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Let Death Begin
A mystery thriller of pace, suspense and fast moving action.
James is shot by a clown. Sara's house is broken into. Mason is killed for what was stolen. What is so important about a few letters? Why is Sara's brother behaving so secretly? When James becomes embroiled in the police murder investigation it is time for him to step away from his ordinary life and act in extraordinary ways. Only by beating the criminals at their own game, and by staying one step ahead of the police, can James hope to get to the bottom of the mystery - and to stay alive.
Let Death Begin is another thriller from the established author team of Maynard Sims - www.maynard-sims.com
Publishers Weekly said "successfully ventures into thriller territory."
Maynard Sims have an Author Page on Amazon.
Let Death Begin is a terrific fast paced action packed story of mystery, romance and intrigue. The characters draw you in and the plot twists and turns so the reader never knows what is going to happen next.
Maynard Sims have been writing together for forty years yet their stories - like fine wine - improve with each new book. This thriller does just that - it thrills. Death, love, murder, torture, betrayal and a sense of past lives creeping up and intruding into the present day with devastaing effects.
Watch the YouTube trailer - Let Death Begin under Maynard Sims.
Two criminal kings who rule the London underworld have always been rivals. Now one of them is dead the aftermath is even more bloody and deadly than when he was alive. The fallout from the decades long rivalry has many victims. To be lord of the manor is never enough - they both want it all, but only one can survive.
James is caught in the middle of a revenge so coldly planned that the fulfilment of it will be far worse than the brutality of the gangs the men controlled. Hard men die but they leave a legacy that those left living have to cope with. Family may stand by their man when they are provided for, even from the spoils of crime, but when the provider is dead and others are raking at the corpse, the time for loyalty may be over.
EXCERPT Stone and I stood against the wall of the lift, with the Uzi covering both of us. Stone dabbed at his mouth with a blood-soaked handkerchief, mumbling something under his breath. Susan Anderton watched him, excitement glittering in her eyes. Finally the lift stopped, and the doors opened with a sigh. We stepped out into a room about twenty feet square. Three of the walls were lined with white acoustic tiles, the fourth wall, the one facing us, was dark brown, and looked to be sheathed in cork or some other fibrous material. The ceiling was covered by the same acoustic tiles that lined the walls, its smooth plane interrupted by two eight-foot fluorescent strips. These gave off a harsh light, which reflected from the white ceramic tiles that covered the floor. At Jenkins’ urging I started to walk towards the dark wall, and I noticed the floor had a slight slope to it. In the centre of the floor was a round grille about two feet across, and I suddenly realised that the floor was in fact dished, the grille being the lowest point. And it was the sight of the grille that sent fingers of ice crawling up my spine. As I passed it I glanced down through the lattice of steel, and saw the reflection of the strip lights bouncing back at me. Below us was water. Perhaps a natural well or an underground stream. The grille in the floor was a drain. ‘Against the wall, Price,’ Susan Anderton said. ‘You too, Stone.’ ‘Interesting place,’ I said to her. ‘Harry Moss’s design, or yours?’ ‘Neither,’ she said. ‘The design is South American. Chilean, I believe. You’re familiar with the concept?’ I nodded. ‘It’s a killing room,’ I said.
James is shot by a clown. Sara's house is broken into. Mason is killed for what was stolen. What is so important about a few letters? Why is Sara's brother behaving so secretly? When James becomes embroiled in the police murder investigation it is time for him to step away from his ordinary life and act in extraordinary ways. Only by beating the criminals at their own game, and by staying one step ahead of the police, can James hope to get to the bottom of the mystery - and to stay alive.
Let Death Begin is another thriller from the established author team of Maynard Sims - www.maynard-sims.com
Publishers Weekly said "successfully ventures into thriller territory."
Maynard Sims have an Author Page on Amazon.
Let Death Begin is a terrific fast paced action packed story of mystery, romance and intrigue. The characters draw you in and the plot twists and turns so the reader never knows what is going to happen next.
Maynard Sims have been writing together for forty years yet their stories - like fine wine - improve with each new book. This thriller does just that - it thrills. Death, love, murder, torture, betrayal and a sense of past lives creeping up and intruding into the present day with devastaing effects.
