Seeing a stranger die is the worst thing that Chris has ever witnessed. Picking up the dead man’s wallet is a mistake, a moment of weakness.That’s all it takes, one impulsive act, for reality to unravel.Because pocketing the wallet is only the beginning.Dark forces swim below the surface of the world…They change their shape but never go away…They find a way through… Chris Carlisle … way through…
Chris Carlisle experiences an everyday horror. A morning starts out bad and gets worse.
Wrong place at the wrong time and life takes a wrong turn.
But even the blackest clouds have silver linings. He gets a little slice of luck to balance out the horror.
Just goes to show, bad often comes bundled with good.
Sometimes, they bleed into each other until you can’t tell them apart.
That’s where the strangeness begins, when the miraculous starts to rub shoulders with the mundane and monstrous.
Chris has stepped onto a long road that leads to a hideous and horrifying destination. Dark and dangerous stops are dotted along the way. The pavement is crumbling and craziness shining through the cracks.
Enough for him to question his sanity and come to the conclusion that madness may be the easiest way out.
Sometimes need and greed get mixed into a deadly and deceptive cocktail.
He’s going to discover that dark and dreadful things lurk within spitting distance of the ordinary and routine.
That there are levels of horror and layers of knowledge which defy any rational explanation.
Impossible creatures crawl along the shady seams of the world.
Monsters wait in the shadows.
The walls of reality are thinner than we know. In places, they’ve been hollowed to a hazy veil that struggles to hold back the horror of what lies on the other side.
Chris is going to get a glimpse of an eternal darkness.
Become acquainted with a supernatural hunger that has endured aeons and echoes down the ages.
HE’S GOING TO ENCOUNTER THE SCAETH. A CREATURE THAT IS OLDER THAN TIME AND TWICE AS MERCILESS.
Chris thought life was grim. He has no idea.
He thought he was hard up. He doesn’t know what debt is.
They say that money is the root of all evil. They also say that the bad penny always turns up. That’s so true. Those crappy coins have a nasty habit of coming back.
BAD PENNIES is the first book of the SCAETH MYTHOS, a terrifying vision of horror that will haunt your dreams.
Advanced Reader Comments:
“The Scaeth is the most terrifying creature you’ll find between the pages of a book.”
“Bad Pennies unfolds like a dark flower.”
“Horror novels need a certain coldness. Bad pennies chills to the bone.”
“An introduction to a new level of evil. The Scaeth defies classification. Bad Pennies shamelessly blends supernatural horror, science fiction alien and dark fantasy with a bewitching logic and naked human need.”
“Ronald Hodge is awful – I love him! A wonderful horror character. Memorable, he deserves his own book.”
John F Leonard’s chilling horror novel BAD PENNIES is a deeply disturbing tale of darkness and need that will stay with you long after reading.
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Chris Carlisle is an ordinary guy doing an ordinary sales job that he hates, with a couple of mates that he sometimes loves and sometimes loves to hate, and a gorgeous girlfriend: the nauseating Becca. She was meant to be nauseating, I think – any woman who calls their boyfriend ‘special fellow’ and ‘my special man’ all the time… Chris is always skint, and doesn’t bother to clean up unless he’s likely to have company. He’s a nice guy; you can’t fail to like him, with all his flaws. The scene-setting was quite long and fully sketched, which I liked; I’m not one who needs to be plunged into action on page one.
At the end of most chapters are hints that danger is around the corner, in a ‘little did she know this was the last time she would see him’ sort of way. I liked this; I thought it added to the suspense and made me want to keep turning the pages, and it worked along with the slightly comic book tone of the novel.
Chris’s life changes when he discovers a bulging wallet, the property of a man he saw run over. It’s not just an ordinary wallet…and Chris little understands that, by claiming it as his own, he has opened doors that should have remained shut. There are some good dark and dingy descriptive pieces in the book, particularly a scene featuring a detective in the home of the repulsive Ronald Hodge, in the bleak and mysterious Empire Road.
I enjoyed the ‘real life’ elements of this book most, and the darkly comedic side. I liked he whole ‘totally ordinary guy in super-weird extraordinary circumstances’ thing. John F Leonard has a witty, easy-to-read writing style, with some good turns of phrase:
‘No milkman in his right mind would have delivered to Brabham Building, Ashton High Street. Even the postmen wanted stunt doubles and danger money.’
