Black Shuck: The Devil's Dog

by Piers Warren

A terrifying new supernatural thriller by Piers Warren set in the village of Blakeney on the North Norfolk coast.For centuries Black Shuck has patrolled the coastal paths of Norfolk – a spectral portent of death. But now the phantom dog is evolving into something altogether more horrifying. Gaining strength and powers by the day, Shuck has developed a gruesome appetite – a hunger he sets out to satiate ... Wildlife film-maker Harry Lambert needs a serious rest. His best friend is dead, his wife has left him and his career is on the rocks. A spot of bird-watching on the Norfolk coast should help ... but when Harry stumbles into Black Shuck's territory, the hellhound finds the victim it was hunting for ...

299 pages, Kindle Edition

First published October 7, 2011

About the author

Piers Warren Ⓥ is an author, conservationist, teacher, cook and veganic veg-grower living in Pembrokeshire UK.

Piers is well known throughout the wildlife film-making industry as the Founder of WILDEYE – The International School of Wildlife Film-making, and as the founder of Wildlife Film News and producer of wildlife-film.com, which he created in 1999. With a strong background in biology, education and conservation, he has had a lifelong passion for wildlife films and has a wide knowledge of natural history. He is one of the founders of the international organisation Filmmakers for Conservation and was Vice President for the first three years. Wildeye Publishing have become the leading producers of instructional wildlife film-making books in the world.

Piers is keen to promote organic principles and permaculture techniques, sustainabilty, veganism and green-thinking. His best-selling books are in these fields including the co-production with his daughter, Ella Bee Glendining, The Vegan Cook & Gardener. He has had a passionate interest in self-sufficiency since childhood and still grows his own food. He is a council member of GreenSpirit.

Although Piers has written books and many magazine articles on a wide range of subjects he is also known for writing the highly-acclaimed supernatural thriller Black Shuck: The Devil’s Dog (Shortlisted for the East Anglia Book Awards and Norfolk Magazine’s Book of the Month). He has walked the African plains with Maasai Warriors, tracked tigers in India on elephant-back, explored the Amazon rainforest, swum with sharks, trekked across Tanzanian deserts on a camel, filmed cheetahs hunting in Kenya and mountain gorillas in Uganda.

Reviews

[Robert Greenfield · Rating 5 out of 5]

A thrilling and gripping book based on the legendary 'Black Shuck' said to roam the shores of North Norfolk. A real page-turner by horror-master: Piers Warren that kept me gripped throughout! Loved the sequences at the sequestered 'Watch House.' Very chilling... and because I actually live in the location, I feel Mr Warren has really captured the essence of the wilder edge to this coastline. Life will never be the same again when out walking my dog on these lonely windswept shores.

Hats-off to a terrific writer. And really looking forward to his next spine-tingling book!! Congrats to Piers Warren for coming-up with a classic epic...

[Kathy Simms · Rating 5 out of 5]

A fantastic gripping horror story that uses the legend of Black Shuke perfectly, the only book I've ever sat up all night to read. Piers has captured the atmosphere of the North Norfolk coast perfectly, I certainly keep a careful watch when I'm out walking on the coast now. Really looking forward to the next book to see what happens to Harry next, hopefully still in the same area. Well done on a brilliant book

[Kim · Rating 5 out of 5]

Without a doubt this book is what 5 stars was meant for. Totally attached to all the main characters, the story line was absorbing and so well written that it was gripping. The style and prose just flowed and was a pleasure to read. This has just become one of all time favourites. I am sure I will be thinking of these characters for a long while to come.

[Colin Hodgkins · Rating 5 out of 5]

Currently reding it, cannot put it down.
Probably 95% through and still no idea how it is going to end.
Will keep you posted.

What a great find by Kim.

New author, what a great story teller.

Very spooky, great characters and what suspense!

Go for it.....

[Sam Bayfield · Rating 1 out of 5]

After growing up in North Norfolk and hearing about this book over the years; I finally got round to picking it up.

Although I loved how local and well researched the area in which the events take place; I have to say I was very really disappointed with the end product.

Despite the chapters being short, I found the writing style to be very repetitive. I kept thinking ‘can we just get to the point’ (figuratively and literally).

The concept was strong, but instead the story falls into very stereotypical tropes; making the whole thing incredibly predictable. Those I know who have read it have had very differing views, but it falls in the cannot recommend category for me; if it wasn’t for being a local I wouldn’t have gotten past the first 50 pages.

I have to add how uninteresting all of the characters were, I really couldn’t care less about any of them. Once the build up towards the end really gets going, it’s all basically over in a few lack lustre pages.

