Raymond Hawley – Side Effect

Raymond Hawley – Side Effect (New English Library, 1980)

Blurb

‘A tremendously exciting read, backed up with all sorts of chillingly precise scientific data’ – Daily Express’

‘A high-class thriller which grips like the forceps in the hands of an insane medico’ – The Guardian

‘A clever, fast-moving and horribly possible story, with the nastiest twist in its tail I’ve ever met’ – Daily Telegraph

`Frightening… faultless… stylish in the way that Deighton, Le Carre and Greene are stylish’ – Dublin Evening Herald

‘Escalates from horror to horror …. ends with a pay-off that cuts like a razor blade’ – Daily Mirror

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Trevor Ellison – The Theta Syndrome

Trevor Ellison – The Theta Syndrome (New English Library, 1978)

Design Terry Griffiths: Photograph Jean-Pierre Trevor

Blurb

A STORY OF SLOW TERROR
OF A MIND IMPRISONED IN A NIGHTMARE

Claudia, victim of an unexplained road accident, Iies in a coma in a Los Angeles hospital, the monitor screen above her bed slowing hour by hour into the theta region, the twilight zone of the unknown. Surgeons work day and night for her survival, but the danger isn’t in here; it’s out there …

… Where the instrument in the surgeon’s hand flashes under the glare of the theatre lights as he sags to the floor, dying …
… Where a nurse involuntarily scribbles frantic appeals for help which she cannot explain …
… Where a child suddenly screams as the red crayon slashes across her colouring book; a smashed car … rats in a cage … a woman’s face.

In the intensive care unit Claudia lies surrounded by the most sophisticated equipment devised for the saving of human life. But it isn’t enough, because someone is coming and only Claudia’s silently screaming brain can say who.

Skilful Psychological Thriller – Yorkshire Post

Thomas Luke – Phobia

Thomas Luke – Phobia (New English Library, 1981)

Blurb:

Dr Ross has a new kind of behaviour therapy for phobia patients – people paralyzed by an overwhelming irrational fear. His guinea pigs are five convicted criminals each with an obsessive fear – of heights, of crowds, of animals, of enclosed spaces, or of men. One by one they begin to die. Victims of the very thing that they feared most…

Thanks to severance for the blurb and cover scan

Steve Whitney – Singled Out

Steve Whitney – Singled Out (NEL – 1979)

The Singles Bars Of New York Their customers all have one thing in common. They’re available. They go there for for company, for love, for sex. David Cooper goes there for VICTIMS
“Each killing is more bizarre …. a chilling thriller” – Leeds Evening Post

Thanks to Dave aka H. P. Saucecraft for the cover scan and blurb.

Robert Bloch – The Scarf

Robert Bloch – The Scarf (Nel, 1972: originally Dial, USA, 1947)

Robert Bloch - The Scarf

Fame – of sorts – came early to Dan Morley.

So did temptation.

So did the easy money and the glittering women who thrust it on him, begging him to accept.

And so did murder.

All he needed was a soft maroon scarf, looped lightly around both wrists: and it was not just one victim or even two ….

Thanks to Justin Marriott of Paperback Fanatic for the cover scan.