Leo Darke’s (an alias for Mickey Lewis) Sawney Bone is billed in various places as book two in the "101 Ways to Hell" series, however, if you have not read book one, you can jump straight in here. Little directly connects the two titles beyond being set in the Bristol era of south England. I preferred this latest release to its predecessor, Pandemonium (2020), and they have some similarities with Sawney Bone being set around a video shop and Pandemonium a bookshop. They both have multiple musical and pop culture references and a sly sense of humour, with Leo Darke reigniting his fascination with video nasties (mainly horror films banned in the UK during the eighties). This is covered in Mr Nasty (2022), which was released in the USA as Walking Shadow by Mickey Lewis and is similar in content and style. If you enjoy Leo, you will love Mickey. Or the other way around.

Mickey has a few titles on the market, including children’s fantasy novels, Gorebone and Mad Demon Fox and the Halloween School. He has also contributed two original novels to the Doctor Who franchise for BBC Books, Rags and Combat Rock (this time as Mick Lewis). Away from writing, Mickey has played monsters on Doctor Who, appearing as a Cyberman, Dalek, and other creatures. He has also popped up in the Star Wars universe in three recent films with various extra roles and big productions, such as The Batman and House of the Dragon.

Although there is nothing in Sawney Bone to be taken remotely seriously, it is a trashy, fun and light read which has the gruesome legend of Sawney Bean at its core. Although, history is uncertain whether this seventeenth century leader of a Scottish cannibal family truly existed, his spirit is larger than life in Sawney Bone. These days his supposed cave lair, near the Scottish border town of Newton Stewart, is a local tourist attraction and also one of my childhood homes! Some scenes of the cult seventies horror film The Wicker Man were also filmed in this picturesque little town.

The main characters in Leo Darke novels are usually fairly similar and Sawney Bone holds no surprises. The very average and ever so slightly work-shy Jack Breen is employed in a Bristol video shop, eking out a dull, uncomplicated existence. For years he has lusted after one of his best friends, Sam, but has never made a move. He drinks too much and hangs out with his equally deadbeat flatmate Dennis, who dated Sam some years earlier. Set in the late eighties or early nineties, Jack’s main interest is collecting violent horror films and then trading them for cash. In the days of VHS cassettes, tape trading and copying of illegal films was big business, and the novel generates nostalgia for the hunt for fifth-generation tape-to-tape copies and the inevitable disappointment in the final product! In those video shop days, it was essential the cassette box cover was as garish and gruesome as possible.

Bristol has a new horror themed pub called the Slaughtered Lamb and when the owner, Bane, visits Jack’s video shop looking for the most violent film possible, the two become unpleasantly intertwined. Bane’s unhealthy interest in Jack heightens after he drops magic mushrooms in Jack’s drink, with him having a very bad trip as a result. Throw in a very sexy barmaid, failed relationships, hallucinogenic dreams, road trips, dodgy pub metal bands, a film festival, friends disappearing and lots of dumb decisions, the end result is a novel which is messy fun.

However, at 350+ pages, it is just too long and the plot staggers and stalls all over the place, a fair reflection of the characters getting drunk or stoned every few chapters. It also builds up for a big finish which never arrives. The UK Kindle version finishes as 87% (the other 13% are excerpts) and I was disappointed with the abruptness of the finish, especially as the long bus journey provides a cool and edgy build-up. I also really liked Sam, but she doesn’t do much apart from provide eye-candy for Jack, although the scene where the sexy barmaid appears in her bathroom is terrific.

Leo Darke and/or Mickey Lewis are most definitely an acquired taste and when they hit the right note have a terrific balance of horror and comedy with likable-loser lead characters who struggle to get out of bed before midday. If you enjoy sly nods at historical pop culture and musical references, his work is a treat and you will happily overlook the occasional misfire or horror caricature (the evil twins in this book for example).

Before wrapping up, I would like to give a shout-out to Leo’s masterpiece Lucifer Sam, which is one of my favourite novels of the last decade. It is a very quirky horror comedy built around how a failed heavy metal band saves the world. It is so crazy, even the legendary Sex Pistols bassist Sid Vicious comes back from the dead, taking the stage for a gig near the end. It is stupid, funny, and I would recommend it every day of the week. It is very much in the same tongue-in-cheek style blended with horror as Sawney Bone. Sadly, it picked up very little press from the horror community and is a lost gem waiting to be rediscovered. In a previous feature I placed it within my top ten horror novels of the last five years.