‘Shaun Hutson Omnibus’ Part One – ‘Shadows’ (Orbit Books)

I’ve never reviewed an omnibus before so wasn’t quite sure how to approach this one. In the end I figured I’d review one of the books today and the other one tomorrow. So without further ado, come with me gentle reader and dip into the nightmarish world of ‘Shadows’…
The human mind is a wonderful thing but there is so much that we don’t know about it. While Jonathan Mathias uses the power of his mind to heal the sick, psychic investigators are probing areas of the human that are best left well alone. What they discover will bring death and misery to thousands…
Shaun Hutson’s cautionary tale of astral projection shows the reader that, as in all the best horror, true evil lies within the hearts of men. It’s a shame then that he chooses to smother some genuinely tense moments (and a superb twist in the tale) with bucket loads of visceral gore. If you’re at all squeamish then there are several points where you may want to skip a few pages, that’s all I’m saying… Like I said though, Hutson provides several particularly tense moments where you can almost feel the hair on the back of your neck stand up and you end up shouting at the characters to… (sorry, don’t want to spoil it) You will not see the twist in the tale until it hits you between the eyes, I guarantee you’ll be left gasping in astonishment and thinking “what the…”
‘Shadows’ grabs you by the throat and drags you to a shattering climax. You may stop and think, “hang on, how did that work?” My advice here is not to think about it too hard; this book isn’t meant to be a deep read, just enjoy the ride.
‘Shadows’ is a great opening book to this omnibus. If anything, it’s a slight shame that Hutson felt the need to overdo it with the gore (I never thought I’d hear myself say that, must be getting old…)

Seven and a Half out of Ten