Stephen Gallagher – författare

In this amazing issue:Three boys are pursued by a shapeless terror in The Drain by Stephen Gallagher, author of Down River and Rain.Acclaimed writer Charles L. Grant takes motherly love to the limits in Alice Smiling.And Kim Newman reveals an obsessive book collector''s dark secret in The Man who collected Barker.Plus news and views from the world of fantasy and horror.

The novel that inspired the headline-grabbing ITV series starring John Lynch, Kenneth Cranham, and Christine Kavanagh. A terrifyingly plausible journey into the disturbing nerve-centers of medical science where our secret future is formed today.When Peter Carson is invited to the pioneering Jenner Clinic by one of the lab assistants, he''s naturally intrigued. But when he arrives at the remote site in the Cumbrian fells to find police roadblocks and official silence, he realises that he''s stumbled onto a story that will do him no good at all.Dr Jenner''s work matters to the government. Enough to warrant unlimited funding, high security, and the best technicians in the country. But something has gone badly wrong. The project that has no room for mistakes has produced a result so terrible that it must never see the light of day. And now the evidence must be destroyed, whatever the cost.

An apparently fatal incident occurs when schoolteacher Jim Harper is skiing near a small research station owned by the giant multinational Risinger-Genoud. Even treatment with their new, untried and experimental superdrug cannot save his life.Or so it seems. For Jim Harper, though left for dead, has survived. But in the long haul back to health and sanity, he begins to realise that something terrible has happened to him. Now the only way in which he can unravel the mystery in his mind is to go back to the point where it began to develop - back to Risinger-Genoud and their Oktober programme. And Risinger Genoud are going to be very interested to see him.Oktober is a frightening journey into a world of greed and lies, a world in which the cover-up is not only a way of life, but something planned ahead of time. Step by horrifying step, Jim Harper unravels what has been done to him, and then designs the perfect act of vengeance, an act that teeters on the brink of madness...

A dark love story, and a disturbing tale of a divided soul.In the days leading to the fall of the Soviet empire, a young woman with a deadly secret slips unnoticed into the West. And when Alina Petrovna first appears in Three Oaks Bay it''s clear that her frail, luminous beauty is likely to cause some ripples in the surface calm of the peaceful resort town.For Pete McCarthy, the boatyard worker who gives her shelter, she''s an enigma. A complex, well-meaning young woman with a difficult past. Someone whose mystery deepens as the season gets under way, and the deaths by drowning begin...

Johnny Mays has the moral conscience of a selfish child in the frame of a plain-clothes cop. The city is his playground, the rest of us his toys. He likes to find out where we work, and where we live, and what will scare us most. And Johnny never had a toy he didn''t break.But Johnny starts a car chase, and he pushes it too far. Soon they''re fishing for his body at the foot of a dam, and his partner Nick Frazier has been left behind. They were friends, once, a long time ago. Nick had hoped that he might save Johnny.Johnny''s last words still echo in Nick''s mind: "I''m going to remember this," he said, a dark fire in his eyes. "I''m coming back for you."Then the killings start. Killings of people Johnny didn''t like. And Johnny''s car is dredged up, empty.

Lucy Ashdown is a girl with a mission - to find the driver who ran down and killed her sister Christine. Now she has a lead and she''s off to London.Disgraced Detective Joe Lucas is as dedicated as Lucy. HIs aim is to bring her home. By any means necessary.Stepping into her sister''s shoes, this small-town girl is thrust into a terrifying night journey of deceit, danger, and degradation. By recreating her sister''s journey, she unwittingly heads toward her sister''s fate; and even as she believes that she''s closing in on the murderer, the murderer is closing in on her.

After rescuing Marianne Cadogan from an incoming tide on a lonely and forgotten part of Britain''s coast, ex-con Ryan O''Donnell is cornered into helping her escape a supposedly abusive father to reach the safety of her mother. Too late, he finds himself compromised, the subject of a trans-European manhunt while he struggles to deliver the child and prove his motives pure/ The deeper in he gets, the more trapped he will become.

