| Hong Kong is
wracked by a horrifying series of murders, starting with the Ralston
family on the Peak. Only daughter Julia is saved. Superintendent
Scott, and his discreet but discerning assistant, questions her, and as the deaths continue night after night
comes to realise what he is pursuing – and what is pursuing him and
Julia in turn.
Critics Comments
"Do not be put off by the ghastly, gory cover of
this book. Inside are 230 pages or so of riveting, well-written crime
fiction. This is one of the best thriller novels with a Hong Kong
setting that non-Chinese have written, although God knows, enough have
tried, some of which with considerable pedigree in the world
bestseller lists.
"Rebecca Bradley and Stewart Sloan indulged in some
self-publishing some years ago. Under the imprint "Hong Kong Horrors",
Sloan, third-generation resident of Hong Kong and former journalist
now working in the security industry, published The Sorceress
and a novella The Isle of the Rat.
"Bradley, an archaeologist, published two
collections of short stories: Hong Kong Macabre and Hong
Kong Grotesque. Together, they have now turned their penchant for
the so-called horror genre into page-turning partnership with
Temutma – Hong Kong Horror meets the Hong Kong Police.
"But in the era of The X-Files-type of
ancient-mythology-mixed-with-shape-shifting-killers-mixed-with-crime
story, this book is really horror, but almost a mainstream thriller.
The authors do a great job of making an outrageous vampire-esque idea
quite credible, simply with good, intelligent writing and suspense,
suspense, suspense.
"This is a Hong Kong you have not seen before. The
story unfolds so cleverly that, like Superintendent Scott of the Hong
Kong Police, we are not sure what to believe, because the truth seems
so unbelievable. But the authors manage to convince us.
"And there is humor, too.
"The story is too good to spoil by giving an outline
here, but suffice it to say the setting is variously the Peak and the
Kowloon Walled City, just before it was demolished. In the warren-like
Walled City reside a killer, Temutma, that seems almost invincible,
and the only person who can control it, Scholar Wong, with his library
of strange books.
"Scott is not merely hunting Temutma after a series
of horrendous killings, but is being hunted by the killer, too. Who
will get the prey first? And how can Temutma be disarmed? Scott must
make the link between Scholar Wong and Temutma even as he has to
understand what kind of creature Temutma is.
"Scott is not intended to be lovable, but he is no
cardboard cut-out either. There is genuine camaraderie with his mates,
and his sympathy for slain colleagues turns him into a cop we worry
about. We do not want Temutma to get him.
"Unlike many foreigners' novels about Hong Kong, the
settings are not cliched backdrops intended to inject a little exotica
and prove how well the authors know the territory. You can almost feel
the dankness of the Walled City, the verdure of the Peak. The sights
and sounds of Kowloon and Hong Kong whip by at a high speed in one
scene, a thrilling, unputdownable race against time to get from one to
the other before Temutma can carry out a mass slaughter.
"Cover this book in brown
paper when you buy it because you will want to carry it everywhere
until you have finished, and the cover will attract some very strange
glances on the MTR."
Yojana Sharma
South China Morning Post
Readers Comments
"What a masterpiece you have created. I was unable
to put it down till I reached the end. I have now imposed this book on
each of my friends, telling them they should ignore it only at their
own risk.
"I cherish my copy of Temutma, and in fact
carried it with me in my handbag on my recent vacation to Hong Kong. I
even made a point of visiting some of the places described. It’s a
shame that the Kowloon Walled City is no longer what it used to be.
"Forget John Le Carre,
Stephen King, John Grisham; Temutma is the "king" of suspense."
Fion Smith,
UK
Extract
Copyright © Alan B
Pierce
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