SHRIKE: The butcher bird. A creature with a very nasty habit, that impales its victims.
Levenford had seen its share of horror, with the strange and bloody deaths in a little room in an old house in the centre of the town. Thirty years later, in the same room, spiritualist Marta Herkik has gathered together a group of lost souls – men and women from the town, each with secret fears and desires. When Marta calls up spirits from the other side, all hell breaks loose, literally. Evil is given flesh and blood. And evil demands flesh and blood.
The first death, of a young baby, occurs shortly after the seance, and is quickly, horribly, followed by more, in a seemingly endless, unconnected sequence. Soon it is clear that the killer – whoever he is, whatever it is – loves the dark places, the high places the old town offers. And this killer is brutal, with superhuman strength, and without respect for the age or sex of its victims.
Jack Fallon has to investigate the slaughter that has turned Levenford into a pressure chamber of dread. There are no clues at first. But soon the bizarre visions of Lorna Breck, a young highland woman, begin to make some kind of weird sense. She knows what is happening, and often knows before it happens. Only she can unlock the terrible secret of Levenford. only she can lead Fallon to the Shrike. And that is exactly what the monster wants, for Lorna and Jack are to be the next victims…
An exciting read by Joe Donnelly.