SHANE BRIANT
WORST NIGHTMARES
(MAY 2009)
by Shane Briant
“WORST NIGHTMARES wraps the reader in a world of fractured, tangled threads. Its tight prose lends an air of immediacy and intimacy. All the danger, treachery, and suspense a reader could ask for is there, page after page. Shane Briant has the touch. A smashing debut.” - Steve Berry, New York Times bestselling author of The Charlemagne Pursuit
Picking up the pen that was dipped in blood by Thomas Harris for The Silence of the Lambs and Stephen King for Misery, first-time novelist Shane Briant delivers a powerful page-turner and haunting thriller in WORST NIGHTMARES (Vanguard Press; May 2009; $22.95).
In his riveting debut novel, Briant introduces us to Dermot Nolan, an internationally renowned, once-hot author struggling with a paralyzing writer’s block as he tries to follow up his last brilliant, award-winning book. Dermot and his beautiful wife, Neela, live in a tri-level, Architectural Digest-worthy loft, surrounded by fabulously expensive original artworks that they are secretly selling off through Nick Hoyle, their closest friend in Los Angeles and a private art consultant, to cover their mounting debts. Dermot’s half-million advance is gone, his agent is demanding pages, a megawatt film deal hangs in the balance, and his wife desperately wants a baby and can’t hide her fears that their marriage has fizzled, when a crudely written manuscript is stuffed in his mailbox by a disheveled vagrant.
The “diary” of the homicidal Dream Healer, who seduces and snares his victims via his website, the story shocks and horrifies Dermot but has Neela hooked on every word. Soon convinced it is an accurate, minute-by-minute account of a mass murderer’s brutal horror spree, Dermot is repulsed and strangely fascinated. Under mounting pressure to hand in his overdue novel, and led to the mangled body of the homeless diarist, he decides to adopt this hugely commercial project as his own. The accolades flow in for Dermot’s Worst Nightmares and he is feted coast to coast. But the Dream Healer suddenly reappears, along with evidence that exposes Dermot as a vicious, twisted killer. Beyond fighting to clear his name, Dermot is soon struggling for his life, trapped in his own worst nightmare, as the mysterious Dream Healer turns his depraved attentions on Neela.
Shane Briant is an actor and novelist who studied Law at Trinity College Dublin before becoming a professional actor. A year after playing the name role in “Hamlet” at the Eblana theatre, he was nominated for the London theatre critics “Best Newcomer” award for his role in “Children of the Wolf.” Starring in films and television opposite Paul Newman, Rosemary Harris, Jeremy Irons, and John Hurt, among others, Briant appeared in countless BBC drama series and Plays of the Month, the ABC-TV “Movie of the Week,” as well as Australian and New Zealand films and television. The first short film Briant wrote, “A Message from Fallujah,” won the “Best of the Fest” award at the 2005 Los Angeles International Short Film Festival and was in the final mix of ten shorts for consideration for an Academy Award that year. He resides in Sydney, Australia.
A tantalizing tale of unspeakable horror, WORST NIGHTMARES is the debut of a searing, unforgettable new voice in suspense and terror fiction.