"Clark, familiar to some fans of horror fiction but largely unknown by everybody else, deserves a much wider audience. This thrilling, terrifying, and deeply affecting story might just be the one that captures it for him" Booklist on London Under Midnight "Clever, even endearing" Kirkus Reviews on London Under Midnight "Without doubt the best horror author the UK can currently claim as its own" SFX"

Welcome to Lucifer's Ark. This is the voyage to hell.The Volsparr routinely sails to a mining community in the Baltic. This time it carries families over to visit loved ones who must work through Christmas to meet a deadline - one which will determine whether the company survives. Unknown to the passengers, the ship also carries a secret cargo. Stateless criminals, who have committed the most horrendous of crimes, are transported to jails where incarceration is cheap, human rights non-existent, and where no one will ever question the convicts' fate.Tanya is traveling to visit her fiance. She's already reconciled herself to this being an unusual Christmas, but, aboard this ship, fortunes are at stake and life becomes the cheapest commodity of all. Tanya Rhone faces a personal battle of epic proportions to not only save her life, but to prevent her death becoming a global event.

Welcome to Lucifer's Ark. This is the voyage to hell.The Volsparr routinely sails to a mining community in the Baltic. This time it carries families over to visit loved ones who must work through Christmas to meet a deadline - one which will determine whether the company survives. Unknown to the passengers, the ship also carries a secret cargo. Stateless criminals, who have committed the most horrendous of crimes, are transported to jails where incarceration is cheap, human rights non-existent, and where no one will ever question the convicts' fate.Tanya is traveling to visit her fiance. She's already reconciled herself to this being an unusual Christmas, but, aboard this ship, fortunes are at stake and life becomes the cheapest commodity of all. Tanya Rhone faces a personal battle of epic proportions to not only save her life, but to prevent her death becoming a global event.

Simon Clark lives in South Yorkshire. He is the author of many short stories and over a dozen novels, including Vampyrrhic, Vampyrrhic Rites, Blood Crazy, Hotel Midnight and The Night of the Triffids and, for Severn House, London Under Midnight.

2007-11-14 CLASSIC DISASTER BOOK CLARK STYLE

This is a slightly different genre angle for fans of Clark's work. With this book he has tied in a classic disaster story and thrown in political elements with a psychotic twist. Confused? This book reminded me of all those great, although slightly outdated, 70's movies like Posiden Adventure and Death ship. Basically it's about politically hired hijackers who take over a Liner called the Volsparr. This liner routinely sails the Baltic sea to a remote mining community. It also carries psychotic criminals unbeknown to the passengers.
This book starts off slowly while you get to know all the weird and wonderful passengers then goes straight into the gory action at break neck speed. I enphasise gore because this is probably clark's most sadistic and gory work. Which i suppose keeps the horror element in place, otherwise this will just be put in THRILLER catagory. Can i also note that this is the first book by clark with no paranormal elements whatsoever. Although not half as good as most of his previous work this is still not a bad read for a wet weekend. Certain bits of the book raised an eyebrow, like why would hijackers release psychotic murderers from their cells to hinder themselves? Clark also concentrates on just 3 psychos when 10 were released which is a bit disappointing.It appears Clark saves all his best work for his American publishers and leaves Severn House with the scraps. Please simon don't fall into the trap of been a good book/bad book author. If i was a teacher i'd say "must try harder" at bottom of page