[Ruby May · Rating 4 out of 5]

Spooky pooch

[A · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really enjoyed the book. I had been researching the myth of black shuck and the original report of devil dogs in the Anglo Saxon chronicles by Hugo Albus or Candidus of Peterborough abbey. Many sources quote that entry as the earliest report of Black Shuck, but on reading the chronicle it would appear to have been a reference to the wild hunt, a throwback to the Viking belief system and nothing like the black shuck legend. Piers work gives a similarly different twist on the story, giving the hound more of a known history, and a very different shape changing corporeal identity. The writing is taut and gripping and I found I was reading until late into the night.

[Dawn Davies · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is set up the coast from me in Blakeney, Norfolk, based on the Myth of the Black Hound, a good stimulating reed, characters were very good and likeable, i enjoyed it, living in Norfolk, it was so descriptive, I know the Watch House, Cley and Blakeney. I could imagine i could smell the salt in the salt marshes, fantastic book.

[Rebecca · Rating 1 out of 5]

Just bloody awful. Proof that a colleague who likes the same book as you one week, may not the next (this was lent to me).

Only redeeming feature is that its set in an area I've been to and could therefore visualise.

A kid's frightener at best.

[Jenna Mills · Rating 4 out of 5]

Knowing the setting a bit made this book more interesting. For some reason I can't quite understand, I found it hard to put this one down, despite all the holes. I wouldn't have said the title 'Devil Dog' suited it tho (nor did the blurb reflect the book).

[Joanne Groves · Rating 2 out of 5]

Where do I start? With the title. The title is misleading - it isn't the devil's dog, it's Thomas Grimes' dog and Thomas died at sea never to be found, so the faithful hound is searching for his master and appears to people as an omen of death. Right? That's kind of sweet. But no, it suddenly starts tearing seals to pieces. Why? This isn't explained. Oh and now after hundreds of years it's decided to start eating people too. How? If it's a spectral dog, how's it doing this? Not explained. I've Is it Thomas Grimes' dog then? No. It's suddenly now a woman called Trash with a long red dress, walking the beaches looking for men to seduce. How's the dog undergone a sex and species change and turned into a sex hungry woman? Not explained. I am so confused.

Ok, I can't explain the dog. Let's look at the characters and the story. Harry Lambert is a wild life film maker and is taking a holiday on the Norfolk coast because his wife has left him and his best friend has died. He makes friends with some B&B owners and a lovely lady called Anna. Only, he's not very good a talking to women. When Anna notices his wedding ring, he describes it as a piece of trash that shouldn't be on his finger. Charming! Anna's Bitter Rejected Man radar (BRM-dar) is faulty, because she suddenly decides he's the guy for her. That spiteful comment about his wedding ring is a massive red flag, run girl run! But no, in fact, she joins him in having bitter thoughts about his ex - this woman she's never met. Why? Not explained. Maybe she's psychotically jealous or maybe both characters' little digs at Harry's ex throughout the book are symptomatic of something else. Anna also becomes the most clingy girlfriend in history after just one night with Harry. What's is it about this guy? Does he have prosecco leaking from his nipples or something? To me he comes across as a sad loser who's unable to reflect on his part in the collapse of his marriage. Anna's sudden emotional dependence on Harry is not, like many things in this book, explained.

There's also a cute Eygptian goose called Cleo who Harry tempts with bread and suddenly Cleo has a roaring bread addiction. Harry, what are you doing? You're a wildlife photographer, so surely you know that bread causes ducks and geese to develop a horrible condition called angel wing, stop feeding the poor addicted goose bread! You'll kill it. Too late the shuck has, never mind. Let's take the body and show your girlfriend's father, along with the seal's skull you've saved for him. Harry, stop storing dead things in your house for your future father in law, it's weird.

There are other characters, but they are so two dimensional and badly drawn that they're not worth mentioning really. Some of them are killed by the dog, but the police are not in the slightest bit interested in investigating. You'd think the presence of a mutilated body would generate some kind of Police investigation? Not in this book, no. It generates a bunch of silly middle aged men going on a shuck hunt and then not caring when one of them goes missing.

Towards the end of the book, just as i was getting annoyed with every chapter having a foreshadowing sentence at the end of it, the endless seal deaths and the bread gorging goose, it actually got quite good (hence two stars). There was a really exciting bit where some teenagers are in a pill box smoking weed and are attacked by the evil dog, but this wasn't really dramatised or dwelt on enough, it would've been cool to have more of the teenagers in the story instead of boring Harry and clingy Anna. There's also a fantastic storm and the author shows real craft and local knowledge describing the effects of the storm on the setting.

