Ian Jarvis Knihy

A modern-day Sherlock Holmes, Bernie Quist operates as a consultant detective from Baker Avenue in York. His assistant is Watson, although this Watson is a streetwise youth from the Grimpen housing estate and he's definitely no doctor. The mismatched duo take on bizarre cases which invariably lead into the realms of the supernatural, a shadowy world that, thanks to his dark secret, Quist is all too familiar with. A new exhibition is on display in the York Museum highlighting the infamous Badda sect and an obscure period in local history. Hidden away in North Africa's Atlas Mountains, this secretive cult performed mystical rites and sacrifices to their god, a sinister deity in the form of a huge wolf. Two-thousand years ago, the Romans brought this clandestine religion to Yorkshire, but sickened by their obscene practises, the Emperor Hadrian crushed the sect before it could become established. Quist and Watson suspect the exhibition is connected to the grisly murders which are currently baffling the York police. It can't be a coincidence that these magical artefacts arrived in time for a unique date at the full moon, and how is the glib clairvoyant Kyle Tarot involved in this? The detective's terrified assistant soon wishes the Roman Emperor had been a little more thorough in his effort to stamp out the Badda cult. A dark and very peculiar game is afoot...

A modern-day Sherlock Holmes, Bernie Quist operates as a consultant detective from Baker Avenue in York. His assistant is Watson, although this Watson is a streetwise youth from the Grimpen housing estate and he's definitely no doctor. The mismatched duo take on bizarre cases which invariably lead into the realms of the supernatural, a shadowy world that, thanks to his dark secret, Quist is all too familiar with. It's almost Christmas and the ancient streets of York are filled with twinkling lights, bustling Yuletide markets and the occasional cloudburst of dismal British sleet. A mundane investigation leads Quist and Watson to an isolated village on the wintry Northumbrian coast, where two faces from the past await: an infamous practitioner of the black arts, and someone they were hoping never to see again. What begins as an intriguing mystery soon becomes the detective's most dangerous and horrific case, with Quist discovering the terrifying secret of the Mulgrave Ritual and his life hanging precariously in the balance. The Rumba of the Beast, a festive tale of gruesome murders, black magic and ballroom dancing. A dark and very peculiar game is afoot...