Demon Eyes by L. H. Maynard & M. P. N. Sims

". . . first class horror with an elegant and refined air that slashes the very fabric of reality to ribbons . . ."

The eyes are the windows to the soul and open the door to death.

After a short but successful climb up the corporate ladder, Emma Porter is being interviewed as the replacement for the CEO’s indispensible personal assistant. Much to her surprise, there are no other candidates. Emma is made Alex Keltner’s new personal assistant. Alex is the head of Keltner Industries and a handsome and eminently eligible bachelor, but his charms are lost on Emma who has already met the love of her life.

The job means long hours and being gone from her partner, Helen Carver, but it also means a bigger salary. Helen and Emma could use more money. Even though she has misgivings, Emma decides she wants the job, and her whole life changes.

With the job comes a generous expense account and a chance for Emma to indulge herself in new clothes to pull herself out of an emotional spiral caused by Helen’s sudden and inexplicable accidental death. She joins Alex at his country estate to act as hostess for his wealthy guests. Nothing is as it seems, and Helen’s brother, Tony, is determined to find out what happened to his sister and why. He stumbles into a nest of evil he never expected to find. Combining forces with a tavern owner, a disfigured young man and a charismatic New Age guru from Jamaica, Tony is determined to save Emma from destruction.

In the midst of losing everything important to her, Emma discovers she is more important and more different than she ever realized. Everything she thinks she knows about herself and the world around her is a lie.

From a setting of normality in the work-a-day world, L. H. Maynard and M. P. N. Sims infuse slick corporate business with a sinister darkness. It slowly and inexorably descends into horrifying madness in the bucolic setting of the beautiful English countryside. With a touch of mystery and a sickening lurch that sets the world careening into the deepest abyss of terror, Demon Eyes provides first class horror with an elegant and refined air that slashes the very fabric of reality to ribbons with its sharp, cold and manicured talons.

Demon Eyes is a pampered stay in a comfortable and grand English country mansion mixed with the seductive, sinister and malevolent jet-setting branch of the Manson Family.

Reviewer: J. M. Cornwell