Throughout British's rich, flavourful history, and the treasures its heritage holds, a bounty of provocative, yet strangely unsolved mysteries are concealed within its shadowy folds. Jack the Ripper, the Thames Torso Murders, Black Shuck, just to name a few. There is a far more obscure, yet just as putative case, or rather, several cases, that haunted the fields and terrorised the towns of several counties across the United Kingdom. A beast, whirling with razor-sharp claws and dagger-like canines, stronger than any man who dared retaliate once it began its assault. Killing sheep, stealing children, leaving only spoors of crimson blood as evidence it was even there.
The killer? That's who Stephen Saunders is attempting to unravel, but as he treks through the dense British undergrowth and analyses the grainiest of footage, there was no guaranteeing that whatever, or whoever it is, the beast wouldn't elude him again.
Geoff and Naomi are dead, and they're depressed, but when Geoff's cat Bernie dies as well, they embark on a wild journey to find it in the underworld.
*****
When Geoff dies, alongside his girlfriend Naomi, they end up sharing an apartment in the Underworld as skeletons. But after a few years, Geoff starts suffering a mid-death crisis. What's the purpose of going through the motions as a skeleton if you can't really live? Then he gets word that his cat, Bernie, just died and he can collect him and bring him home! Geoff and Naomi hurry to get Bernie only to discover that, due to a clerical error, their cat has been lost. With the hunt for Bernie giving new purpose to Geoff's un-life, he and Naomi begin a quest to get back their cat. Battling skeleton pirates, climbing the sky ladder and facing off against the villain who took Bernie, Geoff is determined to find his purpose - or die a second time trying!
[[2018 Wattys Winner - The Originals]]
[[word count: 30,000-40,000 words]]