Bad Pennies, the first book of the Scaeth Mythos, is a supernatural horror novel which transcends the supernatural horror genre. Morality and money, crime and urban realism are interwoven with something more ominous. Compelling characters in an ordinary setting with cosmic horror bleeding through at the turn of every page. The walls of reality are thinner than we realise.

Available in paperback, ebook and audio book formats.

Frightening and thoroughly engaging

“An excellent horror story. Believable and well written. The author has a genuine knack for characterisation, both the main character and the supporting cast (look out for Ronald Hodge especially).
I read it once and read it again because I didn’t want to let it go.”

Bad Pennies∙ A Supernatural Cosmic Horror Novel

Bad Pennies – the bad ones always come back. A deeply disturbing tale of darkness and need that will stay with you long after the reading is done.

Dark forces swim below the surface of the world…
They change their shape, but never go away…
They find a way through…they only need the smallest gap

Chris Carlisle is about to experience an everyday horror. A morning that starts out bad is going to get infinitely worse. It’s gonna go to hell. Wrong place at the wrong time and life takes a wrong turn. But even the blackest clouds have silver linings. He’s going to get a little slice of luck to balance out the horror. Just goes to show, bad often comes bundled with good. Sometimes, they bleed into each other until you can’t tell them apart.

That’s where the strangeness begins, when the miraculous starts to rub shoulders with the mundane and monstrous. It is only the beginning. Chris has stepped onto a long road that leads to a hideous and horrifying destination. Dark and dangerous stops are dotted along the way. The pavement is crumbling and craziness shining through the cracks. Enough for him to question his sanity and come to the conclusion that madness may be the easiest way out. Sometimes need and greed get mixed into a deadly and deceptive cocktail.

He’s going to discover that dark and dreadful things lurk within spitting distance of the ordinary and routine. That there are levels of horror and layers of knowledge which defy any rational explanation. Impossible creatures crawl along the shady seams of the world. Monsters wait in the shadows. The walls of reality are thinner than we know. In places, they’ve been hollowed to a hazy veil that struggles to hold back the horror of what lies on the other side.

Chris is going to get a glimpse of an eternal darkness. Become acquainted with a supernatural hunger that has endured aeons and echoes down the ages. He’s going to encounter the Scaeth. A creature older than time and twice as merciless. Chris thought life was grim, but he has no idea. He thought he was hard up, but he doesn’t know what debt is. They say that money is the root of all evil. They also say that the bad penny always turns up. That’s so true. Those crappy coins have a nasty habit of coming back.

“The Scaeth is the most terrifying creature you’ll find between the pages of a book.”

“Bad Pennies unfolds like a dark flower.”

“Horror novels need a certain coldness. Bad pennies chills to the bone.”

“An introduction to a new level of evil. The Scaeth defies classification. Bad Pennies is a novel which shamelessly blends supernatural horror, science fiction alien and dark fantasy with a bewitching logic and naked human need.”

“Ronald Hodge is awful – I love him! A wonderful horror character. Memorable, he deserves his own book.”

Writing Bad Pennies

I started writing Bad Pennies in the summer of 2016. Well, that’s not strictly true. I began writing a novel very loosely based on my childhood. It wasn’t Bad Pennies, but it was where Bad pennies began.

Over the coming months that story led to a tale that took place many years later. It was linked to Bad Pennies and, in some aspects, even more personal. Life threatening illness has a tendency to stay with you and creep into your fictional writing. I’m digressing. That second story, in turn, led to a third. That was Bad Pennies, the supernatural horror novel.

A winding road that also spawned two other unfinished novels. I remember feeling a little frustrated during that period. Wanting to produce a finished novel and finding myself forced down unknown avenues. With hindsight, it’s all good. It makes sense to me now. I’ve published a story which, like all real stories, has no definitive end or beginning.

That’s all I want to write at this point. Except… something thing I recall about the origin of the book. On holiday, sitting by a pool with my family and friends, asking for suggestions for a name for an Irish vampire (I’m of Irish heritage and very proud of the fact). I was inundated by ideas. Unfortunately, most were of the wee-wee taking variety. My family and friends are rightly inclined to not take me too seriously.

‘Mick the Biter’ was the best suggestion from that beautiful afternoon. I’m grateful for it. That was where the Scaeth came from.