Author Dennis Burges

THE CRAFT OF THE HISTORICAL THRILLER

Real history leaves many unsolved mysteries among the unusual acts of famous historical figures as it fails to explain why they did the things they did. Historians make guesses about that – usually safe and conventional guesses.

I'm a novelist, not a historian, so I like to make bolder guesses – offer reasons that violate the expected. My characters try to find safe explanations but stumble instead onto more frightening alternatives. The known history is accurate, but the remaining mysteries are fair game for my fiction.

Graves Gate wonders why Conan Doyle would believe in ghostly communication as ardently as he did. Had he seen something more convincing than a seance? Could he be right, but also wrong?

Reviewers like the twist I give to history:

Dennis Burges's first novel takes off from a confounding but true premise.... Burges skillfully molds these elements into a plot in which the late Gussmann's prowess as a hypnotist leads to some jolting surprises.... Graves Gate is slick and spooky.
   —The Washington Post

This atmospheric thriller (it's hard to imagine a colder or creepier London) will have you looking over your shoulder and thinking twice about the merits of psychiatry.
   —Albemarle Magazine

It's a pleasure to read something really original in the way of thrillers.... GRAVES GATE very nearly reads as though it were written in the 1920s, and that's about as high praise as I can give a historical novel.
   —D.L. Browne, I Love a Mystery

Burges offers fine Conan Doyle atmosphere and plotting without the old gasbag in the deerstalker hat.
   —Kirkus Reviews

Read more praise for Graves Gate!