Jonathan Sims is a writer, performer and games designer whose work primarily focuses on the macabre, the grotesque, and the gentle touch of creeping dread. He is the mind and the voice behind acclaimed horror podcast The Magnus Archives, high octane space-cabaret The Mechanisms and some of your favourite nightmares. He lives in Walthamstow with the two best cats and an overwhelming backlog of books that he really should get round to.

Stuck on a Tube train in a record heatwave, during a pandemic, in a city being tangibly ruined "by the corrupt incompetence of the parasites in power," doesn't sound much fun to begin with. THE BURN LINE by Jonathan Sims (Gollancz, £25) then adds another element to go with economic collapse, social decay and environmental disaster. The five passengers in one particular carriage on that train are vaguely aware afterwards that something awful happened during the delay. Something inhuman. But they can't remember what. With leading characters including an RMT activist and a lad who's sleeping rough, you know from the start whose side this book is on. The first half is a tense mystery, which then turns into a galloping monster-hunt thriller, with as many jolts and shocks as any horror fan could possibly want.The novels carries, without being burned by, two important life lessons: that whatever the problem, solidarity is quite likely to be the solution - and that you must never trust the rich, even when they're dead.

Jonathan Sims is a writer, performer and games designer whose work primarily focuses on the macabre, the grotesque, and the gentle touch of creeping dread. He is the mind and the voice behind acclaimed horror podcast The Magnus Archives, high octane space-cabaret The Mechanisms and some of your favourite nightmares. He lives in Walthamstow with the two best cats and an overwhelming backlog of books that he really should get round to.

Stuck on a Tube train in a record heatwave, during a pandemic, in a city being tangibly ruined "by the corrupt incompetence of the parasites in power," doesn't sound much fun to begin with. THE BURN LINE by Jonathan Sims (Gollancz, £25) then adds another element to go with economic collapse, social decay and environmental disaster. The five passengers in one particular carriage on that train are vaguely aware afterwards that something awful happened during the delay. Something inhuman. But they can't remember what. With leading characters including an RMT activist and a lad who's sleeping rough, you know from the start whose side this book is on. The first half is a tense mystery, which then turns into a galloping monster-hunt thriller, with as many jolts and shocks as any horror fan could possibly want.The novels carries, without being burned by, two important life lessons: that whatever the problem, solidarity is quite likely to be the solution - and that you must never trust the rich, even when they're dead.