Screaming Dreams

The Gemini Factor by Paul Kane

It’s a miracle, pure and simple. The miracle of twin birth. But in the city of Norchester, being a twin also marks you out as a victim. Because someone is killing them and stealing their body parts. It’s up to Inspector Roy Mason and his Sergeant, Deborah Harrison, to track down the culprit before they can strike again.

Extract

The city has two faces.

This thought had often occurred to him and seemed especially relevant tonight. Two faces. One: respectable, happy, smiling. Carefree. At times even beautiful - on the right day, in a particular light, usually during the summer when the parks and streets were filled with families, children. Or even at this time of year as its residents geared up for Christmas and the shop fronts were plastered with decorations.

Then there was the other face. Ugly, contorted, vicious. Half hidden by the shadows - it had teeth, crooked and sharp. And it could bite. This was the face it hardly dared show to the world, made up of drug pushers and vagrants, prostitutes, muggers and rapists.

If you were lucky you never got to see this face. But then Roy Mason had never really believed in luck.

He cast his eyes over Norchester’s streets tonight. This Sunday night. The endless sea of tiny lights, the people out and about…the traffic, of which he made up only the tiniest of proportions in his dirty, silver Granada. Mason slid the steering wheel through his hands, breaking off from the main procession. He turned left down a narrowing road.

I’m staring into the eyes of that ugly face right now, he thought.

Read Sample Chapter
Part One : Chapter One

PDF Format : TheGeminiFactor.pdf : 336kb
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Cover art by Steve Upham

ISBN : 978-1-906652-09-8
Paperback : 216x138mm : 288pp

Published March 2010

£9.99 (+ postage)

About the Author

Paul Kane has been writing professionally for almost fourteen years. His genre journalism has appeared in such magazines as The Dark Side, Death Ray, Fangoria, SFX, Dreamwatch and Rue Morgue, and his first non-fiction book was the critically acclaimed The Hellraiser Films and Their Legacy, introduced by Doug ‘Pinhead’ Bradley. His award-winning short fiction has appeared in magazines and anthologies on both sides of the Atlantic (as well as being broadcast on BBC Radio 2), and has been collected in Alone (In the Dark), Touching the Flame, FunnyBones and Peripheral Visions. His novella Signs of Life reached the shortlist of the British Fantasy Awards 2006, The Lazarus Condition was introduced by Mick Garris, creator of Masters of Horror, and RED featured artwork from Dave (The Graveyard Book) McKean.

As Special Publications Editor of the British Fantasy Society he worked with authors like Brian Aldiss, Ramsey Campbell, Muriel Gray, Robert Silverberg and many more, plus he is the co-editor of Hellbound Hearts for Pocket Books (Simon and Schuster), an anthology of original stories inspired by Clive Barker’s novella, featuring contributions from the likes of Christopher Golden and Mike Mignola, Kelley Armstrong, Tim Lebbon, Yvonne Navarro, Richard Christian Matheson, Chaz Brenchley and Nancy Holder.

In 2008 his zombie story ‘Dead Time’ was turned into an episode of the Lionsgate/NBC TV series Fear Itself, adapted by Steve Niles (30 Days of Night) and directed by Darren Lynn Bousman (SAW II-IV). He also scripted the short film The Opportunity which premiered at Cannes in 2009. Paul’s mass market novels for Abaddon’s Afterblight Chronicles – Arrowhead and Broken Arrow – detail the adventures of a post apocalyptic version of Robin Hood. He currently lives in Derbyshire, UK, with his wife – the author Marie O’Regan – his family, and a black cat called Mina.

Author's Homepage : www.shadow-writer.co.uk

About the Artist

Steve Upham enjoys all things creative, including drawing, painting, digital art, photography and much more. He has been running his own craft workshop for over ten years, but continues to create artwork on a freelance basis. He is also the editor/publisher at Screaming Dreams of course!