What do you think?
Rate this book
After the fall
After the Fall’, D. M. Mitchell’s newest thriller, goes deep. Very deep…
D. M. Mitchell has been compared to Dean Koontz, Stephen King, Ruth Rendell, M. R. James, Linwood Barclay, Umberto Eco, the Bronte sisters, Charles Dickens and many others. His novel The Soul Fixer has been optioned for a Hollywood movie in conjunction with the famous director Dominic Sena (director of Gone in 60 Seconds, Swordfish etc). Discover for yourself why D. M. Mitchell is being regarded by some as one of the UK’s most original and exciting writers of psychological thrillers and supernatural fiction.
Craig Tyler is a journalist taken to a remote mine deep in the Atacama Desert in Chile.
But Tyler’s journey has been made in almost complete secrecy. In fact secrecy surrounds everything about the heavily defended mine and its employees. He has been commissioned by a senior executive from the Ross Corporation, Nathan Wood, to deliver a story that he says will astound the world – the discovery of a special mineral that will have massive implications for the future of the world’s energy.
Once underground Tyler finds himself involved in an earthquake and the mine collapses all round him. Rescued by two Chilean miners, Sebastian and Vicente, they scramble through pitch-dark tunnels to find one of the mine’s many refuges. Finding escape near impossible, they encounter more survivors, and together this disparate group begins its fight for survival against tremendous odds, with only enough water and food to last a few days, the stress and tensions quickly beginning to mount.
Then they discover an unexploded bomb. And with that the further realisation they are not alone down the mine. Something sinister, primeval and malevolent haunts the depths. With the group splintering inevitably into corrosive factions, their fight for survival just got tougher.
Was this an accident? If not, what really happened, and are the perpetrators still among the survivors? What is Area B’s terrifying secret? Will they ever escape? Craig Tyler’s bid for freedom takes the reader down a labyrinthine maze of darkness and despair, hope and fear,in one of D. M. Mitchell’s most original, powerful and spine-tingling thrillers to date.
D. M. Mitchell has been compared to Dean Koontz, Stephen King, Ruth Rendell, M. R. James, Linwood Barclay, Umberto Eco, the Bronte sisters, Charles Dickens and many others. His novel The Soul Fixer has been optioned for a Hollywood movie in conjunction with the famous director Dominic Sena (director of Gone in 60 Seconds, Swordfish etc). Discover for yourself why D. M. Mitchell is being regarded by some as one of the UK’s most original and exciting writers of psychological thrillers and supernatural fiction.
Craig Tyler is a journalist taken to a remote mine deep in the Atacama Desert in Chile.
But Tyler’s journey has been made in almost complete secrecy. In fact secrecy surrounds everything about the heavily defended mine and its employees. He has been commissioned by a senior executive from the Ross Corporation, Nathan Wood, to deliver a story that he says will astound the world – the discovery of a special mineral that will have massive implications for the future of the world’s energy.
Once underground Tyler finds himself involved in an earthquake and the mine collapses all round him. Rescued by two Chilean miners, Sebastian and Vicente, they scramble through pitch-dark tunnels to find one of the mine’s many refuges. Finding escape near impossible, they encounter more survivors, and together this disparate group begins its fight for survival against tremendous odds, with only enough water and food to last a few days, the stress and tensions quickly beginning to mount.
Then they discover an unexploded bomb. And with that the further realisation they are not alone down the mine. Something sinister, primeval and malevolent haunts the depths. With the group splintering inevitably into corrosive factions, their fight for survival just got tougher.
Was this an accident? If not, what really happened, and are the perpetrators still among the survivors? What is Area B’s terrifying secret? Will they ever escape? Craig Tyler’s bid for freedom takes the reader down a labyrinthine maze of darkness and despair, hope and fear,in one of D. M. Mitchell’s most original, powerful and spine-tingling thrillers to date.
