The Forbidden
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4.0 • 9 Ratings
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- £4.99
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- £4.99
Publisher Description
The Forbidden is a historical, scare-your-socks off gothic horror by F. R. Tallis, author of the Vienna Blood series.
When ambitious Doctor Paul Clément takes a job at the mission hospital on Saint Sébastien, he has dreams of discovering cures for tropical diseases. What he finds is a place where the black arts are just a way of life. After witnessing the ritualistic murder of a young man, said to be one of the living dead, her is forbidden to speak of what he has seen.
On returning to Paris, Clément's attention turns to studying the nervous system and resuscitation. He is told of patients who have apparently died, been brought back to life, and whilst suspended between life and death, experience what they believe to be heaven. Clément attempts a daring experiment in order to confirm these extraordinary reports, but the outcome is wholly unexpected. Could it be that when he is resuscitated, he brings something back with him – an ancient evil, so powerful that it can never be destroyed? Is the good doctor slowly succumbing to madness, or has he really passed through the gates of hell?
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Demonic possession drives the plot of this polished supernatural thriller from Tallis (The Sleep Room). In 1872, Dr. Paul Cl ment accepts a position with a missionary hospital on the island of Saint-S bastian in the French Antilles, only to have a terrifying encounter with an apparent zombie. A medical colleague provides a rational explanation for the apparition, but Cl ment is still unsettled by the warning from the island bokor (sorcerer) not to reveal to anyone what he witnessed. On returning to Paris, Cl ment begins working with electricity to revive the dead. When he learns that some of the patients who survived the procedure report visions of the afterlife, Cl ment subjects himself to the same treatment. His experience is anything but inspirational, and on resuming consciousness, he gradually realizes that he did not return to the waking world alone. Tallis knows how to elicit fear in his readers, with first-rate prose and atmospherics.
