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The Spore
SOME SECRETS ARE BETTER LEFT BURIED
From the morgues of London to the mists of Scotland, the rot is spreading
London, 1953. The Coronation’s glitter has faded, leaving behind a city still shivering in the shadow of the Great Smog and the Cold War’s deepening chill.
Under the fog-infested streets of London lies the sterile, subterranean morgue of St. George’s Hospital, where Alistair McCrae struggles to avoid human encounters. Fortunately, most of his clientele are corpses that can’t talk back. Alistair is a physician turned pathologist and a reluctant war hero with crushing secrets. And when Alistair is summoned to the British Home Office, his world changes irrevocably.
To Alex Cromwell, Alistair is a dangerous man with unknown baggage weighing him down. But Alex has no choice but to work with Alistair when the highest levels of the British Crown elicit Alistair’s assistance in the search for a killer who has been savagely tearing the throats out of victims across Great Britain.
The trail for the killer leads them away from the capital’s fog-slicked streets to a desolate Scottish fishing village north of Edinburgh. Here, the North Sea batters a community bound by silence, and the ancient earth holds a secret far more volatile than any Cold War threat.
The local constabulary believe their presence in Innisfil is to solve the recent murder of their town doctor; but Alex is focused on something the hunt for one of Nazi Germany’s most notorious war criminals. And as Alex and Alistair search for fresh clues, Alex grows certain that the murderer and her target are one and the same.
Little does Alex know that they’ve stumbled onto a dark secret which will reveal the real reason Alistair McCrae was asked to consult on the investigation. And as Alex and Alistair form an uneasy alliance, they uncover an ominous of an ancient race determined to reclaim what was once theirs.
"A suffocating blend of mid-century noir and gothic suspense"
From the morgues of London to the mists of Scotland, the rot is spreading
London, 1953. The Coronation’s glitter has faded, leaving behind a city still shivering in the shadow of the Great Smog and the Cold War’s deepening chill.
Under the fog-infested streets of London lies the sterile, subterranean morgue of St. George’s Hospital, where Alistair McCrae struggles to avoid human encounters. Fortunately, most of his clientele are corpses that can’t talk back. Alistair is a physician turned pathologist and a reluctant war hero with crushing secrets. And when Alistair is summoned to the British Home Office, his world changes irrevocably.
To Alex Cromwell, Alistair is a dangerous man with unknown baggage weighing him down. But Alex has no choice but to work with Alistair when the highest levels of the British Crown elicit Alistair’s assistance in the search for a killer who has been savagely tearing the throats out of victims across Great Britain.
The trail for the killer leads them away from the capital’s fog-slicked streets to a desolate Scottish fishing village north of Edinburgh. Here, the North Sea batters a community bound by silence, and the ancient earth holds a secret far more volatile than any Cold War threat.
The local constabulary believe their presence in Innisfil is to solve the recent murder of their town doctor; but Alex is focused on something the hunt for one of Nazi Germany’s most notorious war criminals. And as Alex and Alistair search for fresh clues, Alex grows certain that the murderer and her target are one and the same.
Little does Alex know that they’ve stumbled onto a dark secret which will reveal the real reason Alistair McCrae was asked to consult on the investigation. And as Alex and Alistair form an uneasy alliance, they uncover an ominous of an ancient race determined to reclaim what was once theirs.
"A suffocating blend of mid-century noir and gothic suspense"
533 pages, Kindle Edition
Published June 17, 2026
About the author
J.M. Campbell
10 books3 followersJM Campbell is the author of The Angel of Sallow Cove, The House That Jack Built, Whispers in The Mist, and the Quinn Masterson Mysteries Distortions, One Night in the House of the Creepy Santas, For All the Children to See, and The Angel of Sallow Cove. He has had a long career working as a publisher and editor. In addition to a growing library of short stories and poetry, he also ghost-wrote a business autobiography, is a regular contributor to tech blogs, and he has penned numerous articles on behalf of C-level executives for publications such as The Wall Street Journal and Wired Magazine. He’s also written and produced more than 4,000 videos for the world’s largest private education provider.
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September 4, 2026
4.5 stars, entertaining thriller that holds your interest until the end.
Displaying 1 - 1 of 1 review