Black Cathedral

Horror? Well, lots of gore and disgusting descriptions. Just NOT my kind of book. Would I recommend it? NO !

When several managers of a large company disappear without a trace during survival training on a remote Scottish island, the government calls in Department 18, their special paranormal investigative unit. The well-trained psychics and ghost-hunters discover that theses corporate white shirts are just the latest in a series of disappearances on the island that date back for centuries. Nothing will prepare the group for the horrors that await them, however, horrors that have their roots in long-forgotten religious practices. Black Cathedral is a masterful haunted house tale that reminded me of the old film, "The Legend of Hell House". It's a throwback to films and tales that relied on atmosphere and psychological terror rather than blood and gore. Sims and Maynard move the plot along with a rapid pace but they still don't slouch on building a brooding tension. The story was unique in it's combining of modern Catholic Jesuit ideology with ancient Jewish kaballahism.

This was a good book with an excellent storyline. I hope to see more of Dept. 18 in the future. This book has twists and turns that make the story line even more interesting. Good work!

"The Black Cathedral" is an outstanding novels that works at many levels including the two most important, the brain and the gut. This is a novel that makes you think and the horrific elements of this novel pack a visceral impact that literally take your breath away. Maynard and Sims have managed to incorporate the best of Richard Matheson, M.R. James, Phil Rickman and Graham Masterton in their novel which follows a super-secret British service simply titled Department 18 as they investigate the eerie disappearances occurring on Kulsay Island off the cost of Scotland. A corporate team building exercise has resulted in the whole team disappearing as well as the pilot of a helicopter as well as the helicopter itself. The team dispatched to Kulsay Island includes a very powerful yet haunted psychic named Robert Carter still coming to grips with the mysterious disappearance of a fellow Department 18 investigator working with him on a separate, yet similar case earlier in the novel. The expedition leader, Jane Talbot, is an effective, cool and a highly talented and disciplined team member with a wreck of a personal life, a history with Carter and a secret that she keeps from everyone including herself. This is great stuff. Included in this novel are Jesuits, a powerful yet sinister sisterhood known as the Sorority, an enigmatic billionaire businessman and his daughter who have more than a passing interest in Department 18's progress at Kulsay Island and the "bad guy" himself who makes Emeric Belasco look like Peter Pan! There are some weak points in the novel, some of the characters are overwought to the point of schmaltz in some scenes. The exposition is excellent in parts of the book and lacking in others. The plot devolves into soap operatics in some sections that take away from the overall story line. Yet the pacing, overall characterization, and plotting are superb. These two fellas know what they are doing. I can't wait for more from Department 18. Maynard and Sims have written the best horror novel in 2009 and it's only January. Some of the other post modern poseur authors should read this novel and take notes on how a truly effective horror novel is written. One of the five best in the 21st century.

The British government subsidizes Department 18, a special unit dealing with bona fide supernatural and paranormal activities. Robert Carter a powerful psychic and medium, along with Sian are sent to a home in an English suburb to investigate what has reported poltergeist calamities. From the time they enter the house they realize they are dealing with something much more evil. Carter sends Sian to the car and locks the door but the monster beetles in the walls get inside and leave no trace she was even in the car. Robert is suspended, but his superior pushes to bring him back to active duty so he can join the group heading KKulsay Island off the Scottish coast. A group of middle managers sent by their influential corporation to work together as a team on the island have vanished without a trace; sixty years ago the islanders also disappeared. A helicopter arrives on the island seeking survivors, but sinks into the ground. Carter and his group arrive next and immediately sense the malevolence that permeates the island; that evil prepares to attack the latest intruders. L.H. Maynard and M.P.N. Sims once again write a scary horror story that will frighten the audience into leaving all lights on. There is plenty of action with unexpected twists to shake readers from any complacency they might feel. The protagonist is also shaken by the disappearance of Sian and believes there is a link between the two incidents. Robert is hero in spite of himself as he courageously goes about his investigation into otherworldly activities on the mortal plain. Harriet Klausner

Black Cathedral is the third supernatural Leisure fiction from these British authors and the best so far. It has three vital elements that make a book interesting and inspire you to read page after page. A detailed and fascinating plot, characters, most of whom you learn a lot about and learn to care about them, and lots of creepy atmosphere that transports you into their world and makes it seem as if you've been there, though I have never been to Scotland let alone an isolated island. The book begins in such a fast fashion that I was a third in before I could draw breath. Robert Carter is a psychic investigator who works for a department of the British Government that investigates paranormal and supernatural occurrences. Robert is a main character and what happens to his assistant in the opening of the novel sets the scene for his point of view through the story. These opening scenes are really well written with horror and atmosphere dripping from the pages. Having set up that hanging thread we then meet a group of management people on an outward bound session on a deserted island. There is plenty of reasons not to visit this island, it has a tragic past, and gradually these petulant and spoiled corporate beings meet up with what's haunting the island. What happens to the six draws Department 18 in, and Carter, to find out what's go on. Department 18 is badged on the front of the book and is clearly being set up as a series. It has it's own website (www.dept18.com) which is really interesting with background and details of previous investigations. It's been done really well with fake passwords and all sorts of fun stuff. I am betting the next novel from Maynard & Sims will be a Department 18 book. There are layers of plot between the management group disappearing and Carter and his group arriving on the island. A mysterious American woman and her father are involved in the ownership of the island, she is part of a group called the Sorority. What are they getting out of it all? What are their intentions? Once on the island a reporter who has been tracking past events of the island, Kulsay Island makes an appearance. Bayliss is another main character who has a good line in sarcasm. He and Carter compete for who knows the most about the history of the island. These scenes in the house they stay in on Kulsay could be slow as they are each character telling the group what has gone on in the past. I didn't find them too slow. They provided a welcome calm after the frantic horrors of the previous chapters. Books like this where the pace starts on page 1 and continues often burn themselves out when sense has to come in so we know what it's all about. Here the way the explanations are set out it is natural and forms part of the story telling. The climax with the below the ground action is breath taking. There is so much going on you don't know where to look next. It reads like a huge action movie scene with a cast of hundreds if not thous