HELEN McCABE, author
HORROR/thriller set in Romania, Germany and the US. 2nd Book in the Piper Trilogy.
Telos Publishing
'Secrets bring terror, and the result of terror lasts for a very long time. It doesn't go away.'
American student Pip Durrant arrives in Romania to continue the research of the late Dr Marcu into the Transylvanian village of Arva, where a high incidence of mental illness amongst the women is coupled with a shocking history of ritual child rape and murder. But, once there, Pip finds his rational scientific worldview being increasingly challenged by the seemingly supernatural horrors he encounters.
What's more, he soon realises that the mysteries surrounding the village seem to be somehow linked to traumatic events in his own troubled childhood. Could he really be falling prey to the timeless evil of the Pied Piper of Hamelin..?
The second book of a Trilogy that follows the trail of an evil entity that has manifested itself many times in history and has stalked a series of victims since the year 800, the date when Charlemagne was crowned.
Excerpt
The figure stooped, bending its thin frame over his bed. Now he could see its face glowing. The bright hair that cloaked the skull; the bony nose, a flaming red spot on its side; another bleeding bite on its cheek. The earth smell of the thing overwhelmed him. And the mouth - that dreadful mouth was curved into a mocking smile, showing the red-bud tip of a tongue that flicked in and out through a bar of pointed teeth. Koppelberg had come for him!
Professional Reviews
Gripping sequel to Piper
Ever since I was hoisted on my dad’s shoulders in 1949 to watch a Pied Piper procession in the German city of Hamelin and watched mouth open, the thousands of local children dressed in medieval garb following the flautist, I’ve been hooked on the legend. Hence Helen McCabe’s first in this trilogy meant something personal and I’ve hungered for its sequel, The Piercing.
So pleased was I to find the young, lame and mute Pip from book 1 has matured and found his voice here. Yet his past haunts him as his post-doc research is spuriously manipulated and people he interviews are ominously killed before too much information is revealed. Even so, Pip is persuaded to stay and find the missing jigsaw pieces in this intriguing puzzle. Whoever thought the paedophile Pied Piper was a simple legend, done and dusted is in for rude shock.
McCabe is a master of descriptive phrases. We always know where we are and how to feel about the setting. Usually that means dark and spooky, crafted with literary flair as in “a timid wind crept across the well-cut lawn and started to rattle the shutters, snivelling to be let in.” Marvellous. I’ve not been to Transylvania but now I can picture it where “A red-streaked dawn threaded itself through the night clouds, then flamed into life, illuminating the Carpathian mountains and turning their snowy heads into blood.” This is a murder mystery as well as an enquiry into the rapes and heinous practices of the evil Grandsire as he appears to reincarnates himself every 36 years since 1376.
As in real life much of the book is in dialogue between characters so real you could touch them. To my dismay I often witness real people live their lives keeping secrets only to be found out and then making excuses, digging their lying holes deeper. McCabe is brilliant at such dialogue as she was in Piper, and I love the obliqueness of it such as when Pip’s fibs are nearly uncovered such as when Ghita’s father introduces Pip as a history student when Ghita – unbeknown to her father – had met Pip and knew he was a psychologist and yet she played along with the lie. As another character says, “Secrets bring terror.”
I love the way McCabe paints the weather with human attributes. Surely we’ve all heard the wind’s wild laughter and beware the snow, dear readers, and bolt those window shutters when the flakes fall to stop its demons entering.
Aficionados of medieval and gothic legends will find The Piercing a gripping yarn worthy to sequel Piper.
It leaves you waiting for the finale in the third book
This novel follows on the Piper, the first in the series. Although the readers know that nothing will be explained in this book, there is sufficient interest generated to see what happens next as the story unfolds. It is well written and there is no confusion as to the sequence of action, and I would agree with the other reviewer about the atmospheric descriptions.
Blurb on back of book
The Piercing is the long-awaited second book in acclaimed author Helen McCabe's chilling Piper trilogy.
Grab those side-irons, saddle up and join former Civil War sharpshooter Luther Henry for a ride into pure terror, western-style…think ‘Wild Wild West’ meets ‘The X-Files’.
After Satan negotiates a pact with God and unleashes his army of demons, a secret sect battles a diabolical prophecy that threatens humanity.
Release Date: November 21, 2018
