furnace:
'The Trickster is written with incredible vigour… thuggish, gory, sentimental, cosy. It grips'
Daily Mail

'Gray tells her tale with immense elan. A smashing debut that's gutsier than most authors could ever be' Time Out

'Pacy, energetic, violent entertainment whose flashes of intuition and glittery neurosis give it an idiosyncratic edge' The Times

See all Product Description

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Customer Reviews

4.4 out of 5 stars
5 reviews
4.4 out of 5 stars
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
4 of 5 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars Intelligent, terrifying and brilliant 12 May 2003
By Alijazz
Format:Paperback
Be careful where you are when you pick up this book, because once you do, you won't be able to put it down. I lost a whole night's sleep to it and a morning's work. It was well worth it.

The hero is great, the heroine great, the villains nicely vengeful. The plot is as twisted and mesmerising as DNA. Every time I thought I might have got it sussed, the action soared in a different direction. I loved every terrifying second. Recommended!

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4 of 5 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars Deep, gory and brilliant. 15 Jan 2003
By enzo lamont
Format:Paperback
There aren't many books that keep you up through the night, just becuase you can't put it down, but this is one of them. I read this is an incredible ten hour straight sitting, a first for me. It was the combination of great characters, an unfolding tale that I couldn't wait to see what happened next, and a setting that really scared the pants off me. I haven't read all of Gray's books, but I'm going to now. You have to buy this, if only for the bit when the hero has to journey through the rubbish hold. Scarier than anything else I've read for years.
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3.0 out of 5 stars Familiar But Fun 17 July 2012
By carl
Format:Paperback
Well-written and gripping. A total page-turner from start to finish. The plot advances well and the characters of absorbing. But the book reads very much like a book published in 1998 called, "Flight of the Shaman". A good read, nonetheless.
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