Product Description

The unmissable new action-thriller from one of the biggest names in British fiction -- the No 1 bestselling author of The Ghosts of Sleath, Haunted, The Magic Cottage and The Rats. As millions of readers around the world will testify, James Herbert's ability to shock and enthral is matchless. Now, in '48, he has surpassed his own remarkable achievements to create an electrifying new novel of pure heart-stopping action and invention that will take readers to new levels of terror and excitement. In 1945, Hitler unleashes the Blood Death on Britain as his final act of vengeance. Hoke, an American pilot and one of a tiny minority with a rare blood group unaffected by the deadly disease, has survived alone among the debris and the dead of London for three years. Now, in 1948, a slow-dying group of Fascist Blackshirts believe their only hope is a transfusion of blood from one of Hoke's kind. Ever more desperate as their deaths approach, they're after his blood.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #43673 in Books
• Published on: 1997-06-16
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 336 pages

Review
'Break-neck pace! a story for those who like their plots exploding with excitement and fear, set against an apocalyptic backdrop. A perfect adrenalin-packed alternative to Booker Prize pretension.' Daily Express

About the Author
James Herbert is one of the most influential and widely imitated authors of our time. His previous novels are The Rats, The Fog, The Survivor, Fluke, The Spear, Lair, The Dark, The Jonah, Shrine, Moon, Domain, The Magic Cottage, Sepulchre, Haunted, Creed, Portent and The Ghosts of Sleath.

Customer Reviews

James Herbert's Best
For me, this is my favourite James Herbert book and I can quite happily read it in one sitting.
Relentless and powerful, the story grips from the first page and simply does not stop taking the reader along on a roller coaster of a journey through a horribly decimated London in an alternate 1948 (hence the title).
The characters are well defined and well written, you will warm to some and hate others and be surprised at how events twist and turn throughout.
Simply amazing.

James Herbert, top of my reading list.
This book to me was another great James Herbert story. I've read a few of his books and this one was just as good as the rest. I like the post apocolypse scene and the story line that lived within it;

Hitlers last ditch attempt to win the 2nd world war through the use of biological weapons that lay waste to the country that was england. This last ditch weapon that effects certain blood types, corrupting the blood cells and killing the human. We see our hero, one of the few not effected running away from a band of near death citizens who are hunting him down for his blood, so that they can transfuse it into the body of one of their own. Our healthy hero meets up with another group of healthy humans and together, although rather reluctantly, they run together, and in some cases fight together.

I loved the story line and generally loved the book, the only reason I didn't give it 5 *'s was becaus I would have liked it to be a little more horrific, inline with some of James Herberts other books. Well worth adding to your library at home.

Become a film director.


A few years ago I was in hospital, and I'd started getting into James Herbert. My fiancée started this book but didn't like it - and passed it onto me.

I was gripped.

When I think back to this I sometimes think I saw the film of it - the book is written in such a way that the images are so vivid in your head. I feel like I directed a film with unlimited budget. Read this book and watch your version of the film.

People have made parallels between this and the film 28 days later, I'm a fan of 28 Days Later (and Day of the Triffids which it is very much based on) and I can see the similarities - but these are very much independent pieces of work.

This is my favourite James Herbert novel, I love it when you get a book you feel desperate to return to - this was one of those. The evil borne out of desperation of the twisted Fascists whose perverted logic drives them to seek out the survivors.

A great alternate history, and one which seems more plausible as the years roll by. This is frenetic and has one of the best endings to a book ever.