James Herbert's Sepulchre is a good effort at combining the action/adventure/thriller with paranormal horror.

Later, starving and on the run from the Soviet police for black marketeering, he was taken in by a family, and murdered them. Upon accepting the task of protecting Kliene, Halloran is introduced to the man’s personal assistant - Cora Redmile who has been coordinating Kliene’s personal bodyguards until now.He was one of our greatest popular novelists, whose books are sold in thirty-three other languages, including Russian and Chinese. The intriguing corporate element that Herbert has brought into the early quarter of the storyline seems to magnify the threat to a much higher degree.

And the usual Herbert clichés are in place; the hero (Halloran) is a middle aged man with deep psychological scars, the female lead is essentially there to be rescued by, and have sex with, the hero and the conclusion is massively over the top. So, we start off with a lot of drama about the firm and the corporation, and then Herbert focuses the story more on Lain and Kline, the client. On Shay's shooting of Daoud, Khayed manages to stab the hitman, before succumbing to his own gun wound.

It seems Kline helps out the firm Magnus find ore and other such deposits globally via some mystic process, but since investors would not be pleased with that, Magnus acts as a front where Kline is 'off the books'. She is forced to have sex with the "hero" to distract him, then the next day when she wants nothing to do with him he forces himself on her and rapes her (although he says it's fine because she ended up enjoying it)! The Stoic: Halloran calmly accepts Kline's undeniable psychic insights and projections; faces mortal danger with a disquieting smile, and is an unflappable professional.

I was never fully convinced by Cora's character and at times I found her a little bit irritating, I cant help but wonder if the book might have been better without her. The background subtly of this constant threat works incredibly well, with the reader’s imagination working absolute wonders in keeping them on the edge of their seat. The tale just seems to keep on expanding, with more and more puzzling questions being raised around every corner.God of Evil: Bel-Marduk, otherworldly visitor to ancient Sumer, demanded regular human sacrifice, venerated corruption, and advanced humanity with intent to enable us to wipe each other out. Then again, either one of these tissue-thin plots would, on their own, be not only little more effective but utterly unable to carry a novel. Some Herbert fans favouring his early more graphic horror work may possibly be easily frustrated or feel let down as it does take a long while for the story to get anywhere near to exhibiting any elements of horror, as it opens out a tale of this international company and their highly valuable secret asset, a bizarre Mr. Not Me This Time: While Dieter Stuhr initially appears to have been tortured and killed just for the fun of it by some of Kline's warped followers, the real culprit is IRA hitman Danny Shay, to find Halloran.

The final quarter of the novel is where Herbert really gets stuck in with the unashamed injection of horror into the tale. The Gadfly: On introduction to Mather and Halloran, Kline undermines formality with an excitable, mocking impudence. Nearly every character is deeply unpleasant, and while I realise the text is themed around corruption and the various levels of evil, there are other horror narratives (e. You feel for the characters and care what happens to everyone, especially the evil ones, as you REALLY get to know what makes them tick and their ends are colourful to the least. Unfortunately, Sepulchre, my introduction to the man, nails the "not great" part of that better than the "fun" one.There hardly seems to be anyone in the book who isn't twisted with strange desires and who isn't prepared to do what it takes to indulge them. That said, I did enjoy the read and was mildly entertained, but I can't say it is my favourite Herbert book and I'm not sure I would feel the need to read it again. Post the days of The Fog, The Rats, The Survivor I lost the feel for Herbert's work as it seemed to move away from the heights of his earlier work; The Sepulchre feels like a tentative move back to his roots with some well crafted character and story development to build the reality within which the horror can emerge and work well within.