The Between-Worlds Hotel

Artwork: Tamaa66, pixabay.com

Have you ever had a run of bad luck? Like being in a plane crash, visiting the Between-Worlds Hotel between life and death, or tracking down the boo hag, a skin-stealing serial killer, whilst on a mission to save the planet?

Welcome to the world of Private Investigator Jon Darke.

It’s Christmas time and something is stealing people’s skins in the Essex village of Wormhole. Following a bizarre near-death experience where he visits the Between-Worlds Hotel, newly widowed Private Investigator Jon Darke is returned to life with a new mission – to find out why, assisted by the robust and impatient Beth Cromer, Wormhole’s fresh young vicar.

36-year-old Jon survives a plane crash in which his wife and son die. No one seems to know about the other survivor he saw walking unharmed from the blazing wreckage. The girl’s name is Anika Smith and she’s very special. Something out there, in the place between life and death, wants her dead, Jon must keep her alive, but first he must find her.

Trapped in a coma, Jon finds himself in the mysterious Between-Worlds Hotel where he tries to follow his family, but is sent back with a simple mission – find Anika before the boo hag gets her. Devastated, Jon finds his way to the village of Wormhole, where he’s befriended by the feisty and impatient Reverend Beth Cromer. Soon after, Beth finds parish councillor Major Howard Chambers’ body in her cemetery. His skin is discovered underneath the skinless body of a young female in an abandoned warehouse in central London.

It’s not long before Jon and Beth find themselves following a trail of clues, gruesome deaths, ancient spirits and hellfire, that will lead them to a Secret City deep under London’s streets in their search for Anika Smith.