Advance Review: BLOOD RED by Paul Kane ~ Jose Leitao

RED
Evil takes on many forms. This is something Rachael Daniels, a lowly care worker, is about to find out . . . personally. Because something is roaming the streets of the city where she lives, something with a taste for human blood: sweet, red blood. Something that can be anything it wants to be. Soon Rachael will learn that not even friendly faces can be trusted. But, as she makes her way across that city at night on an errand of mercy, she discovers this terrifying creature will definitely have none for her.

Blood RED
In the aftermath of the events in RED, the hunt is back on—but who is the hunter and who is the prey? As a team of trackers—fuelled by revenge—attempt to take down the monster that has been causing havoc in its wake, they are forced to seek help from an unexpected source. And after the resultant struggles and battles, things will never be the same ever again.

Paul Kane’s new book “BLOOD RED”, coming out next December 1st from SST Publications (Short Scary Tales), is the latest book in a long bibliography. If you’re a Hellraiser fan you’ve very probably heard his name before, as he’s  analyzed the franchise and his book “The Hellraiser Films And Their Legacy” is a reference work on the series. He’s also done anthologies like Hellbound Hearts along with his wife Marie O’Regan, and you can see him in one of the special features in the wonderful documentary Leviathan.

But writing fantasy is where his work really shines through, and Blood Red is no exception. This take on the story of Red Riding Hood, a European folk tale that may go back as far as the 10th century, and was popularized by the version published by Perrault in his 1697 book “Tales of Mother Goose” collection. But long gone is the childish quality of it. This book defines the Red as Blood Red, the stuff spilled liberally throughout the story, sparking desire and appetite and things with flashing teeth. Red eyes that glow in the dark, watching, longing, tracking, hunting.

Rachael Davis remembered her Grandma’s stories, she dreams of being chased by the creature, she tries to outrun it, but those flashing teeth snapping are always too close… we’re thrown in an urban jungle, from prim looking flats to run down neighborhoods where hoodlums smoke against the wall, human predators themselves. In this urban setting, we will discover what follows the 2008 story RED, and revisit this mythology, which gets expanded in this novel. Don’t worry, the 2008 story is inlcuded in this book at the very beginning, so it ties in seamlessly with BLOOD RED.

The cover is done by one of my favorite artists, Dave McKean and you may have seen it before as the cover for FLOODGATE’s “Penalty” although  it’s been reworked for this book (in RED of course) and looks like it was perfectly made for this story. If you get the Signed Limited Hardcover Edition you will also get a lot of exclusive extras making this book a complete pitch package; featuring Paul Kane’s own pencil renditions of the characters, extracts from a movie script adaptation (listing its various accolades so far), as well as extracts for a graphic novel adaptation. I would love to see BLOOD RED as a movie, it would certainly be a very original and terrifying take on the werewolf as a predator living among us, in our day and age.
BLOOD RED will be available in different editions:

RRP Price: £17.95 (Trade Hardcover)
RRP Price: £24.95 (Signed Limited Hardcover)
Publisher: Short, Scary Tales Publications
Release Date: Dec 1, 2015
ISBN: 978-1-909640-44-3 (6″ x 9″ Trade Hardcover)
ISBN: 978-1-909640-43-6 (6″ x 9″ Signed Limited Hardcover)
First Edition
Pages: 300 (Trade Hardcover), 352 (Signed Limited Hardcover)