The Boat House

“An elegant stylist, a shrewd psychologist … and a powerful storyteller with enormous range and depth” Ed Gorman

A dark love story, and a disturbing tale of a divided soul. In the days leading to the fall of the Soviet empire, a young woman with a deadly secret slips unnoticed into the West. And when Alina Petrovna first appears in Three Oaks Bay it’s clear that her frail, luminous beauty is likely to cause some ripples in the surface calm of the peaceful resort town. For Pete McCarthy, the boatyard worker who gives her shelter, she’s an enigma. A complex, well-meaning young woman with a difficult past. Someone whose mystery deepens as the season gets under way, and the deaths by drowning begin...

“Gallagher handles the balance between mundane reality and stomach-turning horror with reassurance and offers a nicely twisted ending to boot. Highly recommended” Nigel Kendall, Time Out 

 “A master of pace and suspense, Gallagher has the dark, neon-splashed imagination of a true original” Glasgow Evening Times

“Perhaps the finest contemporary British thriller writer” GQ
 
“Stephen Gallagher has carved a highly individual niche with his distinctly psychological approach to the genre... The Boat House is a richly layered and absorbing story” Yorkshire Evening Post

Buy the paperback


 Buy the ebook


The Boat House Stephen Gallagher Paperback: 316 pages £8.99 Publisher: The Brooligan Press (19 Dec. 2017) Language: English ISBN-10: 1999920716 ISBN-13: 978-1999920715

Popular posts from this blog

Follower

Image
A story of modern terror and suspense set against an authentic and spectacular background. The Follower—one of Scandinavia’s most intriguing myths. It brings together geologist John Visco, chasing a survey job that may not exist, and Sara Hansun, a woman sticking to her side of a lovers’ agreement in an affair gone cold. Their shared destination: the Arctic fishing village of Tromstad.  But the roads are closed. And the snow is falling. And out in the darkness, the Follower waits; half-human, half-beast, a demon spirit rejected by its maker to live independently and in misery.   The Follower’s sole and driving purpose; to achieve a return to human form.   To find a new host. "If thriller reading were a sin, Stephen Gallagher would be responsible for my ultimate damnation. His work is fast-paced, well-written, infused with a sense of dark wonder, and altogether fresh."—Dean R Koontz   "Gallagher knows the secret of good supernatural horror. He keeps the gu
Read more

Frankenstein's Prescription

Image
First appearance in paperback.   "A philosophically insightful and literary tale of terror" — Publishers Weekly Banished to an isolated rural hospital for killing a fellow student in a duel, Hans Schneider meets the mysterious Dr Lavenza and learns about Frankenstein's prescription—the secret of eternal life. Together, Schneider and Lavenza set out to collect the missing pieces of the formula. But they are not alone. From Germany to Rome, from Rome to Paris, to the failed and wretched Eden of an all-too-human God, a dreadful creature follows in their wake and brings destruction wherever they go.  A unique piece of work; fast, funny, and with a terrific sense of period and place. Frankenstein's Prescription reads like the bastard creation of Jonathan Swift and Jimmy Sangster. "It is, quite frankly, a brilliant novel, one which takes the old stereotype and fills it with vibrant new life. The story is gripping, with each and every element of the plot fitt
Read more

Welcome to The Brooligan Press

Image
Scroll down to see our titles, or see the menu for a list of links to each book's page. What began as an initiative to pimp my own backlist expanded to become a curated selection of titles, some of them making their first appearance in paperback. Laurence Staig's The Companion was originally published in a YA list as Shapeshifter , and here makes its first appearance under its author's original choice of title and in his preferred version. Tim Lees' Frankenstein's Prescription was first available in a limited fine-edition run of 300 from Tartarus Press, and we're happy to offer its first mass-market edition. Stephen Laws' tower-block horror Darkfall is joined by the first UK publication of Ferocity . Told at Dusk, Remembered at Dawn is a major short story collection from Laurence Staig joining the list alongside Anne Billson's superior ghost story The Ex . The Brooligan Press is not open to submissions at this time.  The Northern
Read more

Told at Dusk, Remembered at Dawn

Image
A room with terrible secrets in its walls: a drug that will blow more than just your mind: an art installation to die for: a supermarket poltergeist with an eye for fashion. Sixteen short stories and one novella from a master of the strange, the unusual, the downright unsettling. “Laurence Staig writes stories that creep up quietly... and sink needle teeth into your spine. He does in print what Hammer House of Horror did onscreen—shows very nasty, yet horribly credible haunted stretches of Britain. Highly recommended and not for the nervous” Kim Newman “There’s a strong whiff of The Twilight Zone about some of these stories… no bad thing in my eyes. Inescapable nightmares.” Lucian Poll, Writer and critic “Laurence Staig is one of the great unsung heroes of British horror and fantasy fiction.” Stephen Jones, World Fantasy Award-winning writer and editor “A similar theme and atmosphere to ‘The Companion’, but one that succeeds in being more M R Jamesian. On route to the climax the
Read more

The Authentic William James

Image
“The only bad thing about his books is that they eventually end. Brilliant.” —Jonny Lee Miller As the Special Investigator to the Lord Chancellor’s Visitor in Lunacy, Sebastian Becker delivers justice to those dangerous madmen whose fortunes might otherwise place them above the law. But in William James he faces a different challenge; to prove a man sane, so that he may hang. Did the reluctant showman really burn down a crowded pavilion with the audience inside? And if not, why is this British sideshow cowboy so determined to shoulder the blame? The Authentic William James is the third novel to feature ex-police detective and former Pinkerton Man Sebastian Becker, joining The Kingdom of Bones and The Bedlam Detective. Praising “this superbly crafted thriller”, Kirkus Reviews named The Bedlam Detective one of their 100 Best of the Year and called it “that rare beast, a literary page turner”. MysteryTribune.Com described it as “a rare literary masterpiece for lovers of historical
Read more

Darkfall

Image
A STORM IS COMING Christmas. And an entire office block of revellers has disappeared into thin air. A STORM IS COMING DI Jack Cardiff and his investigating squad are about to discover the Hell that is ‘Darkfall’; where bricks, plaster and stone have a life of their own, where the inexplicable and the insane become horrifyingly real. A STORM IS COMING And for those trapped in the block and cut off by the violent weather, a terror beyond imagination is about to descend from the howling tempest. “A slam-bang paranormal thriller, Laws is one of the most inventive writers on the scene” The Times “Makes the reader distinctly uneasy about touching any walls or doors when the thunder rumbles” Penthouse “One of Britain’s masters of terror” Vector “A powerhouse of a book that hooks you immediately and never lets go. Exciting, relentless, gory and hugely entertaining” Million Magazine “Truly barnstorming supernatural horror from a writer of tremendous pace and energy. A v
Read more