Crones

Penelope Darlin, the romantically challenged proprietor of the Lilac Grange nursing home, is regularly murdering her elderly residents in the name of profit. Next on her to do list is ninety one year old Catherine Scrivens, but Catherine is aware of Ms. Darlin's business model and, determined not to go down without a fight, she recruits two accomplices who are hell bent on getting to Penelope before Penelope gets to them.Meanwhile Linda Hawthorne, a Grange staff member, inherits 'Mac Lir's gate', a strange and ancient artefact with the power to transport her to the Wildwood - a place of Celtic myth and legend. Intrigued by Mac Lir's gate Linda begins to experiment with its power and inadvertently releases the Black Dog, a vicious and predatory creature who wants the gate and who will do anything necessary to possess it.When the fates of these characters clash the result is the kind of horrific and farcical bedlam that only John Vault's readers are accustomed to.In Crones there is comedy, tragedy and romance, ably assisted by Banshees, talking animals, Celtic spirits, murder in the tool shed and three delightful old ladies with a dark and bloody secret...... And a zombie.

About the Author

John Vault is an Englishman abroad in New Zealand. He has produced several prize winning short stories which have, by their success, urged him on to greater efforts. Writing for him has evolved from a means of escapism into something of an obsession, a subject that plays a major part in the content of many of his stories. His writing style is unorthodox and rarely sticks firmly to the genre for which it is presented. The reader is often called upon to flip rapidly between gory horror and farcical comedy, enjoying a level of contrast that seeks to amplify the effects of both. His rampant use of expletives in character dialogue is also something of a trade mark and he makes no excuses for this other than blaming the characters themselves who are prone to adopting real lives for the short time that it takes to put their stories onto the page. His stories are rarely formulaic and never truly just. Sometimes the hero and the villain are the same character. Sometimes the villains win and the heroes meet with ghastly deaths. For him this is the best part, for what is the point of killing the monster every time and letting the good guys have all the fun?

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