Mark writes in the Horror genre and this one is a cracker.
Flux
Amazon.com Flux
My review -
In this remarkable first novel, Mark Faulkner creates a situation in which his main character Iain, a head injury victim, finds himself flicking from the present to a parallel nightmare reality. I didn't warm to the character initially but as the novel progressed I was really on Iain's side. After his accident his neuro-surgeon's main interest in his case was to try to make her own name in medical circles. The hospital chaplain wanted to find proof of an afterlife from Iain's near-death experience to bolster his own flagging faith. Iain, in increasing despair and distress, only has the elusive Eve on his side.
There is a real sense of hellish other-world here and poor Iain is, as the title implies, in a state of flux between here and there, with sometimes one 'reality' superimposed on the other. Iain's reading of the bible, given to him by the chaplain, leads him to a sense of good and evil, and the feeling he is being forced against his will to choose evil.
Mark Faulkner has created a realistic and believable story and one wonders whether this could happen as a result of an injury to the brain, that most complex and mysterious of organs. The ending is horrifying and in some senses, inevitable.
I really hope Mark has more work of this quality up his sleeve. He is an author to watch and has one keen fan already!
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