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Tales Vol. 1

      More Monsters

      Forthcoming: Lost Souls

      Editor & Co-Editor

      Shadow Writers Vol. 1 & 2

      Terror Tales #1-4

      Top International Horror

      Albions Alptraume: Zombies

      The British Fantasy Society: A Celebration

      Hellbound Hearts

      The Mammoth Book of Body Horror

      A Carnivàle of Horror: Dark Tales from the Fairground

      Beyond Rue Morgue

      Forthcoming: Dark Mirages

      Non-Fiction

      Contemporary North American Film Directors: A Wallflower Critical Guide (Major Contributor)

      Cinema Macabre (Contributor)

      The Hellraiser Films and Their Legacy

      Voices in the Dark

      Shadow Writer – The Non-Fiction. Vol. 1: Reviews

      Shadow Writer – The Non-Fiction. Vol. 2: Articles & Essays

      Leviathan – The Story of Hellraiser and Hellbound: Hellraiser II (contributor)

      Hellraisers

      Dedication:

      For Angela Slatter, who loves the

      dark fairy tale stuff as much as I do.

      Acknowledgments:

      My thanks to Paul Fry at SST for taking a chance, not only on the sequel to the original RED but allowing me to polish off the entire trilogy. A huge thank you to Barbie Wilde for agreeing to do the introduction, and to Dave McKean for the brand new excellent cover; the RED books would simply not be the same without his art on the front! As usual, hugs and massive thank yous to all my friends in the writing and film/TV world, for their continual help and support in the past. A very special thank you, though, to people like Clive Barker, Neil Gaiman, Stephen Jones, Mandy Slater, Amanda Foubister, Christopher Fowler, Stephen Volk, Tim Lebbon, Jason Arnopp, Kelley Armstrong, AK Benedict, Peter James, Mike Carey, John Connolly, Pete & Nicky Crowther, Simon Clark and so many more. The best mates anyone could hope for. Lastly, but never, ever leastly, a big words-are-not-enough thank you to my incredible family—especially my brilliant and hugely talented wife Marie. Love you guys so much.

      A recap for the previous two RED books (WARNING, contains spoilers! If you haven’t read these, both are included in Blood RED, also from SST Publications).

      RED

      Rachael Daniels is a lowly care worker, spending her days helping elderly clients in their homes—including Tilly Brindle, who is almost like family. Depressed because she’s split up with her boyfriend, Rachael’s best friend Steph takes her out on the town. But she’s forgotten to give Tilly her medication, so ends up doing a mercy dash through the city at night to get it to her. Unfortunately a wolf-creature called Finch—who can change his appearance, but can be also be seen in reflective surfaces—is hunting the young woman and gets to Tilly first, taking her place to fool Rachael. In the resultant fight, it appears as if Rachael has killed the beast in the local park. However at the end, as Steph visits Rachael to see how she is—and it’s revealed Tilly survived the ordeal—she, and we, discover the wolf actually won and ate Rachael, taking her form. Now Steph looks set to be its next victim ...

      Blood RED

      In the aftermath of the events in RED, a team of trackers has shown up to kill the wolf—led by (Tom) Hunter, who wields a silver axe. At the same time a confused Rachael is wandering the streets, then returns home to find her mother has shown up. The girl breaks down, telling her she’s had a nightmare about being eaten. During the course of his investigations, Hunter meets Rachael and there’s an immediate attraction. However, wolf attacks keep happening—which might be her losing control of this new body she seems to have taken control of. As his team gets picked off one by one and more blood is spilt, including Rachael’s mother, Hunter goes on the run with Rachael to keep her safe—still unaware of the truth about what she is. At a motel out of town, they sleep together, but as the police show up—including a rookie cop, Peel—it becomes clear another, female, wolf has been committing the murders. Flashing back in her mind to when Finch became The First Wolf, thousands of years ago in a cave, Rachael defeats him and finally takes full control of his body. In the confusion, Peel kills the distracted female wolf, though not before Hunter also loses his life. The finale shows that Tilly and Steph both survived and are infected with the wolf ‘virus’. Not only that, Rachael is giving birth to the child she and Hunter conceived at the motel.

      And now, the epic story concludes in Deep RED ...

      I n t r o d u c t i o n

      B a r b i eW i l d e

      Fairy tales are curious things. I vividly remember my mother reading me ‘Hansel and Gretel,’ ‘The Three Little Pigs’ and of course, the seminal ‘Little Red Riding Hood’ when I was young. How were tiny tots supposed to go to sleep after hearing about flame-roasted kiddies as a witch’s snack, or houses being violently destroyed by the single puff of a wolf’s breath, or even worse, yet another wolf slaughtering a granny then wearing her skin and clothes to fool a young girl so he can feast on her tender flesh? Such charming little stories to send children off to dreamland.

      Violence flows like a scarlet, subterranean river through the heart of many iconic fairy tales, so perhaps these stories were meant to warn children that the world can be a terrifying and dangerous place. That mummy and daddy wouldn’t always be around to protect you. That shaping-shifting wolves and sweet little old ladies with unfortunate warts on their chins might actually want to devour you. The unrelenting grimness of Grimm’s fairy tales was cautionary at the very least, never mind the gruesomeness of the Jack the Giant Killer and Shockheaded Peter stories.

      With bedtime fables like these, no wonder human beings are so fascinated by horror.Not only have we been indoctrinated from a very early age; thousands of years ago we were sitting around campfires, shivering in bearskins, scaring ourselves to smithereens by recounting fearsome fantasies and believing that a giant wolf consumed the moon every month. (There’s that ‘lupine’ motif again.) Today we read blood-curdling novels and go to horror movies, but the effect on our nervous systems is the same. It seems that it’s in our DNA to be thrilled and, at the same time, repelled by horror.

      Throughout Paul Kane’s RED trilogy, I’ve been enthralled by Rachael Daniels’ story—our modern Red Riding Hood—as she flees not only from the real life horror of the average human lowlife lurking around council estates, but from something else that is shadowing her—a mysterious creature that is snuffling out the familiar scent of a nemesis from the distant past and who is eager to taste the blood that was denied to it all those centuries ago. And in Deep RED, it’s not only Rachael in danger, but her child as well—one that by all rights shouldn’t exist at all. And the human race isn’t doing so hot either.

      From RED’s shocking first chapter through wicked twists and turns to the post-apocalyptic denouement of Deep RED, the saga will surprise, tantalize and beguile you.Kane’s tense, powerful and expressive prose conjures up unsettling images in your mind that you won’t be able to shake off for months. Deep RED is a gore-drenched, graphic tale populated with characters that you care about and empathize with, who are fighting an implacable and vicious ancient enemy. And in this reader’s humble opinion, RED, Blood RED and Deep RED are so imaginatively written that they would all make deliciously frightening horror movies.

      —Barbie Wilde (actress: Hellbound: Hellraiser II, author: The Venus Complex, Voices of the Damned, and co-screenwriter & co-producer: Blue Eyes)

      P r o l o g u e

      It wasn’t wise to be out here on your own.

      Not in the daytime,

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