The Piercing, which is No 2 in the Piper Trilogy and published by Telos Publishing, has come 2nd in the Preditors & Editors Readers Poll for Best Horror Novel of 2014.

I am absoutely delighted to be placed so high in such a large poll and I hope that many people who read this might think of either buying a copy in print or downloading the novel to  discover its secrets The Piercing was published at the end of August this year.

The Piercing continues Dr. Pip Durrant's quest to find the Piper of Hamelin, who according to the poem by Robert Browning has wandered through history playing his entrancing music and not only for good ends.

In fact, the Piper, masquerading under the disguise of 'the Grandsire' is suspected to be the serial killer, who re appears in Arva, a fictional Romanian village every 36 years which is the start of a cycle that begins in the year 800. This year is remarkable in History for the founding of the Holy Roman Empire by the Emperor Charlemagne who is crowned by the reigning Pope. What has the Piper of Hamelin to do with Charlemagne or the Pope in Rome?

In The Piercing the reader begins to discover the secret that only Arvan women know, but so far have never disclosed and which is later is fully explained in The Codex,  the third book in the Trilogy.