211 pages, Kindle Edition
First published August 29, 2014
About the author
D.M. Mitchell
23 books51 followersD. M. Mitchell has been compared to Ruth Rendell, Martina Cole, Stephen King, Dean Koontz, Linwood Barclay, Dickens and even the Bronte sisters! This wide array of writing styles is appropriate - though Mitchell is known for his psychological thrillers, he is determined that each of them will be different, so they might be set in different eras, may be straightforward thrillers or have a supernatural or horror twist, and he avoids like the plague the standard and unimaginative serial killer format! You'll find he uses different styles of writing to suit different types of books - it also keeps him from getting bored...
D. M. Mitchell was born into a small mining community in Yorkshire, England. His career advisor said he had two options - go down the mines or become a policeman. Being scared of the dark and never having much meat on his bones, he declined both and in his early years bounced like a pinball from job to job - warehouses, cinema projectionist, market trader, salesman - you get the picture. He sort of made a success of himself and now lives in a money-pit of a cottage in a tiny village in the cream tea heart of the South West of England.
His first remembered attempt at pushing the boundaries of creative writing was during a school lesson at the age of nine. Titled simply 'Rain' his proud masterpiece began with 'It started to rain' then there followed eight pages of nothing but the words 'pitter-patter', concluding with 'and then it stopped'. It was handed over and duly reviewed by his brick wall of a teacher, whose eyebrows flickered up and down ominously, his cheeks flushing bright red, before declaring it total rubbish. He tore it up into ribbons, showered him with his first, and no doubt only tickertape ceremony, and gave him a meaty slap around the head (they could do that sort of thing in 1967). He made him write 'I will not write stupid things for eight pages' for eight pages. Thus he learnt a number of valuable early lessons - the meaning of irony, writing is very subjective, everyone's a critic, and no-one likes a smart-arse.
He persevered, his first novel appearing in 1986 and disappearing into the attic the same year. It's still up there. Many manuscripts later he used to save the piles of rejection slips to paper his bare walls. So the adage is, keep at it, in these times of economic depression you'll soon have the house fully redecorated. Nowadays, writing is the one thing he feels totally comfortable with, except perhaps for a cup of Horlicks on a cold winter's night when the rain goes pitter-patter against the window panes (there it is again...).
Characterisation is an important and noticeable aspect of all Mitchell's novels. It allows him to be whoever he wants to be when he gets fed up of being himself, which is quite often. So too is a sense of mystery and the exploration of the darker side to humanity. There are always strong elements of a complex puzzle to be solved in a D M Mitchell novel, many disparate parts ultimately coming together, tragedy and comedy sitting side by side. As in life, nothing is as it first seems. He takes a keen interest in history, a thread which runs through his writing, whether it's the 1960s or 1970s, as in 'Max' and 'Pressure Cooker', or the Victorian 1880s, as in 'The House of the Wicked'.
His favourite novelists include Barry Unsworth, Thomas Hardy, John Steinbeck and Graham Swift. Top two favourite historical books: Culloden, by John Prebble and The Face of Battle by John Keegan. He also collects first edition novels and takes a keen interest in anything old, tatty and in need of love and restoration. His wife says he needs to get out more.
He has three grown children and also enjoys photography, painting and walking the Blackdown Hills with his wife and an overly excitable Border Terrier - or is that an overly-excitable wife and a Border Terrier... One of the two.
He'd like to thank his growing legion of fans for allowing him to practice being
D. M. Mitchell was born into a small mining community in Yorkshire, England. His career advisor said he had two options - go down the mines or become a policeman. Being scared of the dark and never having much meat on his bones, he declined both and in his early years bounced like a pinball from job to job - warehouses, cinema projectionist, market trader, salesman - you get the picture. He sort of made a success of himself and now lives in a money-pit of a cottage in a tiny village in the cream tea heart of the South West of England.
His first remembered attempt at pushing the boundaries of creative writing was during a school lesson at the age of nine. Titled simply 'Rain' his proud masterpiece began with 'It started to rain' then there followed eight pages of nothing but the words 'pitter-patter', concluding with 'and then it stopped'. It was handed over and duly reviewed by his brick wall of a teacher, whose eyebrows flickered up and down ominously, his cheeks flushing bright red, before declaring it total rubbish. He tore it up into ribbons, showered him with his first, and no doubt only tickertape ceremony, and gave him a meaty slap around the head (they could do that sort of thing in 1967). He made him write 'I will not write stupid things for eight pages' for eight pages. Thus he learnt a number of valuable early lessons - the meaning of irony, writing is very subjective, everyone's a critic, and no-one likes a smart-arse.
He persevered, his first novel appearing in 1986 and disappearing into the attic the same year. It's still up there. Many manuscripts later he used to save the piles of rejection slips to paper his bare walls. So the adage is, keep at it, in these times of economic depression you'll soon have the house fully redecorated. Nowadays, writing is the one thing he feels totally comfortable with, except perhaps for a cup of Horlicks on a cold winter's night when the rain goes pitter-patter against the window panes (there it is again...).
Characterisation is an important and noticeable aspect of all Mitchell's novels. It allows him to be whoever he wants to be when he gets fed up of being himself, which is quite often. So too is a sense of mystery and the exploration of the darker side to humanity. There are always strong elements of a complex puzzle to be solved in a D M Mitchell novel, many disparate parts ultimately coming together, tragedy and comedy sitting side by side. As in life, nothing is as it first seems. He takes a keen interest in history, a thread which runs through his writing, whether it's the 1960s or 1970s, as in 'Max' and 'Pressure Cooker', or the Victorian 1880s, as in 'The House of the Wicked'.
His favourite novelists include Barry Unsworth, Thomas Hardy, John Steinbeck and Graham Swift. Top two favourite historical books: Culloden, by John Prebble and The Face of Battle by John Keegan. He also collects first edition novels and takes a keen interest in anything old, tatty and in need of love and restoration. His wife says he needs to get out more.
He has three grown children and also enjoys photography, painting and walking the Blackdown Hills with his wife and an overly excitable Border Terrier - or is that an overly-excitable wife and a Border Terrier... One of the two.
He'd like to thank his growing legion of fans for allowing him to practice being
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
November 7, 2023
WTF?
What was this book even about? The worst ending I’ve ever read.
Please don’t waste your time, or god forbid, money on this hot mess.
What was this book even about? The worst ending I’ve ever read.
Please don’t waste your time, or god forbid, money on this hot mess.
February 24, 2015
Original, well written
Very entertaining, with some unexpected twists. Well defined characters and fast pace made this a hard to put down book. I do have some criticisms, here they are, but just so you know, ***spoiler alert*** this book ends on a cliffhanger, yes, the loose ends are tied up by then, but it would be nice to know if the main character, Craig Tyler is going to survive to be rescued, or even how they can be rescued with all those worm things outside the room they're hiding in. Plus, someone warms the girl over the phone about Sebastian being a danger to her and Tyler, but it's never explained how they could know this. Now, I don't mind a somewhat ambiguous ending, but this isn't ambiguous, this is a cliffhanger. And I don't mind cliffhangers, if there's going to be a sequel, but as far as I can tell there isn't going to be a sequel. Besides those concerns, it was a really good book.
Very entertaining, with some unexpected twists. Well defined characters and fast pace made this a hard to put down book. I do have some criticisms, here they are, but just so you know, ***spoiler alert*** this book ends on a cliffhanger, yes, the loose ends are tied up by then, but it would be nice to know if the main character, Craig Tyler is going to survive to be rescued, or even how they can be rescued with all those worm things outside the room they're hiding in. Plus, someone warms the girl over the phone about Sebastian being a danger to her and Tyler, but it's never explained how they could know this. Now, I don't mind a somewhat ambiguous ending, but this isn't ambiguous, this is a cliffhanger. And I don't mind cliffhangers, if there's going to be a sequel, but as far as I can tell there isn't going to be a sequel. Besides those concerns, it was a really good book.
July 28, 2016
OMG scary. Craig Tyler a journalist is hired to go to Chile to a mine site. It's all very secretive and hush hush. He is blindfolded as they do not want him to even know the location. Then disaster. An earthquake causes a cave in. Craig wakes up with dirt in his mouth and does not recall where he is. Two men rescue him and things get intense from there.
December 14, 2014
a good solid book. it left me wanting more, like story cannot end where it did
August 20, 2015
Definitely kept me interested and on edge until the last page. The reason I didn't give it 5 stars is because of the ending...it just stopped suddenly. Other than that is was good.
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews