Detective Chief Inspector Frank Castle is haunted by his failure to solve the Woodland Killings. The original case drove him to the edge of an emotional breakdown as the press turned on him and the case's main suspect,
the sinister and mysterious Karl Black taunted and goaded him and evaded conviction. Decades later a new wave of killings begins that appear to replicate the details of those original murders and Castle and his partner
DI Jacki Stone are faced with having to crack the case.
In the intervening years Karl Black has founded an extremist Christian sect called the Last Brotherhood who appear to be concealing a hidden agenda. When Castle and Stone interview Black in relation to the killings he once again proves elusive and adept at staying one step ahead of the detectives. The killer targets politicians who are dispatched in a horrifying manner with a seemingly ritualistic methodology. As the levels of violence against the victims escalates Castle and Stone are faced with outrage from the press and public at their apparent failure to stop the serial killer. Castle is plunged back into his worst nightmare and finds increasing comfort in whiskey soaked oblivion.
For Stone the pressure of the case leads to the breakdown of her marriage.
However, with the help of a talented police psychologist the pair begin to gain ground on the killer and they start to unravel the mystery surrounding Black and his acolytes. Apostle Rising is not for the fainthearted, containing as it does extremely violent and lurid descriptions of the murders of a crazed and religiously motivated killer. In many respects it shares characteristics with the horror genre and it is perhaps no surprise to find that author Richard Godwin is also a horror writer. The blood-soaked scenes he describes have an hysterical Hammer-like quality to them and the tides of gore he unleashes recall the films of Dario Argento. An arresting and cleverly plotted police procedural married to gothic horror and the aesthetics of the slasher genre Apostle Rising is an unusual and memorable crime story.
As the old song says, "If you go down to the woods today you're sure of a big surprise..."
Apostle Rising
Richard Godwin
Black Jackal Books, £8.99, 9780956711304
