Ivan Gilman is an author, having published two novels he is now at work on a third. Although, at work is possibly a bit of an exaggeration as work is not going as well as it might. And so he spends a good deal of his time down at his local pub, scribbling down notes for his next book on scraps of paper as he drinks his way into oblivion.

His life revolves around this daily ritual and once weekly trips to a writer's group (or should I say drinking group whose members are all writers). He meanders through each day in the seemingly forlorn hope that one day he will have produced a novel.

His life takes a turn though when a fire in the building where his apartment was causes him to seek out a new place to live. For his new apartment comes complete with a suspicious neighbour, Stymm, in the flat beneath his.

And through a series of odd events - the mysterious death of a woman, an urban myth about an old broadcasting station, and the oddly timed comings and goings of Stymm – his thoughts are anything but on his writing.

This is the first thing I've read by this author. It will not be the last. He can certainly write, this guy. He manages to creep you out, something I do not get to experience all that often.

Getting inside Gilman's head and seeing his life from the inside is what creeps you out. You see this world from just one perspective, you feel his fears and suspicions – and travel along with him as everything around him becomes bleak.

I've read a number of books where the lead character is an author – with a good deal of these by Stephen King. I suppose that it does make a certain amount of sense, as being an author is one thing that authors know about. And surprisingly, despite having read many, I have yet to read a book about an author which feels predictable or a case of "been-there, done-that".

Samuels has a unique style – okay there are some parallels that can be drawn from his writing (as Mark Morris's introduction to the book states – naming several classic and modern authors as he goes) – but this feels different somehow – and very welcome. He has absorbed what he needs from other author's works and shaped it into something most definitely his own.

There are a lot of things going for this book, and much to suggest that Samuels has a lengthy career ahead of him. I guess I should have never expected anything other than this given the strength of the previous PS Publishing titles. This book is most definitely recommended to anyone who likes their horror a little more hi-brow than a simple gorefest.

Synopsis
Who is the sinister little man with the scarred head?

Why is there no end to the twilight?

What is symbolised by the strange graffiti that seems to be appearing everywhere?

Ivan Gilman is the penurious author of several obscure novels. When he rents a cheap flat overlooking Archway Road in north London, he is determined to finish the new book that he believes will finally establish his literary reputation. Instead, he finds himself caught up in a bizarre conspiracy to replace the living with the cryptic dead. Gradually, Gilman discovers evidence of this conspiracy operating at all levels of society but, by then, it appears to be far too late to escape the consequences of his prying...