Description:
"On December 21, 2012, according to the Mayan Calendar, the world was supposed to end. It didn't. But on that day, 113 mysterious manuscripts were discovered around the world, each one written in blood by an unknown author. After several dozen unexplained deaths befell the finders of said manuscripts, a decision was made to lock them up for good in a secret vault beneath the Vatican. It is said that anyone who reads the stories will die, and as such they are now referred to as 'The Cursed Manuscripts.'
In December 2020, new manuscripts started turning up around the world. 'Hell Train' was one of them.
MANUSCRIPT ID: 12/20-03 (ZOMBIE).
Details below.
Manuscript 12.20-03, discovered May 2021 in Cambridge, Massachusetts, by teenager, Tom Dutton, who fished it from a stream. Tom Dutton drowned in a flooded basement just one day later. The following text was found left as a voice message shortly before his death.
Clip and Xavi are youngsters in love, with their whole lives ahead of them. Clip, a psychology student, and Xavi, a med student are catching the train into the university for an afternoon lecture. But today, they aren't going to make their destination.
Shortly upon entering a short tunnel, the world stops making sense, and the future suddenly seems short. There are dangers on the train, least of all the other passengers, and for some reason the lights keep going out. Strangest of all, the train should have left the short tunnel several minutes ago. It's almost like the tunnel goes on forever. And ever. And ever."
📚📚📚📚📚📚
I think I can safely say that I am a fan of Mr Wright's work; rarely have I been disappointed with anything he has written and Hell Train is no exception.
At the beginning of the book, Mr Wright tells us that his inspiration is Stephen King's The Langoliers and whilst I can definitely see this (and understand because I love The Langoliers), Hell Train is very much an original story.
Mr Wright has a great knack of making the normal develop into something that is totally abnormal and here he does it again. A simple train journey in the middle of the day becomes something entirely different when the train enters a tunnel.
With characters that you love and some you love to hate, a plot that is intriguing and different, a pace that is relentless with no words wasted, with twists that will shock and scenes that might leave you feeling a tad queasy, Hell Train is a quick and enjoyable read and one that I would recommend to lovers of horror.
My thanks must go to Iain for accepting me into his "street team" and for allowing me to read Hell Train and to share my thoughts.
👇👇👇👇👇👇
👀👀👀👀👀👀
Other books by Iain Rob Wright I have read and reviewed:
