Book 62: "Dark Covenant" by Peter Luther
Friday, August 22nd, 2008 18:24![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
kittiwakeSolicitor Lewis Coin works for a failing law firm in Cardiff, hates his boss and is heavily in debt. He is planning to pack it all in and move to Spain, but the weekend before he intends to hand in his notice he hires a prostitute for the first time, which turns out to be a pivotal moment in his life. The following morning she leaves a magazine in his flat, having first filled in Lewis' name as the answer to one of the clues in the crossword (1 across - Who do you bring?).
His financial situation begins to improve immediately, as he starts to receive share tips that seem to be linked to the crossword clues, and he gets a potentially huge new contract for his firm, with the new client insisting that Lewis should be their only contact. But the pictures in the magazine keep changing, subtly at first and then more obviously, and the magazine itself is starting to smell really bad. Lewis starts to wonder if things are too good to be true, and realises that he needs to track down the woman who left him the magazine.
Lewis is extremely slow on the update when it comes to sussing out the true nature of the magazine and its link to the sudden upturn in his fortunes. I'll admit that in real life your first thought might not be that you had accidentally entered into a pact with the devil via an implied contract, and that your new girlfriend was one of his minions, but Lewis rationalises everything that happens to him, no matter how odd!
I picked this book up at random from a table in the murder mystery department of Waterstones, and I'm glad I did. The idea of a magazine that was customised to lure a victim in made for a really original horror story.
His financial situation begins to improve immediately, as he starts to receive share tips that seem to be linked to the crossword clues, and he gets a potentially huge new contract for his firm, with the new client insisting that Lewis should be their only contact. But the pictures in the magazine keep changing, subtly at first and then more obviously, and the magazine itself is starting to smell really bad. Lewis starts to wonder if things are too good to be true, and realises that he needs to track down the woman who left him the magazine.
Lewis is extremely slow on the update when it comes to sussing out the true nature of the magazine and its link to the sudden upturn in his fortunes. I'll admit that in real life your first thought might not be that you had accidentally entered into a pact with the devil via an implied contract, and that your new girlfriend was one of his minions, but Lewis rationalises everything that happens to him, no matter how odd!
I picked this book up at random from a table in the murder mystery department of Waterstones, and I'm glad I did. The idea of a magazine that was customised to lure a victim in made for a really original horror story.
