Patrick Thompson – författare

Second ingenious thriller with a black edge from the author of Seeing the WiresMick lives in Dudley. As if that wasn’t enough of a disadvantage for one man, he’s also a true nerd. He grew up in the seventies hanging around video game arcades and got a degree in computer science from Borth University, Wales. Now he writes code for a living. For fun he watches his best friend, Dermot, trying (and failing) to tip the bar staff in the Slipped Disc.Mick has a slightly odd phobia. He can’t look at a mirror. His problem has its origins in a psychology experiment he took part in back in college. But recently, he’s been starting to wonder if the experiment might have had a few more sinister side-effects. For example, the way he keeps hallucinating video game characters trying to kill him…It’s time Mick found out what’s going on inside his own brain. Before whatever’s in there gets out for good.

Blackly humorous first novel in Magnus Mills mode. Even in Dudley, ritual murder is frowned upon.Sam Haynes is 30, but he’s lived a lot of life. Though you wouldn’t think so to look at him now. He works for the local council leading a team which doesn’t want to be led. And he only has one close friend – Jack, a man obsessed with body piercing. They drink the evenings by, discuss failed relationships, watch the puddles fill in the gutters outside. The usual existence in dynamic Dudley, West Midlands.He and Jack have a shared history. Problem is, they don’t quite agree on what it is. One night, after a particularly drunken party, Jack tells Sam that ten years ago they murdered five people in some bizarre teenage ritual attempt to turn back time. Naturally Sam doesn’t believe him. He doesn’t remember any of this. How could he, if it never happened? He couldn’t even squash an ant without deep feelings of guilt, let alone cold-bloodedly kill someone. Let alone cold-bloodedly kill five!He knows this as well as he knows the numbers of fingers on his own hands. Until the bones turn up at the bottom of the garden…