Top Ten Tuesday was created by The Broke and the Bookish in June of 2010 and was moved to That Artsy Reader Girl in January of 2018. It was born of a love of lists, a love of books, and a desire to bring bookish friends together.

This week's TTT is Books on My Fall TBR!

In a world where people die and come back as immortal mythical creatures (vampires, werewolves, zombies, gods etc.) the mortal Elmer Jones scratches out a living as a private investigator. An elf hires him for a case that starts out with a dumped husband stealing a wedding ring and escalates into a plot to exterminate the human race. With the aid of his vampire assistant Val, Elmer must recover the ring, decipher its meaning, and save the world. 

All in a day’s work for the Last Living Detective...

The last Living Detective in a comic homage to the noir works of Raymond Chandler and Mickey Spillane, only with more dead bodies and funnier jokes.

INFINITY IN DEATH

Vienna, 1908

Gabriele Ziegler is a young art student who becomes infatuated with charismatic archeologist Dr. Emeryk Quintillus. Only too late does she realize his true designs on her. He is obsessed with resurrecting Cleopatra and has retained the famed artist Gustav Klimt to render Gabriele as the Queen of the Nile, using ashes from Cleopatra’s mummy mixed with the paint. The result is a lifelike portrait emitting an aura of unholy evil . . .

Vienna, 2018

The Mortimer family has moved into Quintillus’s former home, Villa Dürnstein. In its basement they find an original Klimt masterpiece—a portrait of Cleopatra art scholars never knew existed. But that’s not all that resides within the villa’s vault. Nine-year-old Heidi Mortimer tells her parents that a strange man lives there.

 
Quintillus’s desire to be with Cleopatra transcends death. His spirit will not rest until he has brought her back from the netherworld. Even if he has to sacrifice the soul of a child . . .

Catherine Cavendish does it again with an eerie tale in Damned By the Ancients.

The Mortimer family has moved into a new home in Vienna, closer to Ryan’s new job. Very quickly, they realize that things aren’t what they seem. There is a padlock on the basement door and they are told by the owners that no one is allowed down there. Their daughter Heidi very quickly imparts some very disturbing information about their new home.

Mum. Dad. There’s a man in the basement.

While her parents are quick to deny her statement as part of her active imagination, her mother Yvonne starts experiencing strange happenings herself. 

The rapping was coming from behind the locked basement door.

And then there’s the stray cat, who seems to commune with Heidi. Is the voice her parents hear that of Heidi, or of something more sinister?

These things however are only the beginning for the Mortimer family and Heidi. When they decide to find out for themselves what lies beyond the basement door, they will set into motion events that cannot be stopped. Dr. Quentillas’ obsession with Cleopatra is not halted even by death and he will do whatever it takes to have his true love brought back to him.

Cavendish has managed to write, not only a paranormal story that will raise the hairs on your arms, but one that is rich with Egyptian mythology.  During the very first chapter the tension is ratcheted up, leaving the reader on the edge of their seats. She then crafts an elaborate plot spanning from Vienna 1908 to present day. Everything falls into place as the mystery is unraveled and the secrets are revealed. Damned By the Ancients proves once again that Catherine Cavendish weaves creepy tales with believable characters in an atmospheric melding of history and horror.  

Get your copy here:

About the Author

Hello, my name's Catherine Cavendish and I write horror fiction - frequently with ghostly, supernatural, gothic and haunted house themes.

My novellas COLD REVENGE, MISS ABIGAIL'S ROOM, THE DEMONS OF CAMBIAN STREET, THE DEVIL INSIDE HER and THE SECOND WIFE have now been released in new editions by Crossroad Press.

Also out now- from Kensington-Lyrical - the second in a trilogy - WAKING THE ANCIENTS - set in Egypt and Vienna and featuring the sinister Dr. Emeryk Quintillus whose obsession has stayed with him past the grave. The first in the trilogy - WRATH OF THE ANCIENTS - is already available and the third - DAMNED BY THE ANCIENTS - is available for pre-order (out in October).

My novels THE DEVIL'S SERENADE and SAVING GRACE DEVINE have also been released in new editions by Crossroad Press, as have my novel of the Lancashire Witches - THE PENDLE CURSE - and my novellas, LINDEN MANOR and DARK AVENGING ANGEL.

I live with a long-suffering husband and a delightful black cat who has never forgotten that her species used to be worshipped in ancient Egypt. She sees no reason why that practice should not continue.

