Richard leads a simple, uncomplicated life in the suburbs of London where anonymity is a virtue. His life has a routine. His cleaner visits twice a week. He works out in his basement, where he occasionally he kills people. Everything is as Richard wants it until David enters his life. What happens next changes his existence in its entirety and the lives of those around him. Is he able to trust anything to be true? And will he be able to escape David or will David take over Richard’s life completely?
Dark bleatings, my lovely tribe! I’m here talking about a novella today – you know how much I love a good novella! Phil Sloman is one of my favourite authors (I don’t think I say that enough). I have absolutely loved every single thing he’s released so far.
This particular tale, I think, is an ever so slight departure from his usual style, because parts of it are much nastier than what I expect from his work. It’s funny too, because Phil Sloman is such a lovely person. The depravity and the horror contained within these pages though…I tell ya.
Richard is most definitely a bad person, but he has complexities and struggles that I was quite disturbed to find I empathised with a bit. True to form for Sloman’s work, there are no black and white villains here, just an extremely flawed person who, yes, is much more evil than the average person, but is most certainly not a one note character. I found myself fascinated by his thoughts, deeply hateful of him but also intrigued, and more than anything, on the edge of my seat panicking for any other character that crossed his path.
I normally don’t enjoy serial killer stories very much because I find them quite samey, but I was enthralled here and – for the first time ever with a book of this subgenre – I actually teared up somewhere near the beginning.
Besides the writing and typically excellent characters, I think my favourite thing about the story is that it introduces a mysterious element that could be explained in a few ways, and for most of the book it felt very open as to which direction it could go in. Is it a mental health thing, some sort of psychosis, or is this supernatural? A physical illness manifesting weirdly, brought on by parasites from this dude’s diet? And if it’s supernatural, what are we talking, exactly? A ghost, a demon, a ghoul?
I would definitely recommend this to people looking for a shorter read, especially if you enjoy scary serial killer action with heart-wrenching, tense moments, and a bit of brutality!
If you’d like to check out the book or the author, I’ve popped some links below for you:
Bleeeeat!
Happy Goat Horror 
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