FANTASY & HORROR | Daily Mail Online

Masters of Death

by Olivie Blake (Tor £20, 416pp)

It’s said that the only things you can rely on are death and taxes, but what if Death goes AWOL? Well, then it’s up to an ill-assorted cast of angels, demons, reapers and bitchy ghosts to sort out the mess.

Death’s secret is curled up in the blighted past of a super-rich family, while the sale of their mega-mansion is left to Viola Marek, Chicago’s most delightful estate agent with a love of blood cocktails and a tendency to cough up furballs after dark.

With a high-stakes game risking eternal oblivion, dialogue that crackles like an old-school Hollywood comedy, and a mystery to solve, Blake dazzles yet again. A winner.

The Kindness

by John Ajvide Lindqvist (Riverrun £30, 816pp)

The small town of Norrtalje is a place of fragile relationships, held together by Pokemon games, bowling and little acts of kindness. But what happens if that kindness is eaten by a monster?

Like Stephen King, Lindqvist is all too aware of how evil works on good people, and when a shipping container of dead refugees is dumped on the town’s foreshore, everything falls apart. Six characters in all, including Max and Siw with strange supernatural powers, and big-hearted Anna from a gangster family, must uncover what’s wrong in the town, but more importantly, find out what’s wrong with them. Warm-hearted, unflinching, utterly immersive.

Bride of the Tornado

by James Kennedy (Quirk £15.99, 336pp)

Strap yourselves in for a super-storm of psycho-sexual intensity: American gothic, full-blown horror, wrapped up in an adolescent coming-of-age tale.

In a small mid-western town, it’s Tornado day and everyone is counting on the services of the Tornado Killer, a raggedy kid with funny eyes that one teenage girl is strangely attracted to.

But as the tornadoes rage across the plains, and the town hunkers down, she discovers the real danger lies within.

What are those mysterious, scratched symbols? Who is that gigantic bare-breasted woman? And why are teenage girls being offered up to the vile Mr Z?

Don’t try to understand, just get swept up and enjoy the ride.