Candy Jar Books is proud to announce a special edition of The HAVOC Files 2 is being released at the start of March.

Originally published in 2016 as a limited print-run, The HAVOC Files 2: Special Edition is a reprint with a difference, containing as it does new editions of previous stories, and two short stories available for the first time in print.

Head of Publishing Shaun Russell explains:

“We have often been asked by those who missed The HAVOC Files 2 the first time around if we’d ever reprint it. After much discussion, we decided doing so would present us with a couple of challenges and opportunities. One, at least one story in the original collection was set in the ‘future’ (Ashes of the Inferno), with information that, at the time, hadn’t been locked down. The author of the story in question, Andy Frankham-Allen, realised it would be the perfect chance to update that story so it better fit the narrative revealed since early 2016. Two, another story has since been released as part of a full-length novella, and thus it seemed redundant to print it again in this format. So, faced with this, I made the decision to instead replace it with a couple of short stories only previously available in digital format.”

Range Editor Andy Frankham-Allen continues: “We have a few digital-only stories, plus some still unreleased short stories, so we had a fair few to pick from. We decided on James Middleditch’s Piece of Mind, and Chris Thomas’ Vampires of the Night (both originally planned for the cancelled HAVOC Files 5), two vastly different stories, one dealing with Professor Edward Travers, and one dealing with the Brigadier and Sally Wright. Coupled with the chance to fix previous errors that crept into the other stories, The HAVOC Files 2 is quite a different experience now. Still contains everything in the original, but with bonus material for those wishing to double-dip, and loads of fresh material for those who missed the original version. All wrapped up in the wonderful new cover design, with, once again, Adrian Salmon’s brilliant artwork!”

Blurb:

Ghosts in Cornwall, zombies in Australia, aliens at Wembley, trouble in Egypt, a siege on the Kent coast, and an investigation into the strange goings on in a small house in Mevagissey, which sees Lethbridge-Stewart and Anne Travers cut down to size. And, much later, the ashes from a destroyed Earth fall on Lethbridge-Stewart and his family.

Just a few things our heroes have to face in this volume of collected short stories.

This new revised version of The HAVOC Files 2 contains the original six short stories, plus a new version of Ashes of the Inferno, and two new stories exclusively published in print for the first time.

‘Piece of Mind’ by James Middleditch. Lethbridge-Stewart and Sally are sent on a retreat with a difference.

‘Vampires of the Night’ by Chris Thomas. World War II and Professor Travers is called in to help with a deadly experiment on British soldiers.

Includes:

Vampires of the Night by Chris Thomas

‘In His Kiss’ by Sue Hampton

‘House of Giants’ by Rick Cross

‘The Black Eggs of Khufu’ by Tom Dexter

‘The Band of Evil’ by Roger J Simmonds & Shaun Russell (updated version of the story)

‘Piece of Mind’ by James Middleditch

‘The Playing Dead’ by Adrian Sherlock (updated version of the story)

‘Ashes of the Inferno’ by Andy Frankham-Allen (new version of the story)

‘The Lock-In’ by Sarah Groenewegen BEM

‘Schädengeist’s Lot’ by Jonathan Cooper (interludes from ‘The Showstoppers’)

‘Exodus from Venus’ by John Peel (original prologue from ‘The Grandfather Infestation’)

Candy Jar is also releasing updated versions of Mutually Assured Domination by Nick Walters…

… and The Forgotten Son by Andy Frankham-Allen.

Both books have around 3000 words of bonus material. These books can be pre-ordered from:  http://www.candy-jar.co.uk/books/lethbridge-stewart.html

THESE TITLES ARE NOT INCLUDED IN ANY SUBSCRIPTION OFFER

The HAVCOC Files 2: Special Edition is available for pre-order now for £15.00 (+ p&p). The book is due for release at the beginning of March.

http://www.candy-jar.co.uk/books/thehavocfiles2revised.html

Candy Jar Books is proud to announce book four in its anniversary series of Lethbridge-Stewart novels, The Laughing Gnome: Rise of the Dominator.

Following on from The Laughing Gnome: The Danger Men, book four sees the team get back together when they all arrive in 1973 and face off against the Dominator, Director Vaar!

Rise of the Dominator sees the return of popular Lethbridge-Stewart author, Robert Mammone, who previously wrote two short stories for the range, and the first of the Travers & Wells novella range.

Robert says: “When Lethbridge-Stewart range editor Andy Frankham-Allan reached out to me and asked if I was interested in being a part of the latest run of Lethbridge-Stewart books, I was, of course, surprised, ecstatic and to be honest, a little daunted. Writing my Travers & Wells novella had been a relatively smooth affair, but a 40,000 word novella is a different beast to a full novel. There were a few times during the writing process where I wondered whether I had bitten off more than I could chew but, thankfully, Andy talked me off the ledge and here we are!”

