He sought to flee his tragic past, but when Thomas Usher hears a clockwork voice on the phone, and sees ever-more disturbing visions in a derelict warehouse, Usher realizes that he has to return home – for the sake of his own sanity. Meanwhile, a deadly figure from Usher’s past threatens to undermine the very fabric of reality.

Gary McMahon’s Dead Bad Things is the second of his Thomas Usher novels (following on from Pretty Little Dead Things). Thomas Usher is a man who can see the dead, following an accident in which his family died. As such, he is known to the Leeds police force for his ability to help them, although Usher views his power as a curse rather than a blessing.

The lost one had broken those rules. He coveted something he was not allowed to have. He wanted to become something more than his station allowed – he sought to be godlike. He had been planting the seeds of this transformation for some time, hitching a ride on fanatics and cultists, utilising the ancient energy of long-banished witches and warlocks and bad spirits.

The horror was bleak. The world was bleak. The detective was bleak. This entire story could have been written on a napkin and would have made the same sense.

There were a few deaths and the atmosphere was dark and foreboding so it kinda worked but  there was a lot of rape, pedophilia, and incest.

I’ve read books like this before and Clive Barker, Mr. King and a bit of Chuck Palaniuk are known for adding a bit of the forbidden spice to their works. Even American Psycho * Bret Easton Ellis was sadistic. I just feel that this book had all those shockers with no real substance behind it.

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