Watch the YouTube trailer - Let Death Begin under Maynard Sims.
Two criminal kings who rule the London underworld have always been rivals. Now one of them is dead the aftermath is even more bloody and deadly than when he was alive. The fallout from the decades long rivalry has many victims. To be lord of the manor is never enough - they both want it all, but only one can survive.
James is caught in the middle of a revenge so coldly planned that the fulfilment of it will be far worse than the brutality of the gangs the men controlled. Hard men die but they leave a legacy that those left living have to cope with. Family may stand by their man when they are provided for, even from the spoils of crime, but when the provider is dead and others are raking at the corpse, the time for loyalty may be over.
EXCERPT Stone and I stood against the wall of the lift, with the Uzi covering both of us. Stone dabbed at his mouth with a blood-soaked handkerchief, mumbling something under his breath. Susan Anderton watched him, excitement glittering in her eyes. Finally the lift stopped, and the doors opened with a sigh. We stepped out into a room about twenty feet square. Three of the walls were lined with white acoustic tiles, the fourth wall, the one facing us, was dark brown, and looked to be sheathed in cork or some other fibrous material. The ceiling was covered by the same acoustic tiles that lined the walls, its smooth plane interrupted by two eight-foot fluorescent strips. These gave off a harsh light, which reflected from the white ceramic tiles that covered the floor. At Jenkins’ urging I started to walk towards the dark wall, and I noticed the floor had a slight slope to it. In the centre of the floor was a round grille about two feet across, and I suddenly realised that the floor was in fact dished, the grille being the lowest point. And it was the sight of the grille that sent fingers of ice crawling up my spine. As I passed it I glanced down through the lattice of steel, and saw the reflection of the strip lights bouncing back at me. Below us was water. Perhaps a natural well or an underground stream. The grille in the floor was a drain. ‘Against the wall, Price,’ Susan Anderton said. ‘You too, Stone.’ ‘Interesting place,’ I said to her. ‘Harry Moss’s design, or yours?’ ‘Neither,’ she said. ‘The design is South American. Chilean, I believe. You’re familiar with the concept?’ I nodded. ‘It’s a killing room,’ I said.
262 pages, Paperback
First published February 14, 2014
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About the author
Maynard Sims
72 books36 followersMAYNARD SIMS www.maynard-sims.com
The DCI Jack Callum series of crime novels - No Evil,Prime Evil and For Her Sins with The Detective Jack Callum Trilogy. The Bahamas series of thriller novels - Touching The Sun, Calling Down The Lightning, and Raging Against The Storm. The Department 18 series of supernatural crime novels - Black Cathedral, Night Souls, The Eighth Witch, A Plague Of Echoes, and Mother Of Demons. The crime novels Let Death Begin, Through The Sad Heart, and Falling Apart At The Edges. The supernatural novels, Shelter, Demon Eyes, Nightmare City, Stronghold, and Stillwater. The erotic romance novels, under a pseudonym, - The Love Project and The Romance Project.
One screenplay, based on the first two Department 18 books, won the 2013 British Horror Film Festival Award for Best New Screenplay.
Numerous stories have been published in a variety of anthologies and magazines. Collections include, Shadows At Midnight, 1979 and 1999 (revised and enlarged), Echoes Of Darkness, 2000, Incantations, 2002, two retrospective collections of their stories, essays and interviews, The Secret Geography Of Nightmare and Selling Dark Miracles, both 2002, Falling Into Heaven 2004, The Odd Ghosts, 2011, and Flame And Other Enigmatic Tales, and A Haunting Of Ghosts, both 2012. Their tenth collection of ghost stories and strange tales – Death’s Sweet Echo – which includes all their recent and new stories, many of them previously unpublished, is 2016.
Novellas, The Hidden Language Of Demons, The Seminar, His Other Son, and Convalescence have been published in 2002, 2003, 2013 and 2015 respectively. All their stories and novellas have been reprinted in eight uniform volumes through The Maynard Sims Library in 2014. An erotic romance novella, First Time Love, 2015 and First Time Arousal, 2016. Devil is a 2016 crime novella..
