Product Description

Can it be true that God demands a terrible price of those He has gifted with great creativity? Giacomo Cassano, little known mentor of Dante, thought so. He held other beliefs too - beliefs that the Church found so abhorrent they had Cassano blinded and his tongue cut out to silence him forever. Bestselling biographer Megan Hunter's new book about Cassano looks set to be as successful as her previous biographies of Caravaggio and Dante. As she embarks on a publicity tour, Megan finds her book attracting attention for the wrong reasons when her editor is found horrifically murdered. It is a classic locked-room mystery. The only pieces of evidence are the destroyed remains of Megan Hunter's Cassano biography and the latest blockbuster by horror writer John Paxton. But there is nothing to link the two authors. Nothing but another murder. And another. And a secret beyond the belief of even Cassano himself ...

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #93354 in Books
• Published on: 2007-08-02
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 368 pages

Review
'[Hutson] seems to have developed something of a winning formula as far as page turners go. DYING WORDS is no exception.' SFX Praise for Twisted Souls: 'Shaun Hutson is significantly better than many other Brits. His short, cliffhanger-capped chapters propel you through the story at pace; Hutson takes us, breathless, over the finish line at a point where King or Koontz would still be doing their stretching exercises' SFX, 'One of the best fiction books of the year and one that has strengthened Shaun Hutson's reputation as Britain's greatest living horror genre author' Dark Side 'DYING WORDS is the latest novel from the under-rated master of horror, and rest assured it's another gnawingly scary addition to the canon ... Hutson's writing is oddly addictive, and over the years he seems to have developed something of a winning formula as far as page turners go. DYING WORDS is no exception. Harrowing and horrific in places, it is only slightly let down by the unlikely revelation at its climax: the mystery is so enjoyable that you actually forget you're reading a straight horror yarn until the supernatural element of the book leaps out at you and goes "urgh!".' SFX

About the Author
Shaun Hutson is a bestselling author of horror fiction and has written novels under eight different pseudonyms. He has also contributed stories to 'Kerrang' and 'Raw' and used to host Sky TV's 'Monsters of Rock' programme.

Customer Reviews

Classic Hutson
After reading the synopsis I doubted the man would deliver a book that was to my usual Hutson taste. How wrong I was, Hutson is back on form and nails it with Dying Words.

What I thought was going to be a tedious Da Vinci type novel was actually from start to finish a classic Hutson gore fest. This book was very difficult to put down, Hutson fans should buy it now.

If you are a gore fan new to Hutson, this is a good place to start.

Compellingly written, but falls down in the home stretch
I hadn't read any Hutson in a while so I was pleased to see that he's retained his short, clipped style which rockets forward at a nice pace. Things kick off with an exciting police chase through London, though with another Detective Inspector who behaves like a law unto himself and predictably doesn't get punished for it, then the book follows a series of murders in seemingly impossible circumstances ( doors locked from the inside, no witnesses, no fingerprints, etc ).

Hutson's greatest strength is that he doesn't waste a word, which always makes you feel like you can read a little bit more, then before you know it you're up to the last twenty pages. Others may prize him for his gore but it's quite samey here, the first bloody murder scene does shock a little but after that it's business as usual. Blood becomes so normal you just accept it and move on, and there's few of the affecting descriptions of bullets or blugeons wreaking havoc on the human body as to add to the mystery we're never there when the crimes are comitted.

It all works well, right up until the twist is revealed, then things go downhill very rapidly. You feel cheated, all that investment on your part and carefully built suspense was leading to this? The book deserves a better final third because a good deal of it is quite solid, it's just a shame that the last stretch of it almost makes you forget that.

Classic Shaun
I've loved Shaun's work for years. My only problem with him is that he doesn't write fast enough,i hate waiting for his next book.
This one lived up to everything i expected. I must admit that the twist could have been slightly stronger but it was still a rollercoaster.
Looking forward to the next one. XXX