Furnace - Softcover

Muriel Gray

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0006496407 ISBN 13: 9780006496403

Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers Ltd, 1998

Synopsis

Alchemy: the summoning and control of demons. Those who cross the alchemist are in danger of being disposed of. The easiest way to do this? Cast the runes: strips of flesh made from the dried skin of a child sacrifice and inscribed with the time the victim has yet to live...
When trucker Josh Spiller pulls his rig into the small town of Furnace, Virginia, all he wants is a decent meal before getting back on the road and away from his memories of a bitter quarrel with his girlfriend. Instead, he witnesses a baby's violent death and can't convince the sheriff that the upstanding, well-dressed woman he saw leaving the scene was responsible. Shaken by his experience, he rolls out of Furnace, stopping to pick up a desperately attractive, female hitchhiker who seems to have the answers to some of his questions about the inhabitants of Furnace--and who is just as anxious to get out of town as he is.
Soon after, Josh begins to feel eyes watching him--the burning eyes of misshapen creatures. Is it possible to have nightmares while you're awake? And just as his grip on what's real and what's imagined begins to slip, he makes a bizarre discovery: someone has slipped him what looks like parchment, inscribed with the words, "five days alive permitted." Something unnatural is happening in Furnace, but will Josh be around long enough to unravel its secrets?

About this title

Review

Josh Spiller is a long-distance truck driver. Although his girlfriend is pregnant, he's got no major personal problems--until the day he rolls into a small town called Furnace, where a middle-aged woman pushes a baby carriage straight into his wheels and then vanishes. The dead baby's teenage mother and other passers-by swear the wind caused the carriage to roll, and the police take Josh for a troublemaker when he insists on writing a statement to the contrary. Shaken, Josh hits the road again, only to find that it's not so easy to get away from Furnace; something inhuman is hot on his heels. A pretty hitchhiker recognizes a mysterious scrap of writing in his truck as ancient runes spelling out--on human skin--a horrific curse. From then on, all roads lead back to Furnace as Josh races to unscramble a weird puzzle involving a wealthy town councilor, the Philosopher's Stone, and a demon who will destroy Josh in three days unless he returns the runes to their rightful place.

The rotating point of view can be confusing, and the language (Gray is Scottish) occasionally doesn't ring true to an American ear. Nevertheless, this is a grand, terrifying tale.

About the Author

Muriel Gray was born in Glasgow in 1958, is a BA honours graduate in graphic design and illustration of the Glasgow School of Art, and worked as a professional illustrator before joining the National Museum of Antiquities in Edinburgh as assistant head of design.
She then moved into broadcasting starting as a presenter on Channel 4’s seminal music programme The Tube, presenting all five series alongside Jools Holland and the late Paula Yates, whilst still retaining her post at the museum.
A full-time career spanning more than three decades in the media followed, presenting many diverse flagship network radio and television programmes, including: The Media Show, Frocks on The Box, Ride On, The Booker Prize Live, Start The Week, The John Peel Show, Bliss, The Munro Show, Art is Dead, Walkie Talkie, The Snow Show and many others, as well as producing, directing, and then founding her own award-winning production company which grew into the largest in Scotland.
She became a bestselling novelist with the publication of her debut horror novel, The Trickster, in 1995, and this was followed by Furnace in 1998 and The Ancient in 2001, which Stephen King hailed as being ‘scary and unputdownable’.
She is also known as a political opinion writer for Time Out magazine, The Sunday Correspondent, The Sunday Mirror, Scotland on Sunday, The Sunday Herald, and continues to contribute regularly to The Guardian and other publications. She has won several prizes for journalism including columnist of the year at the Scottish press awards.
Muriel is a former rector of Edinburgh University, still the only woman to have held this post, and has been awarded honorary degrees from the University of Abertay and Glasgow School of Art via Glasgow University. She is currently chair of the board of governors
at Glasgow School of Art, also the only woman to have held this post.
She lives in Glasgow with her husband and three children. Her greatest disappointment is that she has not yet been abducted by aliens.

About this edition

• Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers Ltd
• Publication date: 1998
• ISBN 10: 0006496407
• ISBN 13: 9780006496403
• Binding: Paperback
• Language: English
• Number of pages: 338