Christopher Fowler sold a new horror novel, Hell Train, to Editor-in-Chief Jonathan Oliver at Solaris Books. The book is scheduled to be published as a mass market paperback in January 2012, simultaneously in the UK and US.
Fowler said “This is an unashamed pedal-to-the-metal supernatural thriller that goes back to my roots, and a multi-layered fun ride to the dark side. I’m thrilled to be working with the hottest new publishing house for genre fiction in the UK.”
Oliver said “I’ve been a fan of Christopher Fowler for a long time and have always loved his horror stories. So it’s very exciting to be working with him on this rip-roaring supernatural yarn. Christopher brings us something of the British horror film industry at its height, while also stamping his own mark on this thrilling tale.”
Solaris offered this description of the book:
Imagine there was a supernatural chiller that Hammer Films never made. A grand epic produced at the studio’s peak, which played like a cross between the Dracula and Frankenstein films and Dr. Terror’s House of Horrors…
Four passengers meet on a train journey through Eastern Europe during the First World War, and face a mystery that must be solved if they are to survive. As the “Arkangel” races through the war-torn countryside, they must find out:
     * What is in the casket that everyone is so afraid of?
     * What is the tragic secret of the veiled Red Countess who travels with them?
     * Why is their fellow passenger the army brigadier so feared by his own men?
     * And what exactly is the devilish secret of the Arkangel itself?
Bizarre creatures, satanic rites, terrified passengers and the romance of traveling by train, all in a classically styled horror novel.