The Searching Dead

Description

"An absolute master of modern horror. And a damn fine writer at that" - Guillermo del Toro 1952. On a school trip to France teenager Dominic Sheldrake begins to suspect his teacher Christian Noble has reasons to be there as secret as they're strange. Meanwhile a widowed neighbour joins a church that puts you in touch with your dead relatives, who prove much harder to get rid of. As Dominic and his friends Roberta and Jim investigate, they can't suspect how much larger and more terrible the link between these mysteries will become. A monstrous discovery beneath a church only hints at terrors that are poised to engulf the world as the trilogy brings us to the present day... AUTHOR: Ramsey Campbell was born in Liverpool in 1946 and still lives on Merseyside. The Oxford Companion to English Literature describes him as "Britain's most respected living horror writer". He has been given more awards than any other writer in the field, including the Grand Master Award of the World Horror Convention, the Lifetime Achievement Award of the Horror Writers Association, the Living Legend Award of the International Horror Guild and the World Fantasy Lifetime Achievement Award.

Ramsey Campbell was born in Liverpool in 1946 and still lives on Merseyside. The Oxford Companion to English Literature describes him as "Britain's most respected living horror writer". He has been given more awards than any other writer in the field, including the Grand Master Award of the World Horror Convention, the Lifetime Achievement Award of the Horror Writers Association, the Living Legend Award of the International Horror Guild and the World Fantasy Lifetime Achievement Award. In 2015 he was made an Honorary Fellow of Liverpool John Moores University for outstanding services to literature. Among his novels are The Face That Must Die, Incarnate, Midnight Sun, The Count of Eleven, Silent Children, The Darkest Part of the Woods, The Overnight, Secret Story, The Grin of the Dark, Thieving Fear, Creatures of the Pool, The Seven Days of Cain, Ghosts Know, The Kind Folk, Think Yourself Lucky and Thirteen Days by Sunset Beach. Needing Ghosts, The Last Revelation of Gla'aki, The Pretence and The Booking are novellas. His collections include Waking Nightmares, Alone with the Horrors, Ghosts and Grisly Things, Told by the Dead, Just Behind You and Holes for Faces, and his non-fiction is collected as Ramsey Campbell, Probably. Limericks of the Alarming and Phantasmal are what they sound like. His novels The Nameless, Pact of the Fathers and The Influence have been filmed in Spain. He is the President of the Society of Fantastic Films.

"This is Campbell at the height of his powers, proving once again that he is a master of the genre." -- Publishers Weekly Starred Review "A return to and a revisioning of some of his earliest imaginings, the trilogy is a kind of autobiography of its protagonist, in which his lifelong struggle with a supernatural agency occurs against the backdrop of post-war British history. The result is a magisterial work, though such a description scants the novels' propulsive readability. It's another remarkable achievement in a career full of them." -- Locus Magazine "The first book in his upcoming "The Three Births of Daoloth" trilogy, The Searching Dead is Ramsey Campbell at the peak of his craft, the literary equivalent of a well-aged bottle of Balvenie." -- HorrorDNA "This novel is not only the start of an awesome horror epic by a master, but also a compelling coming-of-age story about a budding writer finding his way in a terrifying world." -- Library Journal "I highly recommend this trilogy for new Ramsey Campbell fans like myself. This seems like the best possible introduction to his body of work." -- Cemetery Dance "I highly recommend this trilogy for new Ramsey Campbell fans like myself. This seems like the best possible introduction to his body of work." -- Sadie Hartmann for Cemetery Dance "The Searching Dead is the first book of the Three Births of Daoloth trilogy. It's a spooky read that winds its way through spiritual paths leading right up to the cemetery gates. When you hear the dead call out from the graveyards...will you answer?" -- Horror Bookworm Reviews "Britain's most respected living horror writer" -- Oxford Companion to English Literature "One of the century's great literary exponents of the gothic and horrific" -- The Guardian "Easily the best horror writer working in Britain today." -- Time Out "Good horror writers are quite rare, and Campbell is better than just good" -- Stephen King "The John Le Carre of horror fiction" -- Bookshelf, Radio 4 "Britain's greatest living horror writer" "Britain's leading horror novelist." -- New Statesman "An absolute master of modern horror. And a damn fine writer at that" -- Guillermo del Toro "The most sophisticated and highly regarded of British horror writers" -- Financial Times "He writes of our deepest fears in a precise, clear prose that somehow manages to be beautiful and terrifying at the same time. He is a powerful, original writer, and you owe it to yourself to make his acquaintance" -- Washington Post "One of the few who can scare and disturb as well as make me laugh out loud. His humour is very black but very funny, and that's a rare gift to have" -- Mark Morris, The Observer "For sheer ability to compose disturbing, evocative prose, he is unmatched in the horror/fantasy field... He turns the traditional horror novel inside out, and makes it work brilliantly" -- Fangoria "A horror writer in the classic mould... Britain's premier contemporary exponent of the art of scaring you out of your skin" -- Q Magazine "The Grand Master of British horror... the greatest living writer of horror fiction" -- Vector "Ramsey Campbell's work is tremendous" -- Jonathan Ross "In Campbell's hands words take on a life of their own, creating images that stay with you, feelings that prey on you, and people you hope never ever to meet" -- Starburst "The finest writer now working in the horror field" -- Interzone "Ramsey Campbell is the nearest thing we have to an heir to M. R. James" -- Times "Beautifully written, a masterful story from a master of horror fiction, as well as a master of fiction in general, Ramsey Campbell's novel, The Searching Dead is strong on style, atmosphere, and the creeps. Time will show that Campbell will be remembered as one of the greats of all time. He has long surpassed Lovecraft, one of his major influences, and has gone on to influence others. Check it out." -- Joe Lansdale "Campbell has always been a master of narrative drive delivering novels full of cliff-hangers and ominous revelations and The Searching Dead shows him at the height of his powers." -- Concatenation