Romeo Spikes

In the tradition of The Passage, screenwriter and producer Joanne Reay makes her fiction debut with this furiously exciting supernatural thrillerthe first in an exciting new trilogy! Working the Homicide squad, Alexis Bianco believes she's seen every way a life can be taken. Then she meets the mysterious Lola and finds out she's wrong. More weapon than woman, Lola pursues a predator with a method of murder like no other: the Tormenta. If you think you've never encountered Tormenta, think again. You're friends with one. Have worked for one. Maybe even fallen in love with one. They walk amongst uslooking like us, talking like us. Coercing our subconscious with their actions. Like the long-legged beauty that seduces the goofy geek only to break his heart, causing him to break his own neck in a noose. Or the rockstar, whose every song celebrates self-harm, inspiring his devoted fans to press knives to their own throats. The pusher who urges the addict toward one more hit, bringing him a high from which he'll never come down. The tyrannical boss, crushing an assistant's spirit until a bridge jump brings her low. We call it a suicide. Tormenta call it a score, their demonic powers allowing them to siphon off the unspent lifespan of those who harm themselves. To Bianco, being a cop is about right and wrong. Working with Lola is about this world and the next...and maybe the one after that. Because everything is about to change. The coming of a mighty Tormenta is prophesied, a dark messiah known as the Mosca. To stop him, Bianco and Lola must fight their way through a cryptic web of secret societies and powerful legends to crack an ancient code that holds the only answer to the Mosca's defeat. If this miscreant rises before they can unmask him, darkness will reign, and mankind will fall in a storm of suicides. Nobody's safe. Everyone's a threat.

First-time author Joanne Reay began as a documentary maker for The Discovery Channel, where her films focused on the mysteries of brain function and the human mind. She moved to the BBC, creating the acclaimed detective series The Murder Rooms. As a film writer/producer, her credits include Bring Me the Head of Mavis Davis, Cold & Dark, and Gallowwalker.