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The Hawk and the Raven: Murder, Mystery, and Suspense At Its Finest.Detective Luke Raven is on the
Detective Luke Raven is on the Hunt for a Killer in this Supernatural Crime Gem!
Stacey Dighton’s ‘The Hawk and the Raven’ is a mind-boggling supernatural thriller, combining the traditional crime story with the spine-tingling occult in this latest thrill spiller from the UK’s own dark fiction author. No less than five murders for sleuth Luke Raven to solve but he has a paranormal gift to help him track down the killers. Raven battles against the dark forces of the mysterious organisation The Legion who’ll stop at nothing to bring him down, including unleashing the murderous cannibal, The Hawk.
Stacey Dighton’s 'The Hawk and the Raven' - the sequel to 'Pale Face and the Raven'- is a gripping affair from start to finish. You get the feel of this dark piece of writing in the prologue:
‘Is it done?’
He shook his head, the ice-cold water gently lapping into his eyes and in his mouth. He gagged and spat the
salty, frothy liquid out. He looked up.
‘Is it…? I don’t understand.’
Again, the soft, female voice whispered with gentle urgency.
‘Is it done?’
‘I don’t know. What do you mean?’
His vision was blurred and from his prone position it was hard to picture a form, face, or any other details of significance. The visage that swam in front of him flitted in and out of focus like a badly filmed montage. He
could barely make out blonde hair, pale complexion and what appeared to be a loose-fitting vest top and denim shorts.
A man joined her. Despite Raven’s semi consciousness he could see that the male was tall; around six feet, dark hair, short beard, some sort of rock band T-shirt and combat shorts. The man bent down and looked at him
solemnly.
‘She’s asking if it is done.’ He ran his hands through the woman’s hair. ‘Is it finished? Can we be set free?’
Raven tried to sit up, but a hot shard of pain fizzed across his temples. He winced and uttered a gruff ‘ugh!’ He couldn’t move his hands and his legs felt like jelly mixture that hadn’t yet quite solidified. He was wet and
freezing cold.
‘Look mate, I dun know what yo are gorn orn about,’ his mouth was moving in slow motion and his words would not form correctly. He blinked and tried to move his leaden head but each time he was hit with a bolt of hot pain like dipping his scalp in molten lava. The open space was black apart from the luminescent figures in front of him. A third character joined. An older man in swimming shorts.
‘We need to be released, young man. It has been far too long.’
The middle-aged gentleman stood next to his younger companion, and they nodded at each other. The young woman smiled with longing, tinged with a despairing regret.
Raven looked beyond the man into the beckoning blackness. There was a sound like a constant hiss or a hum, a white noise that seeped into his skin and bones, washed over his consciousness, and impregnated his thoughts. He pushed himself back towards a damp wall with his rubbery, gelatinous legs and tried to right himself. The water had soaked his clothes through to the skin and he shivered...
And you’ll shiver too!
Synopsis of ‘The Hawk and the Raven’ by Stacey Dighton:
'I rose from the furnace, the molten and the boiled, my body crossing the thin veil that separates our very different worlds, and yet you believe that I am nothing but a vision? No, Luke. I'm afraid I am very real; very real indeed.'
Luke Raven, a suspended Detective Inspector, is working a private missing persons case when he stumbles upon the mystery of five unsolved murders on Westhampton Beach. Raven, however, is different - he has clairvoyant abilities that even he doesn't fully understand. Molly Staker, the daughter of the head of a surreptitious organisation known as the Legion, is slowly descending into her own dark and twisted obsession, and those close to her are left to suffer the fatal consequences. Raven's pursuit of the cannibalistic serial killer, the Hawk, leads him into a dramatic confrontation with a demon he has faced once before and a desperate battle for his son and his own sanity.
In the author’s words:
“My new book is a horror crime thriller, but as well as that it's about family, addiction and the struggle the characters have in attempting to prevent events in their past from irrevocably shaping their future. While Luke Raven is the centre-point of the book, and everything happens either to him or around him, the plot is really dominated by strong female characters - whether it’s the subversive and yet painfully conflicted Molly Staker, the fiery and steadfast Lisa Clancy or the bullishly devious DCS Christy Deveraux.”
“Raven himself is a mash of conflicts - deeply affected by the loss of a father he was let down by, constantly haunted by premonitions of murder and bloodshed and desperate to get his old job back by whatever means
About the author:
Stacey Dighton is a married father of two adult children and lives in the southeast of England. He’s an avid reader of thriller, horror and crime novels and particularly enjoys the master - Stephen King - as well as Dean Koontz, Jeffrey Deaver, James Patterson, Ian Rankin, Karin Slaughter, John Connolly, Michael Marshall/Smith and Lauren Beukes.
Says Stacey: “What I really like is a dark thriller with a heart but also a story that takes you somewhere that you couldn't really predict but is believable nonetheless.” He self-published his first novel, 'Pale Face and the Raven,' in 2019 which he describes as a journey of discovery in itself. It was swiftly followed up with a collection of horror, sci-fi and fantasy short stories, 'The Maidens of Fey and Other Dark Matter'. He adds: “When I embarked on that first novel I started from the end and worked backwards - my idea was really based on the finale and the challenge was figuring everything else that happened that led to that moment. The voyage that took me on was a real white knuckle ride and I loved it. Many readers of my first book really wanted to find out what happened to Luke Raven next and that's where 'The Hawk and the Raven' came from.”
Stacey confesses to being a wannabe rock star and can be found playing guitar and singing along to classic rock, pop and soul tracks in many pubs in the east Kent area. Music is a real passion and most of his stories have some reference or other to rock acts- either on a character's T-shirt or some song they're humming in the shower.
‘The Hawk and the Raven’ by Stacey Dighton is published in paperback by Cranthorpe Millner and is released on 26th October (ISBN 978-1-912964-89-5). RRP £10.99. It will be available instore and online at Waterstones and Foyles. Pre-order details at:
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