check out website: www.telos.co.uk and www.stephengallagher.com

There are plenty of detective stories in the best-seller lists. Particularly popular are those featuring gruesome excavations or ones that involve creative-corpse cracking. The reading public just can't get enough of the insides of others.

To some extent 'Valley Of Lights' is in this tradition. It also has an additional quirk as an ancestor of 'The X-Files' in its subject matter being first published in 1987. Stephen Gallagher has since made his name with some SF TV but this one never made it to the screen.

Starting as a traditional detective tale about a maverick cop and his loner tendencies, we might think we've seen Alex Volchak and his case before. But this murderer has an unusual skill and Volchak finds he is dealing with someone or something extraordinary when he discovers a room full of peacefully sleeping brain-dead zombies. The case gets very personal before a showdown in a desert location.

It is a suitably tense production with a will-they/won't-they scenario but it's not too gruesome compared to other 'tec novels. Gallagher manages to condense a good sense of place and some colourful description into a shorter-than-average narrative at only 211 pages. As a non-American, I cannot judge if this sense of location is accurate but it worked for me. I really enjoyed the way the tale was constructed and found the characters normalcy cut through the supernatural elements making the whole thing more grimly real.

As a special edition directors cut, this is a nice little package. There is an extra novella 'Nightmare, With Angel' which contains the germ of the fully expanded idea. There is an author's introduction and an after-word which subs for the director's commentary. To add to the film-like feel, Gallagher has included his writer's diary of the abortive attempt to sell the movie idea in the US. It's also very enlightening to read how Gallagher feels about his own work and what he would do differently a few years and a lot of experience down the line.

All in all, an enjoyable novel which deserves to reach a good size audience, possibly potential for the return of detective Volchak at some point and lots of 'extras' to enhance your reading pleasure.

Sue Davies