When Ruth Lasseter hires an escort to cover for a workplace affair, she lets a deeply disturbed young man into her life. Though she survives the consequence, she''s left with the lingering suspicion that he hasn''t simply disappeared. He''s still out there, taking out his problems on other woman just like her.There was a moment when Ruth had her chance to stop him for good. But she didn''t take it.Now she sees that closure-for both of them-lies on the other side of that line.

The woman in the red dress. He called it the painted bride. Pippa showed the picture to her father and her father called the police. They had Jack in a room all yesterday and kept asking him about it. Now they''re all trying to twist it by saying it means something.""What are they trying to say?""That he must have seen her lying on the kitchen floor. That the rainbow means he saw her blood come out.

Rescued from the morgue and a bizarre and unpleasant end, Louisiana detective John Lafcadio owes his life to the Cult Crime Co-ordinators. Known also as the Voodoo Cops, their job is to dispel superstition and nail crimes of ignorance.There''s a growing need for their services. A new kind of predator is on the loose. When the middle classes began to adopt vodoun as a lifestyle fad, their doors were opened to a ruthless white male with a command of the religion''s darker practical secrets.Hunting down Lafcadio''s would-be killer will be no easy task. His victims are also his protectors. And how can Lafcadio hope to identify a man whose eyes he once stared into, but whose face he can''t remember?

Rachel''s in trouble. She''s a ticking bomb. A couple of co-workers bullied her into stealing a radical new drug from their employer, and now it''s lodged inside her. They''re watching her like hawks and her time''s running out. John Bishop runs security for the company. As a father who once lost a teenaged daughter to an accidental overdose, his drive to hunt down the thieves and rescue their victim grows more intense with every lost minute. He can never bring his own kid back. But he can save someone else''s.Which is fine until the company realises that if the swallowed package bursts and Rachel dies, their secrets are kept safe and their problem goes away. Though Bishop''s on the trail, he''s an easy man to cut loose and discredit. But now he''s Rachel''s only hope. Either the package will burst, or the boys will cut her open to get it. They''re so convinced it will make them rich that they''ll kill anyone who tries to take her, and hunt down anyone who succeeds.It can''t end well. For somebody.

Twenty-two stories and novella-length works, mixing imagination with suspense in the kind of tale that can slide into the back of your mind and then stay there for the rest of your life... well-known as a novelist and screenwriter, the author of Valley of Lights and Oktober has assembled a signature collection from over two decades'' worth of his lesser-known short fiction.A telephone chat line where not all of the respondents can be found amongst the living... the terrified flight of a hit-and-run driver whose fate was sealed at the moment of his deed... the seduction and harrowing education of a young artist in nineteenth-century France... the unholy alliance of an honest psychic and a skeptical conjurer...All brought together in one volume for the first time anywhere, with an introduction by TV scriptwriter/producer Brian Clemens and an afterword filled with background insights and dashes of autobiography.

The Doctor ventures into alternative dimensions in these four exciting novelisations of TV stories.In The Mind Robber, by Peter Ling, the Second Doctor, Jamie and Zoe land in a world populated by storybook characters - but who, or what, lurks behind the fiction?In The Invisible Enemy, by Terrance Dicks, the Fourth Doctor and Leela make a terrifying journey into the Time Lord''s own brain in order to confront the Nucleus of the Swarm.Warriors'' Gate, by Stephen Gallagher, is the destination at the ethereal intersection between universes for the Fourth Doctor, Romana, Adric and K9, and in Twice Upon a Time, by Paul Cornell, it''s a case of déjà vu for the First and Twelfth Doctors when they meet by chance in a strange yet familiar No Man''s Land.Derek Jacobi, John Leeson, Jon Culshaw and Mark Gatiss read these stories of adventure in weird worlds.© 2023 BBC Studios Distribution Ltd (P) 2023 BBC Studios Distribution Ltd.

