The Ancient

<p>Alien on a container ship.<br/>‘Scary and unputdownable’ Stephen King</p> <p>Amongst towering mountains of trash in the backstreets of Lima three young boys are trying to raise an ancient demon. They don't think their incantation has worked; but that night a teenage drugrunner is gunned down across their makeshift altar. As his killers walk away his body stirs. Not because it still contains a spark of life. But because something is stirring beneath it…</p> <p>Port Callao. The MV Lysicrates a three-quarter-mile long supertanker is being loaded with hundreds of tonnes of trash. Watching from the bridge in a bleary state of hungover gloom is second-in-command Matthew Cotton; more interesting is the arrival of a young American student who has missed the boat she should have been on.</p> <p>They should have paid more attention to the trash.</p> <p>With its powerful blend of superb characterisation and demonic horror Muriel Gray's new novel is her best yet.</p>