1885.
Salome is a novice Benedictine nun who discovers her true purpose when she murders another sister inside her convent in Turin.
After she makes her confession, she awaits the gallows, but she is spared and instead brought to Liverpool to join a clandestine order.
The training is relentless, and she struggles to prove her worth when she is plagued by a recurring nightmare. Every time she sleeps, she is haunted by an enemy she doesn’t know how to fight. Her guardians cannot help her, she must find the way forward alone.
Salome has a rare gift, one that the Church hopes will help them in the enduring battle against the forces of Evil.
Her guides hope she will use her gift for good, but it is not up to them.
God has made her suffer. Demons promise comfort.
The road ahead is still unpaved, but all the signs point to temptation.
Salome is a Victorian era Gothic/Religious horror inspired by classic Gothic Literature such as Bram Stoker’s Dracula, John Polidori’s The Vampire and religious horror novels such as The Exorcist. It is an occult mystery novel about faith, the enduring battle between good and evil, found family, and making the right decision, even if it is the most painful one.
Salome serves as a prequel novel for the wider Muldoon supernatural thriller series, a series of books set in late-Victorian Liverpool.
Get the paperback of Salome:
The inspiration behind Salome, a religious horror story of found family, faith, and forgiveness.
The Exorcist is one of my favourite novels of all time, and it taught me that something I always enjoy exploring in horror is faith. This does not necessarily have to be Christian faith or religious faith in particular, but if you read historical horror such as The Hunger by Alma Katsu or The Terror by Dan Simmons you will notice a pattern. Historical horror especially is about faith: faith in yourself, faith in your decisions and also, having to put your faith in the people around you, even when you might not particularly know them or trust them.
When we watch a film like The Conjuring, we put our faith in Ed and Lorraine Warren, the film’s protagonists and heroes. We want to believe that whatever hell the haunted/possessed characters are going through, Ed and Lorraine will help them fight it and find a solution in the end.
Good horror is about putting your faith in choices, characters, decisions and outcomes. As a reader or viewer of horror, part of the terror is having that faith challenged. You take a gamble, and sometimes it pays off. Other times, you’re left feeling disturbed and in need of some reassurance, and that could be as simple as having a conversation with someone, reading a happier book, or sleeping with the light on.
Salome to me is a story about faith: she loses it several times, and has to find it again, but it’s not without difficulty. This is as much a religious horror story as it is a sort of coming of age tale. Salome has to put her faith in people she’s not even sure she can trust, but when the Legion is everywhere, you have little choice.
I watched BBCs adaptation of Dracula (written by League Of Gentlemen’s Mark Gatiss, 2020) and the introduction of Sister Agatha Van Helsing struck me. I loved her wit and devotion and how fierce she was, using every tool she could to fight Dracula. It was then that I thought, ‘We could have nuns fighting much greater evils than everyday sins, poverty and corruption’.
Where does Salome fit in the Muldoon series?
Salome was also created to help me write the next Muldoon thriller. This upcoming Muldoon novel is about vengeance of the undead, but I realised that in order to write a decent vampire novel, I needed to establish my own lore. This was incredibly intimidating, as I’d read so many vampire stories already. Following Dracula as a template is fine and all, but I didn’t want to run into consistencies with the world I’d already started building with The Spider and The Ring, the first two Muldoon novels. Every aspect of this series has been original so far, so I needed to also have my own original ideas for vampires.
Salome is a prequel novel with the events taking place in 1885, 6 years before the events of The Spider. Salome is also more of a Gothic/Religious horror novel than the Muldoon mysteries which are also Gothic, but follow a suspenseful, historical thriller path. I plan to have a couple of character crossovers between Salome and Muldoon through both of their series. She is a character I realised I needed to introduce in future Muldoon books.
Salome is perfect for fans of The Exorcist and Between Two Fires as it explored fear, faith and redemption in a world where demons are closer to us than we think.
Salome was inspired by classic Gothic literature such as The Vampire by John Polidori and Dracula by Bram Stoker, offering its own take on the vampire. It is part of the wider Muldoon supernatural thriller universe, a series of Gothic mystery novels set in late-Victorian Liverpool that follow occult detective Daniel Muldoon.
Leave a Reply