They worked as editors on the nine volumes of Darkness Rising anthologies. They co-edited and published F20 with The British Fantasy Society. As editors/publishers they ran Enigmatic Press in the UK, which produced Enigmatic Tales, and its sister titles. They have written essays. They still do commissioned editing projects, most recently Dead Water, and the Capital Crimes anthology for the ITW. They do ghost writing commissions.
Email contact can be made at ms@micksims.f9.co.uk
Find Maynard Sims on most social media - links are on the website
The DCI Jack Callum series of crime novels - No Evil,Prime Evil and For Her Sins with The Detective Jack Callum Trilogy. The Bahamas series of thriller novels - Touching The Sun, Calling Down The Lightning, and Raging Against The Storm. The Department 18 series of supernatural crime novels - Black Cathedral, Night Souls, The Eighth Witch, A Plague Of Echoes, and Mother Of Demons. The crime novels Let Death Begin, Through The Sad Heart, and Falling Apart At The Edges. The supernatural novels, Shelter, Demon Eyes, Nightmare City, Stronghold, and Stillwater. The erotic romance novels, under a pseudonym, - The Love Project and The Romance Project.
One screenplay, based on the first two Department 18 books, won the 2013 British Horror Film Festival Award for Best New Screenplay.
Numerous stories have been published in a variety of anthologies and magazines. Collections include, Shadows At Midnight, 1979 and 1999 (revised and enlarged), Echoes Of Darkness, 2000, Incantations, 2002, two retrospective collections of their stories, essays and interviews, The Secret Geography Of Nightmare and Selling Dark Miracles, both 2002, Falling Into Heaven 2004, The Odd Ghosts, 2011, and Flame And Other Enigmatic Tales, and A Haunting Of Ghosts, both 2012. Their tenth collection of ghost stories and strange tales – Death’s Sweet Echo – which includes all their recent and new stories, many of them previously unpublished, is 2016.
Novellas, The Hidden Language Of Demons, The Seminar, His Other Son, and Convalescence have been published in 2002, 2003, 2013 and 2015 respectively. All their stories and novellas have been reprinted in eight uniform volumes through The Maynard Sims Library in 2014. An erotic romance novella, First Time Love, 2015 and First Time Arousal, 2016. Devil is a 2016 crime novella..
They worked as editors on the nine volumes of Darkness Rising anthologies. They co-edited and published F20 with The British Fantasy Society. As editors/publishers they ran Enigmatic Press in the UK, which produced Enigmatic Tales, and its sister titles. They have written essays. They still do commissioned editing projects, most recently Dead Water, and the Capital Crimes anthology for the ITW. They do ghost writing commissions.
Email contact can be made at ms@micksims.f9.co.uk
Find Maynard Sims on most social media - links are on the website
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
August 19, 2016
The start might appear a little confusing at first, but persevere and you have a great read on your hands. James Price was once an up and coming Detective, some would argue a bit of a maverick, until he was almost fatally shot in the line of duty. Through medical reasons he is pensioned off, and so he begins to deal in rare and collectible books as a new career choice. Unfortunately the past just will not let him have a quiet life.
The story has been well thought out, and the characters have been well crafted. A mystery involving clowns, London gangs and arson, seemingly unrelated threads, but how do they link together, and will James be able to make sense of it all?
A well paced read, with plenty of things happening to maintain the reader's interest levels. Until this book this was an unfamiliar writer for me, but on the strength of this book I have dug out another of his works.
The story has been well thought out, and the characters have been well crafted. A mystery involving clowns, London gangs and arson, seemingly unrelated threads, but how do they link together, and will James be able to make sense of it all?
A well paced read, with plenty of things happening to maintain the reader's interest levels. Until this book this was an unfamiliar writer for me, but on the strength of this book I have dug out another of his works.
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September 5, 2014http://www.amazon.co.uk/Let-Death-Beg...
http://www.amazon.com/LET-DEATH-BEGIN...
available as Kindle eBook and paperback.
http://www.amazon.com/LET-DEATH-BEGIN...
available as Kindle eBook and paperback.
March 21, 2016
Loved it.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews