The Cat of Doom

The Man who let the Cat of Doom out of the Bag is Mark P Henderson's surreal fantasy (with poetical and musical interludes) which introduces the most unlikely cast ever to have been given an apocalyptic quest. England's East Sussex coast truly does not know what has hit it when they assemble on its shore. The obsessive psychotherapist Herr Dr von Tür, the shaven-headed Glaswegian enforcer Big Vince, the incompetent Cuthbert Fell, the former champion marathon runner, Selina Crumpett and serial killer Gardner-Carpenter, might all turn heads but are only half a story that also has starring roles for Gabriella de Clare (seeking her True Self), Patricia (an Anglican priest), Abdul (Fell's only friend), Winston, Esmerelda, Yggrasilsdottir (trees), a pack of mangy dogs and a gnome called Smiley. Each fixated on their own focus, they range far and wide causing ripples in the fabric of time itself, even while the Cat of Doom is still firmly entrapped within its bag. But inexorably they stumble closer to an inevitable, ultimately satisfying and epic denouement.