Over the last couple of years I’ve had the good fortune to get to know author KEV HARRISON. I’d known his name for a while from his work as a columnist at THIS IS HORROR, but it wasn’t until recently that we met in person. I’ve enjoyed meeting up with a group of like minded reprobates (ie other writers) – Kev included – each summer to eat, drink, and generally talk nonsense for a few hours, and this year Kev was kind enough to present each of us with a copy of his latest novel, PYRES. I wanted to recommend it to you, not just as a way of saying thanks to the author, but because it’s a short, sharp, firecracker of a book.
Angela has been a spirit painter for years. Channelling the spirits as they commit memories to canvas through her: childhood pets, favourite holiday locations, and sprawling homesteads. But now, something has changed.
The paintings take a dark turn just as her sister, Becky, returns from Italy. People burnt alive, their smouldering remains a vivid, visceral stain on Angela’s canvasses. Already disturbed, her life is thrown into turmoil when a right wing TV news presenter is found incinerated in a facsimile of her new painting.
As the artworks – and charred bodies – mount up, can Angela and Becky find out what’s happening, and how to stop it?
Told in an unusual but effective split POV – alternating chapters from the perspective of both of the sisters – the book has the feel of pulp horror in the mould of JAMES HERBERT and HAMMER HOUSE OF HORROR, but there is far more at play here. Kev has cleverly taken a classic horror trope and imbued it with the reality of life in the UK in 2025 and all the social tensions that involves. Kudos to Kev – as he explains in his afterword, he’s well placed personally to tackle some of the themes here, and he does so without straying into preachy, divisive territory.
It’s always a bit of a risk when someone you know gives you one of their books to read. There’s always the danger of egos getting bruised and relationships becoming strained. No such troubles here, though, because PYRES is a cracking read that I’m very happy to recommend.
The book is available now from NORTHERN REPUBLIC. Grab a copy here. Find out more about Kev and his work at kevharrisonfiction.com.
