This month on Medium, I’m showcasing some of the opening chapters from my novels. These will be primarily from my gothic mysteries, though there may be one or two others. This week I feature the first part of horror-thriller The Irresistible Summons.

This opening comes directly after a short prologue touching on a tragic and mysterious incident in protagonist Naomi Levinson’s teenage past. Naomi has gone on to become a TV producer making documentaries that debunk the supernatural, but she and her TV crew are in for a nasty surprise when they interview a supposedly demon-possessed murderer in a prison. Here’s are the first three paragraphs.

Naomi Levinson sat in the driver’s seat of the company Citroen Berlingo, watching light drizzle splatter on the windscreen. She drummed her fingers on the steering wheel, staring at the walls of Holloway prison. Judging by the silence among her colleagues, she wasn’t the only one feeling on edge.

They had interviewed prisoners before, including the worst kinds of rapists, child molesters, and murderers, but on this occasion, there was something particularly chilling about the individual they had come to film.

Naomi recalled Tanya Sutton’s mug shots from the television news, along with footage of her walking calmly to and from the court during her trial. Elegant and attractive, Tanya Sutton came from a wealthy background. She had founded what promised to be a very successful cosmetics business. During the trial she had been softly spoken, never once raising her voice. Somehow that had made her appalling crime, and the reasons behind it, all the more frightening.

From The Irresistible Summons by Simon Dillon

You can read the whole of the chapter here, and read my companion piece article on this series here. Alternatively, to purchase a copy of The Irresisitible Summons (ebook or paperback) click here (for the UK), here (for the US), or here, if you wish to purchase via Smashwords.