Fans of Catriona Ward and Stephen King will find plenty to enjoy in this biting horror novel where not all is what you see... or hear.

In 1983, experimental artist Tony Mathias began work on a new installation – it was to be a collage of visuals and sounds collected at an abandoned RAF base called Warden Fell. Various stories and rumours swirled around the place but Tony was interested only in the echoes of history. But soon after visiting the site to tape-record the sounds there, he returned to the caravan where he was staying with his family and killed his wife, his two children and then himself. Another dark twist in Warden Fell’s history?

But the past reaches out. Decades later Cally Darker, gets the chance to investigate the terrible story and perhaps even solve the mystery – a fantastic exclusive story for her true-crime podcast.Tony's actress sister Stella is desperate for the mystery to be solved before she dies will do all she can to help and passes on the tapes left behind by her brother. But before long, Cally realises that Warden Fell has a far older and darker story to tell. Be careful what you listen to…

Excerpt

Cally forced herself under the shower for two minutes and dragged a brush through her hair. Dressing or changing clothes seemed like huge, exhausting tasks on bad days like this, but she’d opted for minimal effort and maximum impact, donning a blue thong and the black silk cheongsam he’d bought her for her birthday.

Again, she wasn’t proud of herself – a recurring theme in this relationship – but sex was near-enough all they had left in common; if it gave Cally a much-needed dopamine hit too, she wouldn’t complain. The outfit caught Iain’s attention, anyway, and improved his mood. They snuggled on the sofa while he told her about his day (in one ear, out the other,) and were necking passionately when the pizza arrived.

With dinner underway, she slipped out of the cheongsam to avoid getting pizza grease on the silk, which made Iain happier still. An early night looked increasingly on the cards, with all sins forgiven in the morning. Happy For Now, if not Happy Ever After.

But she’d spent all day researching and making notes, and once Cally fixated on a subject, she couldn’t stop herself talking about it. That’d been true ever since childhood, much to Dad’s amusement and her mother’s annoyance.

“Think I’ve got my next podcast sorted,” she said.

“Oh yeah?” said Iain.

The living room grew cold.

You and your big mouth, Cally thought miserably. To Iain, the podcast was just a peculiar hobby, and an unhealthy one at that. But she’d gone and said it now. Maybe she could always things back; she was fairly sure her current state of undress could have distracted Iain from anything short of his parents’ severed heads on pikes. “Yeah,” she said. “That email I got before? The links I was looking at?”

Iain put his half-eaten slice of pizza down. “Oh. Yeah.”

“It’s a murder case from the ‘80s, but no one else has written about it. I’d never even heard of it, but it’s really interesting.”

“Yeah?” Iain took a sip of beer.

“This guy, Tony Mathias. He was an artist. Pretty successful, one to watch and all that. And then, out of the blue, he had this massive psychotic break. Killed his whole family, set fire to his caravan and shot himself.”

“Caravan?”

Cally tried not to laugh at how that was what had stood out most for Iain. “Yeah.”

“Thought he was successful?”

“He’d won awards.”

“Right, so no money.”

“Maybe he liked living in a caravan.”

“I suppose.” Iain’s tone suggested he’d rather attach giant leeches to his genitals. “What’s so interesting, though? Some batty artist type flids out and kills everyone? Big whoop.”

“Yeah, but why did he go mad?”

“He was an artist, wasn’t he?” Iain reached for his pizza slice. “Probably on drugs.”

“He hadn’t had any trouble before. No sign of anything wrong.”

“Apart from being an artist,” Iain mumbled through a mouthful of pepperoni and onion.

“Ha-ha. Seriously, he did okay. Married, kids. Everyone who knew them said how nice they were, how happy. And then, 9th June 1983, he took a rifle and shot his wife. His kids ran out of the caravan. He shot them both, right in front of the next-door neighbour, then went back inside and–”

“Shot himself.” Iain grimaced.

“Set it on fire first.”

“Glad we didn’t order the BBQ wings.”

That was quite witty for Iain. “Not everything burned, though,” said Cally. “He’d been writing all over his bedroom walls. Most of it was gone, except two words, written over and over again. World’s End.”

“So he thought it was Judgement Day?”

“This was the ‘80s, dude. The Cold War? Have you listened to half the pop music from then? Besides, 9th June 1983 was General Election night. Maggie Thatcher won a second term by a landslide. Nothing short of World War Three was keeping that off the front page. I suppose one horrible tragedy was enough.”

“She did a lot of good for the country,” mumbled Iain, leaving Cally wondering how she could have ever thought dating him a good idea. Luckily all around, Iain was too busy eyeing the rest of her to notice her expression.

“Point is, there was no history of mental illness, nothing to indicate Tony Mathias was a danger to anyone. Something must have set him off. If I can find out what, I might have something interesting.”

“Not my cup of tea,” said Iain. “Horses for courses, though, I suppose.” He reached out and cupped her breast. “How about dessert?”

Afterward they snuggled contentedly for a few minutes before Iain rolled over, checked his alarm was set for the morning and began to snore.

Probably for the best; pillow talk would only have exposed the gaps between them again. Her situation was still the same: stay here, or run home to Daddy. Wherever she went, there was neither purpose nor direction in her life. Except, perhaps, in one area.

Cally slid out of bed, pulled on a dressing gown, then took her laptop back downstairs.

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About the Author

Daniel Church grew up in Manchester, and he still lives in the North of England. His first novel, THE HOLLOWS, was short-listed for the 2023 British Fantasy Society’s Horror Novel of the Year, and THE RAVENING was published in September 2024.