The Doctor''s companions take centre stage in four exciting TV novelisations featuring the Fifth and Ninth Doctors, plus a spin-off story featuring K9 and Sarah Jane Smith.In Mawdryn Undead, by Peter Grimwade, the Doctor is reunited with Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart and meets Turlough, an enigmatic public schoolboy.In Terminus, by Stephen Gallagher, Nyssa falls into danger when the TARDIS merges with a drifting spaceship threatening to endanger the entire Universe.In Enlightenment, by Barbara Clegg, a final reckoning with the Black Guardian is on the cards for both the Doctor and Turlough.In K9 & Company, by Terence Dudley, Sarah Jane Smith finds herself the recipient of a gift from the Doctor: the dog-shaped automaton, K9.In Rose, by Russell T Davies, Rose Tyler meets the Doctor whilst fleeing from Autons. Life for both of them will never be the same again!David Collings, Steven Pacey, John Leeson and Camille Coduri read these exciting adaptations of the BBC TV series.Readings produced by Neil Gardner. Sound design by Simon Power. Executive Producer for BBC Studios: Michael Stevens? 2024 BBC Studios Distribution Ltd © 2024 BBC Studios Distribution Ltd.

Jon Culshaw reads this iconic novelisation of a Fourth Doctor TV adventure, newly restored and extended by the author“Attention to detail is the hallmark of this always excellent range”Doctor Who MagazineThe Doctor and his companions are trapped in E-Space, struggling to find their way back into their own universe. Arriving at an intersection, the TARDIS is invaded by a refugee of the enslaved Tharil race.With K9 damaged by the Time Winds, the Doctor, Romana and Adric explore the strange white eternity of the Gateway, where past, present and future cross over.They also meet the crew of the Privateer, led by the embattled Rorvik. As all parties strive to find a way out, the Doctor realises that Rorvik’s ship holds the terrible secret of the Tharils’ history, as well as the means of their liberation.Jon Culshaw reads Stephen Gallagher’s novelisation (writing as John Lydecker) of his 1981 TV adventure starring Tom Baker as the Doctor, now newly extended and restored from an unpublished manuscript. John Leeson provides the authentic Voice of K9.

Steven Pacey reads this suspenseful novelisation of a classic TV adventure for the Fifth Doctor. When the TARDIS is sabotaged and becomes dimensionally unstable, its internal fabric begins to dissolve, and Nyssa is drawn into a junction with a strangely deserted spacecraft. The Doctor, Tegan and Turlough follow in pursuit, and discover the shocking purpose of Terminus. The Doctor forms an uneasy alliance with two space pirates, whilst Tegan and Turlough become frighteningly enmeshed in the spaceship''s infrastructure. For Nyssa, meanwhile, the nature of a sudden illness which engulfs her will have life changing consequences. Steven Pacey reads Stephen Gallagher''s novelisation of his 1983 TV serial featuring the Fifth Doctor, as played on screen by Peter Davison. Reading produced by Neil GardnerSound design by Simon PowerExecutive Producer: Michael Stevens

Steven Pacey reads a brand new original adventure for the Doctor''s former companion, Romana. Residing on the threshold of E-Space with the Tharil Laszlo, Romana is on the trail of a terrible enemy. Allies of the enslaved, the duo ride the Time Winds in search of the desperate Sluagh. Meanwhile, on a bloody American Civil War battlefield, young soldier Joshua is haunted by spectres: pale, vicious-looking aliens who prey upon the dead to raise an army of living corpses. With the fabled Kairos Ring they can carve portals into other dimensions - and, by accident, Joshua is blown through one of them. United with Romana and Laszlo against the dreadful Sluagh, Joshua finds himself catapulted into a strange new world of learning. But one secret is waiting to catch up with him... Stephen Gallagher, who wrote Romana''s final Doctor Who TV story, Warriors'' Gate, now reveals her exciting adventures Beyond the Doctor.