The dog is dispatched in the storm with I think a stake through the heart. I thought this was a spectral dog, but it appears to be flesh and bone ... that still doesn't make sense to me. Then the storm washes up the body of its long dead owner and they are reunited, but there's still no explanation for why the shuck turns into the woman called Trash again at the end. I am so confused. Why has a straight forward ghost suddenly got the powers of a shape shifting demon? Do you know what I'm not going to give it anymore thought. I did enjoy the book but only because it was so bad that it was funny and I was just laughing all the way though it. It wasn't remotely scary, apart from that bit in the pill box which the author could've made more of. I wonder who published it?

[Hetty .Kenny · Rating 2 out of 5]

How do I put this in a way which doesn't sound insulting...

No, no can do. This book is bland. It paints horror with broad strokes, without the grounding detail that helps fix it in the mind. People talk about excellent word pictures but to me this was an indistinct watercolour, washed out and lacking in the kinds of grounding details that makes horror effective. Worse was the POV - largely focalised to one person each chapter, it decided to head-hop when Anna was around, to convince us that she and whatshisname mcboringson were somehow attracted to each other rather than showing it with actions - and honestly that's one of the core problems of this whole book, a matter of constantly telling and never showing.

I suppose this makes sense. Like the main character, the author was a wildlife film-maker, where it's expected that there's narration over the footage to explain what's going on to the layperson. The problem is, this isn't a documentary. This is a book, with a narrative. To a certain degree the reader is expected to piece together building relationships not by being told two characters are attracted to each other but by being shown - flirtatious glances and comments, hip-nudges as they talk, a building familiarity we get to see and understand for ourselves rather than have the author tell us what each character thinks - not feels, not in this. We get the knowledge of the protagonist's grief and upset about his wife cheating and leaving, but there's not so much the flutter of interest at Anna, just an inability to look away because she's pretty. When they kiss after a few days of knowing each other - and later sleep together -, it feels more like authorial wish fulfilment - especially given the shared profession - than an actual development of their relationship. The fact that the women in this novel are mostly relegated to housewives and caretakers - with Anna occasionally also serving as a damsel - while the men get to be the only meaningfully active figures also disappoints.

I picked this book up because I love Black Shuck. I've grown up in East Anglia and the stories of our Black Dog have lingered with me through most of my life. He is omen and warden, crime-chaser and guardian companion all at once depending on locality and story, and even when monstrous and terrifying, we know him: the great slathering black dog with eyes aflame, who tore at a church door in hunting his prey.

But here he barely feels present. He feels like a distant backdrop occasionally brought up to remind us this is meant to be horror, even as the narration blands its way into congealed porridge and the romance is uh. Bad.

And then. Then. It turns out the author has made Shuck into a sexy woman to assault the protagonist. Which... sure is a choice. It'd almost have made more sense if she was the spirit of one of the seals - Selkies are Scottish, but it'd at least FIT. But no. Sexy Shucky it is.

I'm glad I picked this up in a charity shop for a quid. I can certainly say I don't think it's worth more than that.

There were a few points of worth. I appreciate the mention of seals: few know that our coast can feature them, especially this far south, and the number of skippers I know who've pranked birders with the knowledge may surprise you. The depiction of the local birds was also lovely, and I appreciated the mentioning of the coastal plants in the tideline; having distinct memories of my own mother educating me on those plants, it was lovely to see them mentioned. Too many these days forget them.

And this, I think, is a core part of it - the author is a wildlife person. He is immersed in nature and the recording of it: that he can be trusted with. But when one builds a narrative of wildlife eking out their existence, sometimes under daunting circumstances and experiencing the horrors and beauty that nature naturally provides, one can tell the story.

Tell, not show. For there, the camera does the showing, not the words.

Sadly, in novels, the words must do the showing, and I feel that Mr Warren is not up to par in that regard.

[Chris Groves · Rating 2 out of 5]

Have been a fan of Black Shuck's work since I first encountered the Usborne Book of Ghosts in the 70s when a nipper, read it constantly, and terrified myself silly as a result. I read this book equally avidly in the course of a couple of days while ill, unable to put it down.

Mainly because I kept turning the pages in the desperate hope that it would all at some point make some kind of sense.

Mr Warren makes the bold move of turning East Anglia's storied spectral harbinger of doom into - for reasons never satisfyingly addressed - a suddenly very physical beastie who not only munches his way thru seals like Pacman thru powerpills and insists on biting random people in the thigh, but who also metamorphoses entirely inexplicably into a doggish succubus who has the hots for the main character. If he is indeed the 'devil's dog' it seems that Satan has, like a sadistic middle manager, delegated to Shucky a very long to-do list of evils to perpetrate on the folk and indeed the wildlife of north Norfolk.

