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On A Dark & Crooked Path: A Dark & Crooked Tale Book I
Axel Vale, the mind behind
Twisted Tales and
The Continuum I – Emergence,
invites you to take a seat and prepare yourself for A Dark & Crooked Tale.
A new gothic trilogy of love, loss, inheritance, and the decisions we make when our backs are to the wall and there are no good choices left.
There are no heroes here.
No heroines.
No fairy godmothers.
Not everyone will survive.
And nobody is coming to save the day.
All bets are off when your pockets are empty, the chips are down, and you’ve played your final hand.
So how do you pay the piper when he comes calling?
Unless, of course, at seventeen…
you inherit your family’s fortune.
Surviving in a dynasty like the Matthews clan is hard enough. Making it to adulthood is a long shot. And now every warlock and witch in a sprawling, blood-bound network wants Robert “Bobby” Matthews dead.
And that’s before he realises his family carries a curse.
One that has just been passed on to him.
Book On a Dark and Crooked PathWhen his formidable grandmother, Lady Margaret Matthews, dies under mysterious circumstances, seventeen-year-old Bobby inherits not only a vast fortune, but control of a powerful and deeply fractured dynasty.
Thrust into a world of whispered alliances and razor-edged smiles, Bobby must navigate a web of ambition where loyalty is only ever a mask.
Within the suffocating halls of Mourningford, a house that shifts, tightens, and watches, Bobby finds a single point of Sophie, the girl he never expected to see again. Her love offers hope. Perhaps even salvation.
But the Matthews curse runs deep.
Beneath Mourningford lies a rot three centuries in the making, now clawing its way back to the surface.
For Bobby and Sophie, survival will demand more than love.
It will demand sacrifice.
It will demand truth.
And it will change them forever.
How far would you go for love?
What would you sacrifice for the truth?
Prepare to descend into a gothic fantasy unlike anything you’ve experienced
an ancient dynasty,
a family rotten to the core,
and a secret buried for three hundred years… about to rise again.
Once you set foot on a dark and crooked path, there is only one direction to travel.
How far down you go…
is up to you.
Twisted Tales and
The Continuum I – Emergence,
invites you to take a seat and prepare yourself for A Dark & Crooked Tale.
A new gothic trilogy of love, loss, inheritance, and the decisions we make when our backs are to the wall and there are no good choices left.
There are no heroes here.
No heroines.
No fairy godmothers.
Not everyone will survive.
And nobody is coming to save the day.
All bets are off when your pockets are empty, the chips are down, and you’ve played your final hand.
So how do you pay the piper when he comes calling?
Unless, of course, at seventeen…
you inherit your family’s fortune.
Surviving in a dynasty like the Matthews clan is hard enough. Making it to adulthood is a long shot. And now every warlock and witch in a sprawling, blood-bound network wants Robert “Bobby” Matthews dead.
And that’s before he realises his family carries a curse.
One that has just been passed on to him.
Book On a Dark and Crooked PathWhen his formidable grandmother, Lady Margaret Matthews, dies under mysterious circumstances, seventeen-year-old Bobby inherits not only a vast fortune, but control of a powerful and deeply fractured dynasty.
Thrust into a world of whispered alliances and razor-edged smiles, Bobby must navigate a web of ambition where loyalty is only ever a mask.
Within the suffocating halls of Mourningford, a house that shifts, tightens, and watches, Bobby finds a single point of Sophie, the girl he never expected to see again. Her love offers hope. Perhaps even salvation.
But the Matthews curse runs deep.
Beneath Mourningford lies a rot three centuries in the making, now clawing its way back to the surface.
For Bobby and Sophie, survival will demand more than love.
It will demand sacrifice.
It will demand truth.
And it will change them forever.
How far would you go for love?
What would you sacrifice for the truth?
Prepare to descend into a gothic fantasy unlike anything you’ve experienced
an ancient dynasty,
a family rotten to the core,
and a secret buried for three hundred years… about to rise again.
Once you set foot on a dark and crooked path, there is only one direction to travel.
How far down you go…
is up to you.
- GenresDark
134 pages, Kindle Edition
First published September 3, 2025
About the author
Axel Vale
37 books6 followersAxel Vale writes at the intersection of gothic fiction, dark fantasy, and techno-mysticism.
His work explores what happens after the worst has already occurred. In worlds shaped by inheritance, power, grief, and impossible choices, survival is rarely heroic and redemption is never guaranteed. Funerals often mark beginnings. Consequences ripple outward. Characters are judged less by what they believe than by what they do when there are no good options left.
Vale is the author of A Dark & Crooked Tale, a gothic trilogy rooted in legacy, family dynasties, and moral pressure, alongside Twisted Tales from the Fringe of Reality and THE CodeX, a nine-volume philosophical project examining the evolving relationship between human consciousness and artificial intelligence. Across fiction and non-fiction, his work forms an interconnected continuum rather than a collection of standalone books.
There are no chosen ones here. No clean victories. And no promise that the path forward will be kind.
When not writing, Axel is building Neochic Digital, a creative and technological ecosystem where storytelling, systems design, and automation converge. His authorship sits at the centre of that architecture, not as branding, but as proof of concept.
If you’ve opened the book, you’re already on the path.
Author homepage:
https://axelvale.com
Amazon Author Page:
https://www.amazon.co.uk/stores/Axel-...
Print editions and special formats:
https://www.lulu.com/spotlight/axel_v...
His work explores what happens after the worst has already occurred. In worlds shaped by inheritance, power, grief, and impossible choices, survival is rarely heroic and redemption is never guaranteed. Funerals often mark beginnings. Consequences ripple outward. Characters are judged less by what they believe than by what they do when there are no good options left.
Vale is the author of A Dark & Crooked Tale, a gothic trilogy rooted in legacy, family dynasties, and moral pressure, alongside Twisted Tales from the Fringe of Reality and THE CodeX, a nine-volume philosophical project examining the evolving relationship between human consciousness and artificial intelligence. Across fiction and non-fiction, his work forms an interconnected continuum rather than a collection of standalone books.
There are no chosen ones here. No clean victories. And no promise that the path forward will be kind.
When not writing, Axel is building Neochic Digital, a creative and technological ecosystem where storytelling, systems design, and automation converge. His authorship sits at the centre of that architecture, not as branding, but as proof of concept.
If you’ve opened the book, you’re already on the path.
Author homepage:
https://axelvale.com
Amazon Author Page:
https://www.amazon.co.uk/stores/Axel-...
Print editions and special formats:
https://www.lulu.com/spotlight/axel_v...
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