Showing results by publisher "Isis Publishing Ltd" in Science Fiction & Fantasy

Hakan, son of Haldan, chosen son of the lord of the Northern Jutes, swears loyalty to his father in fire, in iron and in blood. But when a terrible tragedy befalls Hakan's household, he is forced to leave his world behind and pledge his sword to a new king. Nameless and alone, he embarks on a journey to fulfil his destiny as a great warrior. Whispers of sinister forces in the north pull Hakan onwards to a kingdom plagued by mysterious and gruesome deaths.

It's New Year's Eve, and the Rook family are at odds with one another. Unfortunately, not only is their psychic rival Aurora coming to their hometown, but there's another visitor - Death. The newly appointed Replacement Reaper, who is not grim at all, but a very cute Canadian. He's here to end the world - albeit ethically and politely. This time, Armageddon is coming home. Can the family overcome their differences in time to stop the ultimate New Year Countdown? Who is Aurora, really? And, is Death single?

In a forgotten nook of Cambridge a little shop stands where thousands of sheets of beautiful paper and hundreds of exquisite pens wait for the next person who, with Clara Cohen's help, will express the love, despair and desire they feel to correspondents alive, estranged or dead. Clara knows better than most the power a letter can have to turn a person's life around, so when she discovers a cache of wartime love letters, she follows them on a profound journey of her own.

After the events in Coldbay where they sealed the hell hole, Lucy is trying to learn more about it and how to save Murzzzz from eternal damnation. Yes, he's a demon, but he's also a part of the family. Lucy's turned to her diocese for guidance but they've gone strangely quiet so she persuades the Rooks to drive there so they can sort this out. On the way, they realise something is incredibly wrong with a motorway service station - it's empty except for lingering, sad ghosts and...oh no, another hell hole has opened and sucked in a load of people.

When a petrol yacht catches fire in the South Atlantic, its lone survivor, Patterson, swims to safety. He is relieved when he washes up on a tropical island inhabited by four other ship-wrecked characters. But when he discovers one of the men was cast adrift by the Titanic, he is forced to question where he really is and if he will be able to escape.

Written in diary entries from a Polish scholar, this short story features a mysterious femme fatale, Medea, who is responsible for the deaths of five men, including her husbands. The scholar is soon cast under her spell from behind the grave.

The Rook family run a little business: ghost hunting. And things have picked up recently. Something's wrong. It's been getting noticeably worse since, ooh, 2016? Bad spirits are abroad, and right now they're particularly common around Coldbay Island, which isn't even abroad, it's only 20 miles from Skegness. The Rooks' 'quick call out' to the island picks loose a thread that begins to unravel the whole place, and the world beyond. Is this the apocalypse? This might be the apocalypse. Who knew it would kick off in an off-season seaside resort off the Lincolnshire coast?

A group of telegraphists are on the edge of their seats awaiting news of the prime minister who is dying. But a storm causes a power cut, and one of the men, Old Shayler, recalls a stormy night 15 years ago, where a man was killed, and not by the lightning....

Jack Nightingale knows the dangers of doing a deal with a devil, but sometimes beggars can't be choosers. And when his nemesis Proserpine comes up from the bowels of Hell to ask for a favour, he has no choice other to help. Which is why the supernatural detective finds himself going up against the Undead, and putting his own life on the line.

Decades of spiralling drug resistance have unleashed a global antibiotic crisis. Ordinary infections are untreatable, and a scratch from a pet can kill. A sacrifice is required to keep the majority safe: no one over 70 is allowed new antibiotics. The elderly are sent to hospitals nicknamed ‘The Waiting Rooms’, hospitals where no one ever gets well. Twenty years after the crisis takes hold, Kate begins a search for her birth mother, armed only with her name and her age.

A traditional psychological ghost story, ‘A Phantom Lover’ tells the story of an artist who is commissioned to paint eccentric couple Mr and Mrs Oke of Okehurst. But the Okes have a dark family history, and the fateful events of two centuries previous come back to haunt them.

Inspired by a sketch of a poor woman driven to madness by artist Cecchino, wealthy Madame Krasinska attends a ball in fancy dress mocking the old woman. But after the ball, she is overcome by severe depression. Could the old woman be haunting her as punishment?

Supernatural detective Jack Nightingale is called in to investigate when an old man appears to have been hit by a train on an abandoned railway line. But there hasn't been a train there in more than 50 years. So what killed the old man? As Nightingale investigates, he realises that there are dark forces at work and his own life is on the line.

Jack Nightingale - lives in the shadows, fights in the dark. Ex-cop turned private eye Jack Nightingale is used to dealing with tricky situations. He's faced down the powers of hell a couple of times, too. In this new short story, he's called in to help a policeman who's lying at death's door. The doctors can't work out what's wrong. But the dying man's colleagues swear blind that he was cursed by a gypsy during the Dale Farm clearance. And Nightingale could be his only hope.

Harry Pershore knocks down a wall to create a secret garden, despite warnings from his friend who has spotted that the patch of land has been walled off for a reason and is actually an altar of sacrifice. Pershore ignores his friend’s advice and it’s not long before strange things start happening in the garden.

Jack Nightingale found it hard enough to save lives when he was a cop. Now he needs to save a soul – his sister's. But to save her he has to find her and they’ve been separated since birth. When everyone Jack talks to about his sister dies horribly, he realises that someone, or something, is determined to keep them apart. If he's going to save his sister, he's going to have to do what he does best - negotiate. But any negotiation with the forces of darkness comes at a terrible price.

Jack Nightingale was always happier dealing with criminal cases or even divorce than he was with matters of the supernatural. So when a client came with a simple request to uncover the meaning behind her father's last words, he was happy enough to take the case. Little did he know that the investigation would lead him to one of the vilest demons to ever walk through the gates of Hell.

Sophie is bored with her perfectly nice but deathly dull boyfriend, Matthew. Sensing he’s about to lose her, Matthew takes her on a last-ditch attempt trip to the seaside, hoping to rekindle their dying flames. But things take a dark turn when Sophie visits Mr Sandman, a Haitian priest, who claims that he can change Matthew into the boyfriend that she wants. But does Sophie really know what she wants? Never has the phrase ‘be careful what you wish for’ been more apt. Because Matthew does change...just not in the way that anyone could’ve predicted.

The town of Pine Ridge has an eerie past, with tales of witchcraft and ritual murders, but when a local man is savagely killed, all hell threatens to break loose. Supernatural detective Jack Nightingale is called in to investigate the brutal slaying - a murder that seems to have been carried out by children - children with dead black eyes....

Ernest Roydon is distressed by a mysterious apparition that appears around his house. What he initially thinks is a trick of the light soon starts taking on a more human form, until he’s too scared to stay in the house on his own and must enlist the help of a friend.