‘…tall wide and ugly in every way you could imagine. He looked like he ate BMWs for breakfast’
My general feel about the novel as a whole was that it needs another tidying-up draft, and perhaps the intervention of a more experienced copy editor/proofreader, to sort out the lack of vocative commas and the few editorial errors, and cut some of the funnies that need a bit of fine-tuning. All of this would have made it the book it deserves to be. There is no doubt that Mr Leonard is a talented writer, and I enjoyed it. I did guess the twist, from early on, but it’s well done and was in no way obvious; my mind jumps ahead when I’m watching TV shows, too. I especially appreciated the well-thought out last chapter and a great epilogue that definitely makes you want to see what happens next!
Here we are. December 31, 2020. The shortest longest year of our lives and I’m going to wrap up with a book I should’ve read when it came out. Over the last few years I’ve devoured everything that Leonard has produced, absolutely loving his Scaeth Mythos and the world he’s created.
All the while I’d neglected to see where it all started.
Insane right?
What I liked: ‘Bad Pennies’ follows Chris Carlisle on a typical day of his dreary life. Only today is unlike the rest. Today he witnesses an accident and comes into position of a wallet that seemingly has magical powers.
From here Leonard shows how coming into possession with a Dead Box artifact causes ripples that flow outwards from the persons life, as well as how the artifact completely penetrates the holders mind.
I loved seeing how the Scaeth came to be and while we don’t get a complete origins story, we do get enough to put the pieces together. Leonard writes characters that you immediately feel like you’ve know for years and this one was great to see how Chris’ story ARC played out.
I also loved seeing how now having read his other work, the Scaeth has wormed its way into the surrounding areas and after reading Leonard’s story in ‘Diabolical Britannica’ earlier this year, I’m excited to see what the next chapter will hold.
Additionally the world between the walls, the Rat King and the Thing White Man all really elevated the surrounding ‘complimentary’ aspects of all things in this Mythos.
What I didn’t like: It was a minor thing, but throughout the first 3/4 we get some random police interview reports and while it worked to further the story and the incidents that occurred, the format wasn’t completely necessary. It would’ve easily been facilitated the same way as if it had been a flash forward.
Why you should buy this: This was the first chapter in an ever growing and evolving world that Leonard has created and this entered some truly Barker-esque plains of imagery. Leonard has long been a favorite author of mine and now having finally went back and started at the beginning, it has absolutely elevated everything that I’ve read that followed this. I highly recommend this as a book to dive in and start seeing this amazing world that he’s brought forward and the truly grotesque creation that is the Scaeth.
Stunning work.
Chris Carlisle’s life is going to hell and he’s taking us with him!
It starts when Chris witnesses an accident wherein a gentleman dies. As good citizens do, he gets out of his car to see if the man is okay, but he’s not. On a sudden impulse, Chris takes the dead man’s wallet, gives his statement to the police when they arrive, and then goes on his way. He later discovers money inside and agonizes over it all day while working his stressful, low paying job. He decides he’s going to go back and leave the wallet at the scene of the crime, but in the end it never happens. Instead, he decides to spend a little money on drinks and cocktails, and once he gets home, he discovers the money he spent has reappeared in the wallet. He still has the same amount he started with! How can this be? Will he do the right thing and return the wallet and/or report what he did? Or will he keep the wallet, (after all he is in dire need of money), and treat himself to a few things he really needs-like new clothes for work or a new car? You’ll have to read this to find out.
This is a novel of supernatural horror and terrible things occurred on the pages of BAD PENNIES. Every time Chris decided on a course of action, I couldn’t help but ask myself what I would have done in the same situation. When his actions lead to the deaths of innocents, animal attacks and doors opening where there previously were none, the situation escalates quickly, and I just hung on for the ride. I really felt for Chris and I could easily understand why he did what he did. Would I have made the same choices? Maybe so and I think that’s the main reason I kept reading. That and my fascination with the Scaeth and what he/it might do next. I’m not going to say anything more about it, because that should be related to you by the author, not by me. I loved the imagination and creativity that went into several different scenes, and I truly felt afraid once or twice, which is a rarity.
The issues I had with this book were twofold and not too bothersome-the pacing was a bit off and it took a while for the story to really get going. (Once it did, though, it went quickly.) The second problem I had, (and this was probably just me being picky), was that there was too much foreshadowing going on. It seemed like every chapter ended on a sentence foreshadowing a future event. I don’t mind a little of that here and there, but it was used a bit too often for my comfort.
BAD PENNIES had a lot of interesting and intriguing world-building going on that I need to know more about. Who was that Sammael guy? I want to know more about Brian MacGuire and his club. I want to know more about the Scaeth, what it wants, why it’s here, and more about where it lives, (between the walls.) So now I’m left to waiting for Mr. Leonard to fill me in and I can’t wait!
Strongly recommended for fans of supernatural horror!
*I received a paperback copy of this book in exchange for my honest feedback. This is it!*