Our home is in a rambling building dating back to the mid 18th century, haunted by a friendly ghost, who announces her presence by footsteps, switching lights on and strange phenomena involving the washing machine and the TV.

When not slaving over a hot computer, I enjoy wandering around Neolithic stone circles and visiting old haunted houses.

You can find me on my blog: www.catherinecavendish.com
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/CatherineCav...
and on Twitter: https://twitter.com/Cat_Cavendish

Piper Griffiths wants one thing in life: To become a Consul, a keeper of the peace between humans and daemons. 

There are three obstacles in her way.

The first is Lyre. Incubus. Hotter than hell and with a wicked streak to match. His greatest mission in life is to annoy the crap out of her, but he isn't as harmless as he seems. 

The second is Ash. Draconian. Powerful. Dangerous. He knows too much and reveals nothing. Also, disturbingly attractive — and scary. Did she mention scary?

The third is the Sahar Stone. Top secret magical weapon of mass destruction. Previously hidden in her Consulate until thieves broke in, went on a murder spree, and disappeared with the weapon.

And they left Piper to take the fall for their crimes.

Now she’s on the run, her dreams of becoming a Consul shattered and every daemon in the city gunning to kill her. She’s dead on her own, but there’s no one she can trust — no one except two entirely untrustworthy daemons ... See problems one and two.

Moonlighting as Death’s earth-bound envoy, P.I. Bellamy Vale specializes in the weird, wacky, and slightly unhinged.

When a mysterious beast savagely mauls random residents of Cold City, the police assume that these are the killings of a rogue wolf. But experienced private investigator, Bellamy Vale, is unconvinced.

Ordered by Death herself to investigate, Vale has no choice but to obey for his boss is not someone to disappoint—if he wants to keep breathing, that is.


With friend and computer hacker Zian, interfering journalist Candice Kennedy, and homicide sergeant Melanie Ramirez by his side, Vale has no choice but to end the killings or face the wrath of the demon who literally holds his life in her hands.

Hostile Takeover is a fast-paced, edge-of-your-seat paranormal mystery that will leave your heart racing, and have you looking over your shoulder.

Book 1: An alien mining ship discovers a planet loaded with rare earth minerals. The aliens, known as zaftans, plan to fill their ship with the mined minerals. Unfortunately, the planet is inhabited by intelligent beings. But what could possibly go wrong with a simple mining operation on a planet with primitive natives?

Book 2: The zaftans deploy robotic explorers to search for minerals. The robots trespass on private property and also destroy some property. A local gem miner, MacDrakin, uses his battle axe to destroy one trespassing robot. More robots are destroyed by yuk chieftain after the machines survey his tribal lands.

Uh-oh! This isn't going the way it was planned.

Rumor has it that the abandoned house by the cemetery is haunted by the ghost of a witch. But rumors won’t stop carpenter Mike Kostner from rehabbing the place as a haunted house attraction. Soon he’ll learn that fresh wood and nails can’t keep decades of rumors down. There are noises in the walls, and fresh blood on the floor: secrets that would be better not to discover. And behind the rumors is a real ghost who will do whatever it takes to ensure the house reopens. She needs people to fill her house on Halloween. There’s a dark, horrible ritual to fulfill. Because while the witch may have been dead... she doesn’t intend to stay that way.

Top Ten Tuesday was created by The Broke and the Bookish in June of 2010 and was moved to That Artsy Reader Girl in January of 2018. It was born of a love of lists, a love of books, and a desire to bring bookish friends together.

It's TV time on TTT! I tend to gravitate towards tv that's a little dark and snarky. Really not that far off from what I enjoy reading! This week's top ten Tuesday is: shows you should binge watch.

Surgeon Arnold Van de Laar uses his own experience and expertise to tell this engrossing history of surgery through 28 famous operations - from Louis XIV to JFK, and from Einstein to Houdini.

From the story of the desperate man from seventeenth-century Amsterdam who grimly cut a stone out of his own bladder to Bob Marley's deadly toe, Under the Knife offers all kinds of fascinating and unforgettable insights into medicine and history via the operating theater.

What happens during an operation? How does the human body respond to being attacked by a knife, a bacterium, a cancer cell or a bullet? And, as medical advances continuously push the boundaries of what medicine can cure, what are the limits of surgery?

From the dark centuries of bloodletting and of amputations without anaesthetic to today's sterile, high-tech operating theatres, Under the Knife is both a rich cultural history and a modern anatomy class for us all.