Today I am taking part in a blog tour for the book “Undercliff” by Mark Brend, organised by Love Book Group.
TITLE: UNDERCLIFF
AUTHOR: MARK BREND
GENRE: MYSTERY
BLURB:
It’s the summer of 1972, and 30-something divorcee Martyn returns to London after some years away. He joins the Olive Grove, a religious community, where he forms a relationship with Amelia. Over time Martyn becomes suspicious of the Olive Grove’s leaders, a pair of apparently ordinary men who can speak in perfect unison, known as the Two. A sequence of ambiguous events might indicate that the Two have malign purposes, though Martyn cannot be sure. These suspicions come to a head when Amelia breaks off with Martyn and appears to vanish. He travels to Devon, where the Olive Grove has a retreat house, in search of Amelia and the truth about the organisation. There, events take several disturbing and unexpected turns.
EXCERPT:
In those days it was a lot easier getting around London by car. Fewer parking restrictions, less traffic. Even so, it was getting on for 7.30pm by the time I reached Hammersmith. As I got out of the car the cassette caught my eye and I decided I’d take it in for George. He’d probably hate it.
George was sitting at the bar reading a paper. He wasn’t wearing his dog collar, which pleased me for some reason. His sandy hair had thinned since I last saw him, now looking like a patchy lawn seeded by an incompetent gardener. As I got closer I noticed the cheeks of his big face were crisscrossed with tiny thread veins, the nose a little red. He’d always liked a drink, I remembered. He was a big man but he’d lost weight if anything, and he was getting jowly. In fact, he looked much older – probably I did too – but he was as hearty and cheerful as ever. I was relieved to greet someone with a firm handshake rather than the warm embrace customary at the Olive Grove. I’d never felt comfortable with that. He said he was sorry about Lillian and I realised I’d barely thought of her for months. I didn’t want to talk about that so I asked him about life as a vicar.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
Mark Brend is a writer and a musician based in Devon. He has written several books about music and has released six albums under various artist names. Undercliff is Mark’s first novel.
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