The mayhem randomly builds, mostly entirely without tension, leaving in its wake a trail of corpses including a particularly mysterious death (Frank, discovered hiding under an upturned boat and exhibiting the trademark savaged legs which betoken Shuck's attentions) which for some reason the Norfolk police have absolutely no interest in investigating.

Along the way, the reader has to navigate a wide range of cliches (including a flashback scene which actually features a slow-motion, unrecoverable fall 'NOOOOOOOOO!' moment), a full cast of stock characters, and the side tale of a cute companion animal who meets a sad end, and whose mutilated body the main character then spends far too much time lugging around with him.

But then comes the finale, in which amidst an actually very well written storm, my childhood bogey ends up being twatted to death with an oar.

And so I have to extend a big thankyou to Piers Warren, for writing an awful and also weirdly enjoyable book that has finally laid to rest the trauma caused by pp.14-15 of the Usborne Book of Ghosts.

[Chris · Rating 3 out of 5]

I found this very readable, and it was certainly a book I felt I had to return to and keep turning the pages. There's a strong sense of place and the authors' love of wildlife and the environment comes across very clearly. While the plot exposition and explanation can hold up the story, and there is a lot of externalising of characters' thoughts and speculations, I did want to know, for example, how Harry and Anna made out against the dog. There were multiple situations which allowed for switching between different scenes at critical points, which I felt was a good device for moving things on.

You can, if you want to, go down the "Yes, but why...." route, like, why ,for example, with a wild dog roaming aren't they using a helicopter? Or you can lose yourself in a rather wild ride, which seems to me to have all the makings of a Hammer-style British horror film. The basic idea is as old as the hills, but that's part of the fun.

As the book began to draw to a close, given the number of characters, I found myself worrying about the fate of some of them, and whether their fate would ever be resolved, but this is quite deftly handled with a final chapter that ties up any loose ends.

I've read this in the warmth of spring, but I think it may be best enjoyed on a dark and stormy night, with a fire raging in the grate, and a glass of something, if you possibly can.

[Sallie · Rating 3 out of 5]

Read this on vacation across the water from the real Watch House in Blakeney. The plot is intensely far-fetched with wooden characters who do incredibly daft things with relatively predictable results. The confrontation between Black Shuck and the main character is somewhat weird but I must say, the Watch House is certainly a compelling sight sitting out there all by itself and easily lends itself to the genre. I certainly wouldn’t want to spend a night alone there! The setting is very well described and markers on quayside buildings give testament to some incredible and very destructive floods. Overall a scary story as long as you can suspend belief and don’t ask too many questions of the plot.

[Shelly Leonard · Rating 4 out of 5]

Really enjoyed this read, it takes the reader to Norfolk and immerses them into the landscape…then throws
in legend and mythology and drags you into an adventure. Not a book i would have picked myself so glad I gave it a read :)

[Rob Cook · Rating 4 out of 5]

⭐️3.5⭐️

Entertaining horror story. The last third gets distracted by an exciting storm thread that briefly forgets Black Shuck.
The resolution is a bit too easy and the use of the 'red lady' didn't fit into the story for me.

[Judith · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was pretty scary! Well written with good local detail and clear descriptions, so I found myself believing what was happenning - which isunusual for me!

[T. L. · Rating 4 out of 5]

One you have to read!

[Julia Trapp · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great thriller, cracking story! Easy read.

[Ryan Kriste · Rating 5 out of 5]

Really entertaining story and a nice easy read. The short chapters give it quite an exciting feel.

[Gavin Bilyard · Rating 5 out of 5]

At

[Clare · Rating 4 out of 5]

A fun melodrama based on Norfolk myths set in a real landscape. Not high brow literature but entertaining and at times quite spooky and gripping. A few inconsistencies but ideal holiday reading

[Ben Townshend · Rating 4 out of 5]

Pretty good book dragged me in

[Amber · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 not as gripping or thrilling as I hoped.... bit meh.

[sana singh · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.25 ⭐️ not as “terrifying” or thrilling as promised but was an enjoyable read!

[AngThisisLife · Rating 4 out of 5]

Well written, thrilling and gripping, although it didn't set me off into hiding under the blanket. Still, I'll recommend it especially to those who like to hear more about the legendary Black Shuck. Like it that the author wrote from different character's views, making me connect with each of them.

[Pushkasmarbles]

A great read, didn't want to put it down. It did help that I knew all of the places mentioned and so could visualise parts of the landscape.

[Robert Postle · Rating 4 out of 5]

Easy to read and great fun!

[Meg · Rating 2 out of 5]

I so so badly wanted to like this one, and it seemed promising at first! I just felt that it didn't live up to it's potential...