Ramsey Campbell's new book, The Seven Days of Cain, was published in September 2010 by PS Publishing.
Ramsey Campbell is a British horror author, who has written several books and short stories.
Ramsey Campbell's official website can be found here.
Here's the official description of The Seven Days of Cain:
"I'm the voice you're not sure if you're hearing. I'm the man who tells you what to think and you believe you're thinking it yourself. Anything you do, I've already thought of it. You can't even dream unless I give you dreams. Perhaps you only see what I put into your head. I'm what you have for a soul..."
A street performer is murdered in Barcelona, and a playwright is tortured to death in New York. Andy Bentley is a photographer who works for his family's firm in a British suburb. Why is the killer emailing him to boast about the crimes? What did Andy do ten years ago that created the situation? As he tries to cope with a childless marriage and his ageing parents, what he called up begins to invade every aspect of his life. By the end he will have to confront not just the consequences of his actions but the uncertainty of reality itself, and how much that he loves will be destroyed?
And here's the review:
A REVIEW OF RAMSEY CAMPBELL'S THE SEVEN DAYS OF CAIN
I'm a bit ashamed to admit that I've only read a couple of books (and several short stories) from Ramsey Campbell. The first book I read from him was Creatures of the Pool, which was also published by PS Publishing. Because I liked it very much, I wanted to read The Seven Days of Cain. I'm glad I read it, because it was an excellent horror thriller.
I think it's best not to write anything about the plot of this book, because I don't want to reveal too many details to readers. In my opinion this is one of those books, which should be read without too much information about the plot and the characters – the plot will be ruined if you know what's going to happen – so I'll write about other things (it'll be a bit difficult, but I'll do my best).
Ramsey Campbell's The Seven Days of Cain is an exciting and masterfully written cross-genre book. The reason I mentioned cross-genre is that it's difficult to call this book simply horror, because it's nearer to crime and thriller genre than horror genre. I'm not a big fan of thrillers, but there are certain writers who write excellent and exciting thrillers. After reading this book I can say that Ramsey Campbell is one of these good writers, because his writing style differs greatly from mainstream thriller writers (in other words, he knows what he's doing and doesn't underestimate his readers). It's been a long time since I've read this good a cross-genre thriller.
I enjoyed reading The Seven Days of Cain, because Ramsey Campbell knew how to gradually build up suspense. He's a master of psychological terror and he made good use of it in this book. I liked Campbell's characterization and prose very much, because he knew how to describe things with all the necessary details and nuances. He made his characters believable and interesting. I can say that in this book Andy can be called a perfect character (the side characters are also good characters).
I can recommend this book to all horror and thriller fans, because it's perfect entertainment for dark and cold winter nights. I should probably warn you that if you start reading this book in the evening, you'll probably spend the whole night reading it.