Rise of the Dominator sees the return of Director Vaar, the Dominator behind the nuclear machinations in the 2015 novel, Mutually Assured Domination (a special edition of which is due publication to tie-in with Rise of the Dominator). Andy talks about why it took so long for the Dominator to return: “The Dominators, in particular Vaar, was originally planned to return in 2017 but sadly that novel fell through, and then it was planned for 2018 with a different author, but the cessation of the ongoing narrative put it on hold once again. The Dominators are, of course, the main antagonists behind the Travers & Wells range, as seen in the short story, Time and Again. But the idea of bringing Vaar back as a gangster in 1970s London has been on the backburner for a couple of years, and when it was decided that The Laughing Gnome would be set in the various decades of Lethbridge-Stewart’s association with Doctor Who, it seemed the time was right to finally do a Gangster Dominator story.”

Robert talks more about the development of his gangster story: “I’d long had a story idea lurking around in the back of my head for a while about alien knowledge that looks like black magic, with Nazis thrown into the mix, which I readily adapted to this new storyline. The setting was the key for me, and early ‘70s Britain, with its Satanic rituals in cemeteries, and the tabloid coverage of it, seemed the place to be. There’s something about the grit and grime of the 1970s that is inherently appealing, against the rather slick and superficial modern day we’re forced to endure. 1970s London is set, is a case in point. I’ve strived for verisimilitude for the most part – sideburns, flares, corduroy, The Sweeney, end of empire ennui, three-day weeks, uncollected rubbish, criminal gangs, Soho are all there, but so are an alien warlord on the make and a lurking Nazi.”

As well as alien warlords and Nazis, Rise of the Dominator finally reunites the Brigadier, Bill and Anne Travers, who have been separated since the end of book one, Scary Monsters. This was Robert’s first time writing for the Brigadier, who was absent in his previous works: “I really enjoyed writing for Anne Travers and Bill Bishop in my short story for Candy Jar, Eve of the Fomorians, so it was a pleasure to return to them in far different circumstances. And the chance to have Lethbridge-Stewart front and centre in the novel was something I could barely have thought possible. He was a lot of fun to write, in what is effectively a dual role. I hope that in my hands, the stoic, upright soldier with a twinkle in his eye still shines strongly through.”

The 1970s setting carries with it something special for fans of Doctor Who. Head of Publishing Shaun Russell explains: “As this range is a journey through the Brigadier’s association with Doctor Who (each book is set in a decade that featured him on the television series), setting a book during the UNIT era was a forgone conclusion. Of course, UNIT and the Doctor do not appear, but there are plenty of fan-pleasing nods to that era.”

The cover is by regular Lethbridge-Stewart artist Adrian Salmon, currently best-known for his work on the recent Doctor Who DVD animations, including the forthcoming The Macra Terror. Adrian says: “Illustrating Dominator Var as a cross between Al Capone and Reggie Kray was probably the best thing I’ve ever been asked to do by Candy Jar Books; I mean how can you go wrong? Once I’d settled on the central image, which included a menacing Golem from the story, I worked out the car chase. This being the ‘action scene’ of the cover, it needed to be dramatic and exciting, breaking out of the design template. Finally, I created a suitably seedy London street at night (think Soho), resplendent with neon lights and noir shadows. Eagle-eyed viewers might even spot that a certain film, which was doing the rounds at the time the book is set, is showing at the private cinema club.”

Blurb:

London 1973 – A man in police custody burns to death with no known cause of ignition. Anne Travers and Bill Bishop find themselves catapulted into the middle of a police investigation into the rise to power of the newest criminal godfather – the Big Man, aka, the Dominator, Dominic Vaar!

A Spanish safe cracker lands on the English coast and is whisked away to a secret meeting with none other than Vaar. His mission? To liberate a priceless sword forged when Sumer was young, a sword whose unshakeable thirst for life threatens the existence of all life.

And lurking in the background, plots a fugitive Nazi, using Vaar’s rise to power and his own knowledge of the occult as cover for his plans to build a new Reich on British soil.

Lost in time and brought together by destiny, can Sir Alistair Lethbridge-Stewart, Dame Anne Travers and Brigadier Bill Bishop stop Britain being pitched into a new age of darkness.

The Laughing Gnome will continue in April and May with books five and six. Lucy Wilson and the Bledoe Cadets by Tim Gambrell, with On His Majesty’s National Service by David A McIntee.

NB: IF YOU HAVE A SUBSCRIPTION THE LAUGHING GNOME SERIES IS COVERED BY THIS. THIS BOOK IS ALSO INCLUDED IN THE LAUGHING GNOME SIX-BOOK BUNDLE.

The Laughing Gnome: Rise of the Dominator is available for pre-order now for £8.99 (+ p&p). The book is due for release at the end of March.

http://www.candy-jar.co.uk/books/riseofthedominator.html